Cornelius Scriblerus, in his Instructions concerning the Plays and Playthings to be used by his son Martin, says: “I would not have Martin as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus which was recommended by Cato be really our present top, or rather the hoop which the boys drive with a stick.”—Pope’s Works, vi. 115.
Among well-known classical allusions may be noted the following mention of whipping the top, in Persius’s third Satire:
“Neu quis callidior buxum torquere flagello.”
Thus translated by Dryden:
“The whirling top they whip,
And drive her giddy till she fall asleep.”
Thus also in Virgil’s Æneid, vii. 378:
“Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere turbo,
Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circum
Intenti ludo exercent. Ille actus habenâ
Curvatis fertur spatiis: stupet inscia supra,
Impubesque manus, mirata volubile buxum:
Dant animos plagæ.”
Thus translated by Dryden:
“As young striplings whip the top for sport,
On the smooth pavement of an empty court;
The wooden engine whirls and flies about,
Admired with clamours of the beardless rout,
They lash aloud, each other they provoke,
And lend their little souls at ev’ry stroke.”
And so Ovid, Trist. 1. iii. Eleg. 12: