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Account of the Public Games of Greece.

adjudged till one party had fairly yielded; this was fometimes done by words, and often by lifting up a finger; for which reafon we are told, by Plutarch, that the Lacedemonians would not permit any of those exercises to be practifed in their city, wherein thofe that were conquered confeffed themfelves overcome by holding up their finger, because they thought it derogatory to the temper and fpirit of the Spartans to have any of them tamely yield to any adverfary, though that place has been hitherto mistaken by molt interpreters.

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Horfe-races were either performed by fingle horfes, or by two horfes, on one of which they performed the race, and leaped upon the other at the goal; or by horfes coupled together in chariots, which were fometimes drawn by two, three, or four horses. How great foever the number of horfes might be, they were not placed as is the cuftom now, but in the front, being coupled together by pairs. Afterwards, Clifthenes, the Sicyonian, brought up a cuftom of coupling the two middle horfes only, and governing the reft by reins. Sometimes we find mules ufed inftead of horses. The principal part of the charioteer's art and skill, confifted in keeping clear of the goals, in which, if he failed, the overturning of his chariot was the neceffary confequence of it, and brought him into great danger as well as difgrace.

Befides the exercises already described, there were many others of a quite different nature. Such

were those wherein musicians, poets, and other artifts, contended for victory; but as entering into a concife account of this would be confidered, perhaps, foreign to your plan, I fhall only

251

mention another example, previous to treating more fully of the four public games of Greece. Herodotus is faid to have gained very great applaufe, and to have fired young Thucydides with an early emulation of him by repeating his history at the Olympian games.--Firft, of the

OLYMPIAN GAMES.

WHICH were fo called from Olympian Jupiter, to whom they were dedicated, or from Olympia, a city in the territory of the Pifæans; or, according to Stephanus, the fame with Pila. The firft inftitution of them is by fome referred to Jupiter, after his victory over the fons of Titan; at which time Mars is faid to have been crowned for boxing, and Apollo to have been fuperior to Mercury at running. Phlegon, the author of the Olympiades, reports, they were firft inftituted by Pifus, from whom the city Pife was named.

**

Others will have the first author of them to be one of the Dactyli, named Hercules, not the fon of Alcmena, but another of far greater antiquity, that with his four brethren, Pæoneus, Ida, Jafius, and Epimedes, left their ancient feat in Ida, a mountain of Crete, and fettled in Elis, where he inftituted this folemnity; the original of which was only a race, wherein the four younger brothers contending for diverfion, the victor was crowned by Hercules with an olive garland, which was not compofed of the common olive-branches, nor the natural product of that country, but brought by Hercules (fo fables will have it) from the Hyperborean Scythians, and planted in the Pantheum near Olympia, where it flourished, tho' not after Hh 2 the

·

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Account of the Public Games of Greece.

the manner of other olive-trees, but spreading out its boughs more like a myrtle. Crowns and garlands, given to victors in thefe games, were always compofed of it, and it was forbidden, under a great penalty, to cut it for any other use these Dactyli were five in number, whence it is that the Olympian games were celebrated once in five years, though others make them to be folemnized once in four; wherefore, according to the former, an Olympiad muft confift of five; according to the latter, of four years: but neither of thefe accounts are exact; for this folemnity was held indeed every fifty year, yet not after the term of five years was quite paft, but every fiftieth month, which is the fecond month after the completion of four years and as thefe games were celebrated every fifth year, fo they lafted five days; for they began upon the eleventh, and ended upon the fifteenth day of the lunar month, when the moon was at the full.

There are many opinions concerning the time, but it is generally admitted that the Olympian games were firft inftituted by this Hercules, to the honour of Olympian Jupiter, out of the fpoils taken from Auges, king of Elis, whom he had dethroned, and plundered, being defrauded of the reward he had promifed him for cleansing his ftables, as Pindar reports: Diodorus, the Sicilian, gives the fame relation, and adds, that Hercules propofed no other reward to the victors, but a crown, in memory of his own labours, all which he accomplished for the benefit of mankind, without defigning any reward to himfelf, befide the praise of doing well: at this inftitution, it is reported that Hercules himself came off conqueror in all the ex

Sicilian,

ercifes, except wrestling, to which when he had challenged all the field, and could find no man that durft grapple with him, at length Jupiter, having affumed an human fhape, entered the lifts; and when the contention had remained doubtful for a confiderable time, neither party having the advantage, or being willing to fubmit, the god difcovered himfelf to his fon, and from this action got the firname of Wrestler.

All these ftories are rejected by Strabo, in his description of Elis, where he reports, that an Etolian colony, together with fome of Hercules' pofterity, fubdued a great many of the Pifean towns, and amongst them Olympia, where they first inftituted, or, at leaft, revived, enlarged, and aug. mented thefe games, which, I am perfuaded, could not have been omitted by Homer, who takes every opportunity to adorn his poems with defcriptions of fuch folemnities, had they been of any note before the Trojan war. Whatever becomes of the firft author of the Olympian games, it is certain, they were either wholly laid afide, or very little frequented till the time of Iphitus, who was cotemporary with Lycurgus the Spartan law-giver. He re-indi

tuted this folemnity about four hundred and eight years after the Trojan war; from which time, according to Solinus, the number of the Olympiads are reckoned. After this time they were again neglected till the time of Chorobus, who, according to Phlegon's computation, lived in the twenty-eighth Olympiad after Iphitus, and then inftituted again the Olympian games, which after this time were conftantly celebrated. And this really fell out in the CCCCVIIIth year after the deftruction of Troy; or two years

fooner

Diverfions of the English in the Anglo-Norman Period. 253

fooner by Eufebius's account, which reckons four hundred and fix years from the taking of Troy to the firft Olympiad. By the first Olympiad meaning that which was firft in the common computation of Olympiads, which was begun at this time.

Having proceeded thus far, I am now about to take my leave, but not without affuring you, that I am, Gentlemen,

Your respectful

Humble fervant, AN ADMIRER OF ANTIQUARIAN SPORTS.

Berkshire, Feb. 17, 1796.

1

CUSTOMS and DIVERSIONS of the ENGLISH in the ANGLO-NORMAN period.

(From the first volume of Andrews's Hiftory of Great-Britain.) "T THE HE cuftoms introduced by the Normans to England, were in general praise-worthy and gentleman-like, when compared to thofe of the Anglo-Saxons. Knighthood, which neceffarily comprehended a brave and liberal heart, a firm demeanour, and a graceful performance of manlike exercises, flourished under their protection. The knight, after having ferved a kind of apprenticeship during feven or eight years as an efquire, bound himfelf by a folemn oath to be loyal to his king, to protect the virtuous part of the fair fex, and to refcue widows and orphans from oppreffion, at the hazard of his life. The tilts and tournaments (which were pompous feftivals, where the skill and agility of the knight were feverely tried) afforded perpetual incentives to excellence in military fcience; and

the picturefque duty annexed to chivalry, of chufing a fupreme lady, in defence of whofe beauty and virtue her knight was always ready to combat, hid its own abfurdity under a veil of elegance.

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[St. Palaye fur la Chevalerie.] "Befides the tournament, a diverfion allotted only to persons of rank, the favourite sports of the principle Normans were hunting and hawking; thefe the kings, prelates and noblemen, pursued with an incredible eagerness, and without the smallest regard to the labours of the husbandman. · By thefe purfuits (fays John of Salisbury) they lofe their humanity, and become monsters like the favage animals they chase; fhepherds and their flocks are driven from their pastures, that wild beafts may range in them at large: fhould one of thefe potent fportsmen approach your dwelling, haften to bring out every refreshment which you have in your house, or which you can beg or borrow of your neighbours, left you should find the fatal confequence of your neglect; and perhaps be accused of treafon.

"The game of chefs, and ftill more the various chances of the dice, conftituted domeftic amusements for the great. That they carried thefe to excefs, we may judge from many circumftances. Even the horrors of civil war could not damp their fpirit of gaming; for M. Paris complains of the barons, affociated to refift the tyranny of John, for fpending their time in luxury and playing with dice, when their appearance was wanted in the field. Exceffive gaming at fea was reftrained by the second of thofe laws which the united kings of England and France drew up in 1190, for the government of the force fitted out

againft

254 Diverfions of the English in the Anglo-Norman Period.

against the Saracens. There it is
enacted that knights and clerks
fhall be reftrained to the lofs of
twenty fhillings (nearly what fif-
teen pounds would be on the 18th
century) in a day; but that fol-
diers and failors, if detected in
playing for money, fhall be fined
at will, or whipped, or ducked.
[Brompton. Benice. Abbas.}

"Theatrical entertainments were not wholly unknown. The miracles of faints and the fufferings of martyrs were the fubjects

of dramatic reprefentations in London as Fitz Stephens writes; and we find, by M. Paris, that Geoffrey, an abbot of St. Alban's, was the author of a play of St. Katharine; and that he borrowed from the facristan, the holy vestments of the abbey to adorn the actors.

The more grofs amusements of the Norman nobility in the pantomine ftyle have been mentioned in a note from John of Salisbury, who, though a fevere, was a tolerably candid critic on the times he lived in.

"The common people were

Henry Beauclerc, ftrove hard to reduce thefe two to one. [W. Malmes.]

