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NINE MEN'S MORRIS |
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modern use. In Shakespeare it is called ' nine men's morris,' from its being played with nine men, as they were then, and still are called. We call it simply morris. Probably it took the name from a fancied resemblance to a dance, in the motions of the men. Dr. Johnson professes that he knew no more of it than that it was some rustic game. Another commentator speaks of it as common among shepherds' boys in some parts of Warwickshire. It cannot well be more common there than here, and it is not particularly rustic. Shepherds' boys and other clowns play it on the green turf, or on the bare ground; cutting or scratching the lines, on the one or the other. In either case it is soon filled up with mud in wet weather. In towns, porters and other labourers play it, at their leisure hours, on the flat pavement, tracing the figure with chalk. It is also a domestic game ; and the figure is to be found on the back of some draught-boards. But to compare morris with that game, or with chess, seems absurd; as it has a very distant resemblance, if any at all, to either, in the lines, or in the rules of playing. On the ground, the men are pebbles, broken tiles, shells, or potsherds; on a table, the same as are used at draughts or backgammon. In Nares it is said to be the same as nine-holes. With us it is certainly different." Cope [Hampshire Glossary) says that u Nine Men's Morrice" is a game played with counters. He does not describe it further. Atkinson (Glossary of Cleveland Dialect) says under " Merls," the game of " Merelles," or " Nine Men's Morris." Toone (Etymological Dictionary) describes it as a game played on the green sward, holes being cut thereon, into which stones were placed by the players. Stead's Holderness Glossary calls it " Merrils," and describes it as a game played on a square board with eighteen pegs, nine on each side, called in many parts " Nine Men's Morrice." See also Sussex Arch. Collections, xxv. 234, and a paper by Mr. J. T. Micklethwaite (Arch. Journ., xlix. 322), where diagrams of this game are given which have been found cut in several places on the benches of the cloisters at Gloucester, Salisbury, and elsewhere.
See " Noughts and Crosses." |
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