Arise, as though thou wouldest with him play, And I shall rive him through the sidës way, While that thou strugglest with him as in game; And with thy dagger look thou do the same.
Moreover, the same tragedy might only too easily be played unintentionally, as in the ballad of the "Two Brothers"--
They warsled up, they warsled down Till John fell to the ground; A dirk fell out of Willie's pouch, And gave him a deadly wound.
Or, as it is recorded in the business-like prose of an assize-roll: "Richard of Horsley was playing and wrestling with John the Miller of Tutlington; and by mishap his knife fell from its sheath and wounded the aforesaid John without the aforesaid Richard's knowledge, so that he died. And the aforesaid Richard fled and is not suspected of the death; let him therefore return if he will, but let his chattels be confiscated for his flight. (N.B. He has no chattels)."[264] In this same assize-roll, out of forty-three accidental deaths, three were due to village games, and three more to sticks or stones aimed respectively at a cock, a dog, and a pig, but finding their fatal billet in a human life. Ecclesiastical disciplinarians endeavoured frequently, but with indifferent success, to put down the practice of wrestling in churchyards, with the scarcely less turbulent miracle-plays or dances, and the markets which so frequently stained the holy ground with blood. Even the State interfered in the matter of churchyard fairs and markets "for the honour of Holy Church"; but they went on gaily as before. Dances, as I have already had occasion to note, were condemned with a violence which is only partially explained even by Chaucer's illuminating lines about the Parish Clerk--
In twenty manners could he skip and dance, (After the School of Oxenfordë, though,) And with his leggës casten to and fro.[265]
To quote here again from Dr. Rashdall, "William of Wykeham found it necessary for the protection of the sculpture in the Chapel reredos to make a Statute against dancing or jumping in the Chapel or adjoining Hall. His language is suggestive of that untranslatable amusement now known as 'ragging,' which has no doubt formed a large part of the relaxation of students--at least of English students--in all ages. At the same College there is a comprehensive prohibition of all 'struggling, chorus-singing, dancing, leaping, singing, shouting, tumult and inordinate noise, pouring forth of water, beer, and all other liquids and tumultuous games' in the Hall, on the ground that they were likely to disturb the occupants of the Chaplain's chamber below. A moderate indulgence in some of the more harmless of these pastimes in other places seems to be permitted."[266]