"The dinner was held at nine in the morning, the fupper at five in the afternoon. Befides the common meats, many dishes were ufed, with the compofition of which we are not now acquainted. -As to liquors, they had feveral kinds, compounded of honey, of fpices, and of mulberry juice; fuch as hypocras, pigment, claret, and morat, befides wine, cyder, perry, and ale.

"Various kinds of bread were in ufe. The panis piperatus' was a fort of gingerbread. Waftel cakes and fimnel cakes, as they were part of the royal allowance of the King of Scots when in England, were probably made of the fineft meal. [Rym. Fœd.]

"There was great inconfiftency in the general and national character of the Anglo-Normans. They were at the fame time acutely difcerning and grofsly credulous; honourably brave and. atrociously cruel; refpectful to the fair fex even to adoration,

conduct to individuals; effeminate in their drefs and manners, yet patient of almost intolerable fatigues.

not without their diverfions. Bull-yet brutality licentious in their baiting, cock-fighting, and horferacing were known to the men of London: the fports on the Thames, the kaiting, and the various exercifes and entertainments of the twelfth century are accurately and even elegantly painted by Fitz Stephens in his description of London.

"The Normans were fober and rather delicate at their meals, when they firft invaded England. It was not long, however, before they equalled their predeceffors in feafting, and even added coftly epicurifm to brutal gluttony. Yet two meals each day fupplied the place of the Anglo-Saxons' four; and Robert de Mellent, prime minifter and favourite of

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During more than an hundred years, the Normans in England fhaved their faces. W. de Percy (who accompanied Duke Robert in 1096 to Palestine) was ftyled on account of fingularity as to this point, 'William Alfgernons,' or William with the whiskers.'

"The dress of the Anglo-Normans was, in the eleventh century, fimple if not elegant. The great wore a long and clofe gown which reached down to their heels, and had its bottom frequently embroidered with gold.

Biographical Sketches of Dick E-gl--d..

Over this hung an equally long cloak, which was generally buckled over the breaft. When

riding or walking abroad, a hood always hung behind the cloak, The clofe gown was put over the head like a fhirt, and fastened round the waift by a girdle, which was often embroidered and set with precious ftones. [Struit from Ant. Painting.]

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They wore breeches and ftockings made of fine cloth and fometimes very coftly. The abfurd long-toed fhoes came in with William Rufus. The queen and the women of fashion wore loofe gowns trailing on the ground and girt round the wait. The mar ried women had an additional robe over the gown, hanging down before, not unlike a facerdotal garment. To the girdle a large purfe or pouch was fufpended.

The men wore their hair long, except fometimes when fuddenly wrought on by fanati

cifm.

"In the approaching centurieswe shall find ftrange variations from this fimplicity of habit. The crufades indeed feem to have introduced to Northern Europe, among other vices, luxury and effeminacy in drefs to a degree which a modern man of fashion would blush to imitate.

"The umbrella was in ufe as early as the reign of king Stephen, [Struit.]

A general Biographical SKETCH of
the Life and Adventures of Mr.
R--H--D E-GL--D.
(Continued from page 206.)

A-N was the bofom friend

ΜΑ

of Mr. E-gl--d, who had conferred upon him many and

255

of his pigeons, and, of course, part of their plumage, but by lending him feveral fums of money, and infifting on his making conftant use of his table, whether he was at home or abfent.

Thefe obligations were returned with fhameful ingratitude:. Mrs. E-gl--d was neither handsome nor inviting, yet Ma- n paid his addreffes to her, and having daily opportunities, feduced her affections from his friend; in confequence of which the contrived caufes of quarrel, left his houfe, and took private lodgings.

Mr E-gl-d, fo far from fufpecting his friend, unbofomed his mind to him on the occafion, and the hypocrite heard him, appareaty fuffering under the feverest emotions of fympathetic feelings; but, in a fhort time, E-gl--d difcovered that his confidence had been misplaced, and that he had been injured by the man in whom he had moft implicitly confided: in fhort, he was informed that Ma--n frequently. vifited Mrs. E-gl--d, and continued with her often for the whole night; and, having convinced himlelf of the truth, he refolved on vengeance..

For this purpose, Mr. E-gl--d wrote a note to, his rival, in the ufual ftyle of friendship, defiring to meet him at Barnet, where, after he arrived, E-gl--d took an opportunity of feizing him behind by the hair, and cut his queue off clofe to his head with a fharp knife he had prepared for that purpofe, and, at the fame inftant, three bailiffs, who attended at the fuit of E-gl--d, rushed in and arrefted Ma--n, hurried him into a poft-chaife, and conducted him to a fpunginghouse, from whence he was con

very ferious obligations. not onlyveyed to the Fieet. by admitting him to a knowledge

E-gl-d's revenge, however, was not complete; he carried the fevered

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