—Midsummer Nights Dream, act ii. sc. 2.
Miss Baker (Northamptonshire Glossary), in describing “Merell” or “Morris,” says:—“On the inclosing of open fields this game was transferred to a board, and continues a fireside recreation of the agricultural labourer. It is often called by the name of ‘Mill’ or ‘Shepherd’s Mill.’” She says the mode of playing now observed is this. Each of the players has nine pieces, or men, differing in colour, or material, from his adversary, for distinction’s sake; which they lay down on the spots alternately, one by one, each endeavouring to prevent his opponent from placing three of his pieces in a line, as whichever does so is entitled to take off any one of his antagonist’s men where he pleases, without breaking a row of three, which must not be done whilst there is another man on the board. After all the pieces are placed on the board, they are moved alternately backwards and forwards along the lines; and as often as either of the players succeeds in accomplishing a row of three, he claims one of his antagonist’s men, which is placed in the pound (the centre), and he who takes the most pieces wins the game. It is played on a board whereon are marked three squares, one being denominated the pound. It is sometimes played with pegs, bits of paper, or wood, or stone. It is called “Peg Morris” by Clare, the Northamptonshire poet.
The ancient game of “Nine Men’s Morris” is yet played by the boys of Dorset. The boys of a cottage, near Dorchester, had a while ago carved a “Marrel” pound on a block of stone by the house. Some years ago a clergyman of one of the upper counties wrote that in the pulling down of a wall in his church, built in the thirteenth century, the workmen came to a block of stone with a “Marrel’s” pound cut on it. “Merrels” the game was called by a mason.—Barnes’ Additional Glossary; Folk-lore Journal, vii. 233.
“‘Nine Men’s Morris,’ in Gloucestershire called ‘Ninepenny Morris,’ was,” says a correspondent in the Midland Garner, “largely practised by boys and even older people over thirty years ago, but is now, as far as I know, entirely disused. Two persons play. Each must have twelve pegs, or twelve pieces of anything which can be distinguished. The Morris was usually marked on a board or stone with chalk, and consists of twenty-four points. The pegs are put down one at a time alternately upon any point upon the Morris, and the first person who makes a consecutive row of three impounds one of his opponent’s pegs. The pegs must only be moved on the lines. The game is continued until one or other of the players has only two pegs left, when the game is won” (1st ser., i. 20). Another correspondent in the same journal (ii. 2) says, “The game was very generally played in the midland counties under the name of ‘Merrilpeg’ or ‘Merelles.’ The twelve pieces I have never seen used, though I have often played with nine. We generally used marbles or draught pieces, and not pegs.”
The following are the accounts of this game given by the commentators on Shakespeare:—
“In that part of Warwickshire where Shakespeare was educated, and the neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with their knives to represent a sort of imperfect chess-board. It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot diameter, sometimes three or four yards. Within this is another square, every side of which is parallel to the external square; and these squares are joined by lines drawn from each corner of both squares, and the middle of each line. One party, or player, has wooden pegs, the other stones, which they move in such a manner as to take up each other’s men, as they are called, and the area of the inner square is called the pound, in which the men taken up are impounded. These figures are by the country people called nine men’s morris, or merrils; and are so called because each party has nine men. These figures are always cut upon the green turf, or leys as they are called, or upon the grass at the end of ploughed lands, and in rainy seasons never fail to be choked up with mud” (Farmer). “Nine men’s morris is a game still played by the shepherds, cow-keepers, &c., in the midland counties, as follows:—A figure (of squares one within another) is made on the ground by cutting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones, which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards move alternately, as at chess or draughts. He who can play three in a straight line may then take off any one of his adversary’s, where he pleases, till one, having lost all his men, loses the game” (Alchorne).
The following is the account of this game given by Mr. Douce in the Illustrations of Shakespeare and of Ancient Manners, 1807, i. 184:—“This game was sometimes called the nine mens merrils from merelles, or mereaux, an ancient French word for the jettons, or counters, with which it was played. The other term, morris, is probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which, in the progress of the game, the counters performed. In the French merelles each party had three counters only, which were to be placed in a line in order to win the game. It appears to have been the tremerel mentioned in an old fabliau. See Le Grand, Fabliaux et Contes, ii. 208. Dr. Hyde thinks the morris, or merrils, was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into three men’s morals, or nine men’s morals. If this be true, the conversion of morrals into morris, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The Doctor adds, that it was likewise called nine-penny or nine-pin miracle, three-penny morris, five-penny morris, nine-penny morris, or three-pin, five-pin, and nine-pin morris, all corruptions of three-pin, &c., merels” (Hyde’s Hist. Nederluddi, p. 202). Nares says the simpler plan here represented ([fig. 2]), which he had also seen cut on small boards, is more like the game than the one referred to in the variorem notes of Shakespeare.
Forby has, “Morris, an ancient game, in very common modern use. In Shakespeare it is called ‘nine men’s morris,’ from its being played with nine men, as they were then, and still are called. We call it simply morris. Probably it took the name from a fancied resemblance to a dance, in the motions of the men. Dr. Johnson professes that he knew no more of it than that it was some rustic game. Another commentator speaks of it as common among shepherds’ boys in some parts of Warwickshire. It cannot well be more common there than here, and it is not particularly rustic. Shepherds’ boys and other clowns play it on the green turf, or on the bare ground; cutting or scratching the lines, on the one or the other. In either case it is soon filled up with mud in wet weather. In towns, porters and other labourers play it, at their leisure hours, on the flat pavement, tracing the figure with chalk. It is also a domestic game; and the figure is to be found on the back of some draught-boards. But to compare morris with that game, or with chess, seems absurd; as it has a very distant resemblance, if any at all, to either, in the lines, or in the rules of playing. On the ground, the men are pebbles, broken tiles, shells, or potsherds; on a table, the same as are used at draughts or backgammon. In Nares it is said to be the same as nine-holes. With us it is certainly different.” Cope (Hampshire Glossary) says that “Nine Men’s Morrice” is a game played with counters. He does not describe it further. Atkinson (Glossary of Cleveland Dialect) says under “Merls,” the game of “Merelles,” or “Nine Men’s Morris.” Toone (Etymological Dictionary) describes it as a game played on the green sward, holes being cut thereon, into which stones were placed by the players. Stead’s Holderness Glossary calls it “Merrils,” and describes it as a game played on a square board with eighteen pegs, nine on each side, called in many parts “Nine Men’s Morrice.” See also Sussex Arch. Collections, xxv. 234, and a paper by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite (Arch. Journ., xlix. 322), where diagrams of this game are given which have been found cut in several places on the benches of the cloisters at Gloucester, Salisbury, and elsewhere.