“Oft we may track his haunts, where he hath been
To spend the leisure which his toils bestow,
By nine-peg morris nicked upon the green.”
The game is fully described by James, in the “Variorum Shakespeare,” as follows: “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 chessboard. 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.” This verifies the allusion made by Shakespeare in “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” (ii. 1):
“The nine men’s morris is fill’d up with mud;
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.”
This game was also transferred to a board, and continues a fireside recreation of the agricultural laborer. It is often called by the name of “Mill,” or “Shepherd’s Mill.”[807]
Noddy. Some doubt exists as to what game at cards was signified by this term. It has been suggested that cribbage is meant. Mr. Singer thinks it bore some resemblance to the more recent game of “Beat the Knave out of Doors,” which is mentioned together with “Ruff and new coat” in Heywood’s play of “A Woman Killed with Kindness.” The game is probably alluded to in “Troilus and Cressida” (i. 2), in the following dialogue:
“Pandarus. When comes Troilus?—I’ll show you Troilus anon: if he see me, you shall see him nod at me.
Cressida. Will he give you the nod?
Pandarus. You shall see.
Cressida. If he do, the rich shall have more.”[808]
The term “noddy” was also applied to a fool, because, says Minsheu, he nods when he should speak. In this sense it occurs in “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (i. 1):