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138 FORFEITS |
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The kneeling child then says what the penance is to be. The owner of the forfeit must then perform the penance before the other players, and then another forfeit is "cried."
The more general penances imposed upon the owners of the forfeits are as follows, but the list could be very much extended :—
Bite an inch off the poker.
Kneel to the prettiest, bow to the wittiest, and kiss the one
you love best. Stand in each corner of the room, sigh in one, cry in another,
sing in another, and dance in the other. Put yourself through the keyhole. Place two chairs in the middle of the room, take off your
shoes, and jump over them. Measure so many yards of love ribbon. Postman's knock. Crawl up the chimney. Spell Opportunity.
M iss Burne mentions one penance designed to make the victim ridiculous, as when he is made to lie on his back on the floor with his arms extended, and declare—
Here I lie!
The length of a looby, The breadth of a booby, And three parts of a jackass !
—Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 526-27. (c) Halliwell gives, in his Nursery Rhymes, pp. 324-26, some curious verses, recorded for the first time by Dr. Kenrick in his Review of Dr. Johnson's Shakespeare, 1765, on "rules for seemly behaviour," in which the forfeits imposed by barbers as penalties for handling razors, &c, are set forth. Although 1 barbers' forfeits " are not of the same nature as the nursery forfeits, it is possible that this general custom among so important a class of the community in early times as barbers may have suggested the game. Both Forby in his Vocabulary of East Anglia and Moor in his Suffolk Words bear testimony to the general prevalence of barbers' forfeits, and it must be borne in mind that barbers were also surgeons in early days. |
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