28 26 BARGULUS-BARRABAS. Bargulus, v. 168: see note 137, v. 219. baring of my beard-The, The shaving of my beard, iii. 257. barley-break, viii. 189: "It was played by six people (three of each sex), who were coupled by lot. A piece of ground was then chosen, and divided into three compartments, of which the middle one was called hell. It was the object of the couple condemned to this division, to catch the others, who advanced from the two extremities; in which case a change of situation took place, and hell was filled by the couple who were excluded by preoccupation from the other places: in this 'catching,' however, there was some difficulty, as, by the regulations of the game, the middle couple were not to separate before they had succeeded, while the others might break hands whenever they found themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the last couple was said to be in hell, and the game ended:" Such is Gifford's description of the old English manner of playing the game, note on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 104, ed. 1813: on the Scottish mode of playing it (which is very different), see Jamieson's Etymol. Dict. of the Scot. Lang. in "Barla-breikis, Barley-bracks." barm, yeast, ii. 275. barn, a child: Mercy on's, a barn; a very pretty barn! iii. 459; he shall lack no barns (with a quibble), ii. 114; barns are blessings, iii. 216. barnicles, i. 225: "Caliban's barnacle is the clakis or tree-goose" (DOUCE): "Barnacle. A multivalve shell-fish [lepas anatifera, Linn.] growing on a flexible stem, and adhering to loose timber, bottoms of ships, &c.; anciently supposed to turn into a Solan goose; possibly because the name was the came. . . . . . Sometimes the barnacles were supposed to grow on trees, and thence to drop into the sea, and become geese; as in Drayton's account of Furness, Polyolb. Song 27, p. 1190 [p. 136, ed. 1622]. From this fable Linnæus has formed his trivial name anatifera, Goose or Ducklingbearing. See Donovan's British Shells, Plate 7, where is a good description of the real animal, and an excellent specimen of the fabulous account from Gerard's Herbal." Nares's Gloss. Barrabas, ii. 402: This name was, I believe, invariably made short in the second syllable by the poetical writers of Shakespeare's days. (In Marlowe's Jew of Malta, "Barrabas" occurs many times: and compare Taylor; "These are the brood of Barrabas, and these and Fennor; A Thiefe, p. 120,-Workes, 1630: "Thou Barrabas of all humanitie, Base slanderer of Christianitie." Defence, &c. p. 153,-id.) Barson, a corruption of " Barston, a village in Warwickshire, lying between Coventry and Solyhull” (PERCY), iv. 396. Bartholomew boar-pig, iv. 347: "The practice of roasting pigs [for sale] at Bartholomew Fair continued until the beginning of the last century, if not later," &c. (REED). Basan-The hill of, vii. 560: From Psalm lxviii. 15. base,-prison-base, or prison-bars,-a rustic game: I bid the base for Proteus (with a quibble-" I challenge an encounter on behalf of Proteus), i. 269; lads more like to run The country base, vii. 713; To bid the wind a base he now prepares, viii. 249: "There is," says Strutt, "a rustic game called base or bars, and in some places prisoner's bars; and as the success of this pastime depends upon the agility of the candidates and their skill in running, I think it may properly enough be introduced here. It was much practised in former times, and some vestiges of the game are still remaining in many parts of the kingdom. The first mention of this sport that I have met with, occurs in the Proclamations at the head of the parliamentary proceedings, early in the reign of Edward the Third, where it is spoken of as a childish amusement, and prohibited to be played in the avenues of the palace at Westminster, during the sessions of Parliament, because of the interruption it occasioned to the members and others in passing to and fro as their business required. It is also spoken of by Shakespear as a game practised by the boys [see the second of the passages above cited]. It was, however, most assuredly played by the men, and especially in Cheshire and other adjoining counties, where formerly it seems to have been in high repute. The performance of this pastime requires two parties of equal number, each of them having a base or home, as it is usually called, to themselves, at the distance of about twenty or thirty yards. The players then on either side taking hold of hands, extend themselves in length, and opposite to each other, as far as they conveniently can, always remembering that one of them must touch the base; when any one of them quits the hand of his fellow and runs into the field, which is called giving