In the “Taming of the Shrew” (i. 1), Katharina asks:
“I pray you, sir, is it your will
To make a stale[783] of me amongst these mates?”
alluding, as Douce[784] suggests, to the chess term of stale-mate, which is used when the game is ended by the king being alone and unchecked, and then forced into a situation from which he is unable to move without going into check. This is a dishonorable termination to the adversary, who thereby loses the game. Thus, in Bacon’s Twelfth Essay: “They stand still like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir.”
Dice. Among the notices of this game, may be quoted that in “Henry V.” (iv. prologue):
“The confident and over-lusty French
Do the low-rated English play at dice.”
Edgar, in “King Lear” (iii. 4), says: “Wine loved I deeply, dice dearly.” Pistol, in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (i. 3), gives a double allusion:
“Let vultures gripe thy guts!—for gourd and fullam holds,
And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.”
“Gourds” were false dice, with a secret cavity scooped out like a gourd. “Fullams” were also false dice, “loaded with metal on one side, so as better to produce high throws, or to turn up low numbers, as was required, and were hence named ‘high men’ or ‘low men,’ also ‘high fullams’ and ‘low fullams.’”[785] It has been suggested that dice were termed fullams either because Fulham was the resort of sharpers, or because they were principally manufactured there.
Dun is in the mire. This is a Christmas sport, which Gifford[786] describes as follows: “A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room: this is Dun (the cart-horse), and a cry is raised that he is stuck in the mire. Two of the company advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till all the company take part in it, when Dun is extricated. Much merriment is occasioned from the awkward efforts of the rustics to lift the log, and from sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one another’s toes.” Thus, in “Romeo and Juliet” (i. 4), Mercutio says:
“If thou art dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire.”