Forgetting labour and many a grievous fall.
And a more modern poet, Waller,
As when a sort of lusty shepherds try
Their force at foot-ball; care of victory
Makes them salute so rudely breast to breast,
That their encounter seems too rough for jest.
The danger attending this pastime occasioned king James I. to say, "From this court I debarre all rough and violent exercises, as the foot-ball, meeter for lameing than making able the users thereof." [426]
The rustic boys made use of a blown bladder without the covering of leather by way of foot-ball, putting peas and horse beans withinside, which occasioned a rattling as it was kicked about:
—And nowe in the winter, when men kill the fat swine,
They get the bladder and blow it great and thin,