the chase, he is immediately followed by one of his opponents; he again is followed by a second from the former side, and he by a second opponent; and so on alternately, until as many are out as choose to run, every one pursuing the man he first followed, and no other; and if he overtake him near enough to touch him, his party claims one toward their game, and both return home. [Note. It is to be observed, that every person on either side who touches another during the chase, claims one for his party, and when many are out, it frequently happens that many are touched.] They then run forth again and again in like manner, until the number is completed that decides the victory; this number is optional, and I am told rarely exceeds twenty. 28 BASE-BASILISCO-LIKE. About thirty years back I saw a grand match at base played in the fields. behind Montague-house [Note. Now better known by the name of the British Museum] by twelve gentlemen of Cheshire against twelve of Derbyshire, for a considerable sum of money, which afforded much entertainment to the spectators. In Essex they play this game with the addition of two prisons, which are stakes driven into the ground, parallel with the home boundaries, and about thirty yards from them; and every person who is touched on either side in the chase is sent to one or other of these prisons, where he must remain till the conclusion of the game, if not delivered previously by one of his associates, and this can only be accomplished by touching him, which is a difficult task, requiring the performance of the most skilful players, because the prison belonging to either party is always much nearer to the base of their opponents than to their own; and if the person sent to relieve his confederate be touched by an antagonist before he reaches him, he also becomes a prisoner, and stands in equal need of deliverance. The addition of the prisons occasions a considerable degree of variety in the pastime, and is frequently productive of much pleasantry." Sports and Pastimes, &c. p. 71, sec. ed. base is the slave that pays, iv. 437: This appears to have been a proverbial expression (Compare, in Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, "My motto shall be, Base is the man that paies." Second Part, sig. L 2, ed. 1631). base court, basse-cour, Fr., iv. 152. baseness-Forced, iii. 445: "Leontes had ordered Antigonus to take up the bastard; Paulina forbids him to touch the Princess under that appellation. Forced is false, uttered with violence to truth" (JOHNSON),—a passage, in which Walker (sce note 50, iii. 513) would make what appears to me an improper alteration. bases-A pair of, viii. 24: "Bases, plural noun. A kind of embroidered mantle, which hung down from the middle to about the knees, or lower, worn by knights on horseback." Nares's Gloss. (where the word is illustrated by various quotations): In the list of apparel of the Lord Admiral's players, taken 1598, we find, “Item, ij payer of basses, j white, j blewe, of sasnet [sic]." Malone's Shakespeare (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 316. Basilisco-like-Knight, knight, good mother,-iv. 11: "Falcon bridge's words here carry a concealed piece of satire on [rather, allude to] a stupid drama of that age, printed in 1599, and called Soliman and Perseda. In this piece there is the character of a bragging cowardly knight, called Basilisco. His pretension to valour is so blown and seen through, that Piston, a buffoon-servant in the play, jumps upon his back, and will not disengage him till he makes Basilisco swear upon his dudgeon dagger to the contents, and in the terms, he dictates to him; as, for instance; BASILISK-BAT-FOWLING. 29 29 Bas. O, I swear, I swear. Pist. By the contents of this blade,-- Pist. I, the aforesaid Basilisco,— Bas. I, the aforesaid Basilisco,-knight, good fellow, knight, knight,— So that, 'tis clear, our poet is sneering at this play [?]; and makes Philip, when his mother calls him knave, throw off that reproach by humorously laying claim to his new dignity of knighthood, as Basilisco arrogantly insists on his title of knight in the passage above quoted" (THEOBALD): The Tragedie of Soliman and Perseda. Wherein is laide open, Loues constancie, Fortunes inconstancie, and Deaths Triumphs, 1599, though a wretched production, was once very popular: it has been attributed to Kyd. basilisk, an imaginary creature (called also cockatrice), supposed to kill by its very look: sighted like the basilisk, iii. 432; come, basilisk, And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight, v. 154; I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk, v. 280; It is a basilisk unto mine eye, vii. 669; Their chiefest prospect murdering basilisks, v. 161; Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead! v. 360. basilisk, a huge piece of ordnance, carrying a ball of very great weight of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, iv. 230; The fatal balls of murdering basilisks, iv. 499: but in the second of these passages there is a double allusion,-to pieces of ordnance, and to the fabulous creatures named basilisks; see the preceding article. bass my trespass-Did, "told it me in a rough bass sound" (JOHNSON), "served as the bass in a concert, to proclaim my trespass in the loudest and fullest tone" (HEATH), i. 217. basta, enough (Italian and Spanish), iii. 119. bastard, whom the oracle Hath doubtfully pronounc'd, &c.-A, vi. 553: Alluding to the story of Edipus. bastard-Drink brown and white, i. 484; Score a pint of bastard, iv. 233; your brown bastard is your only drink, iv. 234: Bastard was sweetish wine (approaching to the muscadel wine in flavour, and perhaps made from a bastard species of muscadine grape), which was brought from some of the countries bordering the Mediterranean. There were two sorts, white and brown: see Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines, pp. 290-1. bat, a large stick, a cudgel, viii. 441; bats, vi. 136, 139. bat-fowling, i. 197: Is described as follows in Markham's IIunger's Prevention: or, The whole Arte of Fowling by Water and Land, &c. "Next to the Tramell, I thinke meete to proceed to Battefowling, which is likewise a nighty [sic] taking of all sorts of great and small Birdes which rest not on the earth, but on Shrubbes, tal Bushes, Hathorne trees, and other trees, and may fitly and most conueniently be vsed in all woody, rough, and bushy countries, but not in the champaine. For the manner of bat-fowling, it may be vsed either with nettes or without nettes. If you vse it without nettes (which indeede is the most common of the two), you shall .then proceede in this manner. First, there shall be one to cary the cresset of fire (as was shewed for the Lowbell), then a certaine number, as two, three, or foure (according to the greatnesse of your company); and these shall haue poales bound with dry round wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or else bound with pieces of linkes or hurdes dipt in pitch, rosen, grease, or any such like matter that will blaze. Then another company shal be armed with long poales, very rough and bushy at the vpper endes, of which the willow, byrche, or long hazell are best; but indeed according as the country will afford, so you must be content to take. Thus being prepared, and comming into the bushy or rough ground where the haunts of birds are, you shall then first kindle some of your fiers, as halfe or a third part, according as your prouision is, and then with your other bushy and rough poales you shall beat the bushes, trees, and haunts of the birds, to enforce them to rise; which done, you shall see the birds, which are raysed, to flye and play about the lights and flames of the fier; for it is their nature, through their amazednesse and affright at the strangenes of the lightt and the extreame darknesse round about it, not to depart from it, but, as it were, almost to scorch their wings in the same; so that those which haue the rough bushye poales may (at their pleasures) beat them down with the same, and so take them. Thus you may spend as much of the night as is darke, for longer is not conuenient; and doubtlesse you shall finde much pastime and take great store of birds; and in this you shall obserue all the obseruations formerly treated of in the Lowbell; especially that of silence, vntill your lights be kindled, but then you may vse your pleasure, for the noyse and the light when they are heard and seene afarre of, they make the birds sit the faster and surer. The byrdes which are commonly taken by this labour or exercise are, for the most part, the rookes, ringdoues, blackebirdes, throstles, feldy fares, linnets, bulfinches, and all other byrdes whatsoeuer that pearch or sit vpon small boughes or bushes. This exercise, as it may be vsed in these rough, woody, and bushie places, so it may also be vsed alongst quickset hedges or any other hedges or places where there is any shelter for byrdes to pearch in." p. 98, ed. 1621. (A simpler mode of bat-fowling, by means of a large clap-net and a lantern, and called bird-batting, is noticed in Fielding's Joseph Andrews, B. ii. ch. 10.) bate, strife, contention: breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories ("if it be recollected with what sort of companions he [Pointz] was likely to associate, Falstaff's meaning will appear to be, that he excites no censure for telling them modest stories, or, in plain |