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n The Puritan Pamphleteer Phillip Stubbes got himselfninto a right old lather about his neighbours’ festive amusements and let them knownwhat he thought about them in the marvellous madness of his Anatomie ofnMadness (1583).
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n“But fpecially in Chriftimas tyme, there is nothing elsnvfed but cards, dice, tables, mafking, mumming, bowling, & fuch likenfooleries.”n
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nStubbes had a thing about dice in particular and rattled onnabout the sinfulness of playing with them ad nauseum, but he didn’t livento see the dies put away for the last time, (here’s a thing that might win youna pint in a pub bet – dice is the singular form, the plural is dies).nDies played a part in the ‘mummerie’ of 1377 I mentioned yesterday, whennthe then Prince Richard (later Richard II) was entertained by his futurensubjects, as related by John Stow in his Survey of London (1598),
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n“…nthe said mummers did salute, showing by a pair of dice upon the table theirndesire to play with the prince, which they so handled that the prince didnalways win when he cast them. Then the mummers set to the prince three jewels,none after another, which were a bowl of gold, a cup of gold, and a ring ofngold, which the prince won at three casts.”n
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nIt’s surprising what you cannget away with if you have a couple of loaded dice and a susceptible Prince tonhand.
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| Snapdragon |
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nAnother Christmas game was Snapdragon, a marvellous pastime that has gonenthe way Hot-Cockles, Post and Pair, and the Fool Plough. In the times beforenHealth and Safety and Political Correction Gone Mad, small children werenencouraged to play with burning brandy, (mix together fire, alcohol andnchildren – what could possibly go wrong?) in the game of Snapdragon, whereinncurrants or raisins (or other fruits and nuts, such as plums, figs, almondsnetc), are put into a bowl, brandy is poured into the bowl and set alight, andnthe children each take turns to snatch a blazing fruit from the bowl and pop it intontheir mouth, thus extinguishing the flames. It is best played in a darkenednroom, when the blue flame of the burning spirit can be seen to finest advantage.nWhat, I repeat, could possibly go wrong? And yet, this harmless parlourndiversion has passed into history.
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| Playing Snapdragon |
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nThere was a rhyme to be recited whilst thengame was being played,
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n“Here he comes with flaming bowl,nnn
nnDon’t he mean to take his toll,nnn
nnSnip ! Snap ! Dragon!nnn
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nTake care you don’t take too much,nnn
nnBe not greedy in your clutch,nnn
nnSnip ! Snap ! Dragon!nnn
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nWith his blue and lapping tonguennn
nnMany of you will be stung,nnn
nnSnip ! Snap ! Dragon!nnn
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nFor he snaps at all that comesnnn
nnSnatching at his feast of plums,nnn
nnSnip ! Snap ! Dragon!nnn
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nBut Old Christmas makes him come,nnn
nnThough he looks so fee ! fa ! fum !nnn
nnSnip ! Snap ! Dragon!nnn
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nDon’t ‘ee fear him, be but bold —nnn
nnOut he goes, his flames are cold,nnn
nnSnip ! Snap ! Dragon!”n
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| A Snap-Dragon-Fly |
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nA correspondent to the January 1857 edition of Notesnand Queries speculated that the game took its name from the German words Schnappsn– a spirit, and Drache – dragon, and went on to mention that the gamenhad also been called flap-dragon and slap-dragon. The samenarticle also adds quotations from Shakespeare, from The Winter’s Tale,
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n“Butnto make an end of the ship: to see how the sea flap-dragoned it,”n
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nLove’snLabour’s Lost,
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n“Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon,”n
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nandnthe second part of Henry IV,
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n“And drinks off candles’ ends asnflap-dragons.”n
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nThis last recalls a variation of the game Snapdragon playednby adults, wherein a lighted candle was fixed into a mug of ale or cider andnplayers had to drink from the flagon with burning their faces or setting firento their hair. What larks!
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nMichael Faraday referred to Snapdragon in his firstnRoyal Institution Christmas Lecture The Chemical History of a Candlen(1848), suggesting the fruits acted as a wick for the burning spirits, allowingnthe burning to take place without consuming the wick.
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| Michael Faraday – The Chemical History of a Candle |
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nThe Royal InstitutionnChristmas Lectures are one of this country’s great treasures, begun in 1825 andngiven every year since (apart from a wee blip during 1939-42, due to CorporalnHitler’s Unpleasantness), they are a series of related public lectures on ansingle topic, given by a top boffin of the day (David Attenborough, Carl Sagan,nRichard Dawkins, Susan Greenfield, Ian Stewart and Monica Grady spring to mind),nand although aimed at children they are easily interesting enough for an adultnaudience. From 1966, they were televised, first of all on BBC2 and they were annimportant highpoint of this kid’s Christmas, when a grown-up would tell menreally interesting stuff with a few experiments thrown in for good measure, andnthey are one of the things that first got me interested in science (which wasnthe plan, after all). Things were going along fine until the pencil-squeezersnand the bean-counters who, knowing the price of everything and the value ofnnothing, got their grubby fingers in the mix and the lectures were moved to,nfirstly, Channel 4 and then, unbelievably, Channel 5 and More4, until theirnreturn in 2010 to the BBC, in a reduced form of three instead of five lectures,nnow shown on BBC4, that other marvellous national treasure that broadcasts thenbest television in the world. Let’s hope that is the end of the matter and wencan go on enjoying them henceforth.
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