i Sebastiani - Gargantua Games

Games Listed in Gargantua

Book One, Chapter 22

Alphabetized [excluding articles and pronouns] list. Where multiple names are given, all names are listed, and the entry duplicated. I have introduced capitalization in the names. The names were recorded by Francois Rabelais in French about 1530, and translated to English in the mid 17th Century by Thomas Urquhart. I have not compared Urquhart's list to Rabelais' [which I haven't even seen], so I can't say to what degree something was added or lost in translation. If a game has the word 'or' in its name, I may have falsely listed it as two games, see for example, possibly 'Dames or Draughts'. Exceptions: 'Even or Odd', 'Cross or Pile', 'Boke or Him'.

I have taken some care to faithfully transcribe this list, but do not take responsibility for any consequence of the assumption of its correctness. [Jay Cross, 13 Oct 2002]

Game Name	Comments
Apple, Pear, and Plum
Are You All Hid, or Hide and Seek
At the Nine Stones, or The Flints
Ball and Huckle-Bones	OED says Huckle-Bone is the hip or haunch bone. Thus the name refers to the ball and socket joint.
Barley Break
Battabum, or Riding the Wild Mare
Bavine, The	OED says a bavin is a bundle of brushwood, but also refers to quick wits, like the quick blaze from burning such a bundle.
Beast, The
Belly to Belly
Billiards, The
Birch, The
Black Be Thy Fall
Blank, The
Blind-Man-Buff
Blow the Coal
Bo Peep
Bob and Hit
Bob and Mow
Bobbing, or Flirt on the Nose
Boke or Him, or Flaying the Fox
Boulting Cloth, The
Branching It, The
Break Pot
Bridled Nick	'Nick' possibly refers to the devil
Broom-Besom, The
Bum to Buss, or Nose to Breech
Bumbatch Touch
Bumdockdousse
Bush Leap, The
Casting Top, The
Cat Selling, The
Caveson, The
Chance, The, or Mumchance
Charming of the Hare, The
Cherry-Pit
Chess, The
Click, The
Climb the Ladder Billy
Cock and Crank It
Cock Quintin, The
Cocksess, The
Cornish Chough, The	A Cornish Chough is a red-legged crow indiginous to Cornwall
Cowes, The
Crane Dance, The
Cricket
Cross or Pile
Crossing
Cuckoo, The
Dales, The, or Straths
Dames, The, or Draughts
Dapple Grey, The
Dead Beast, The
Dilly Dilly Darling, The
Doublets, or Queen's Game
Draughts, or The Dames
Draw the Spit
Dying Hog, The
Earlie Beardie
Even and Sequence, or Post and Pair
Even or Odd
Failie, The
Fair and Softly Passeth Lent
Fallen Bridges, The
False Clown, The
Fast and Loose
Feebie
Feldown
Ferkeering, or the Long Tables
Fib, The
Fig, The
Filipping, The
Flat Bowles, The
Flaying the Fox, or Boke or Him
Flints, The, or At the Nine Stones
Flirt on the Nose, or Bobbing
Flowered Ox, or Shrovetide Ox, The
Flusse
Forked Oak, The
Forward Hey
French Trictrac, The
Frolic, The, or Jackdaw
Geordie Give Me My Lance
Gome, The	OED: gome means bridegroom
Good Mawkin, The
Gossip Lend Me Your Sack
Grapple My Lady, or Trill Madam
Greedy Glutton
Gunshot Crack, The
Handruff, The
Hardit Arsepursey, The
Hari Hohi
Harrower's Nest, The
Have at the Nuts	Perhaps a rude physical game?
He's Gulled and Esto
Heads and Points
Hide and Seek, or Are You All Hid
Hinch, Pinch, and Laugh Not
Hinde the Plowman
Ho the Distaffe
Hobgoblins, The
Hock, The
Honours
Hoop, The
Horn, The
Hundred, The
I Set Me Down
I Take You Napping
I'm For That
Ivory Balls
Ivory Bundles, The
Jack and the Box
Jackdaw, or the Frolic
Joanne Thomson
Jog Breech, or Prick him Forward
Keys, The
Knockpate
Lanskenet, The
Larks, The
Last Couple in Hell, The
Leek, The
Let Him Speak that have it, or Puff
Long Tables, The, or Ferkeering
Loose Gig, The
Losing Load Him
Lottery, The
Love
Lurch, The
Lusty Brown Boy, The
Madge-Owlet, The
Magatipes, The
Maniest Bleaks
Mark-Knife
Marriage, The
Marseil Figs
Moorish Dance, The
Mumchance, or the Chance
Mumgi
Musse, The
Mustard Peel
My Desire
Mysterious Trough, The
Needs Must
Nicknamrie, The
Nine Less
Nine Pins, The
Nivinivinack
Nose to Breech, or Bum to Buss
O Wonderful, The
Oat's Seed, The
Old Mode, The
One and Thirty
Opinion, The
Owl, The
Ox Moudy
Pass Ten, The
Peeny, The
Picket, The
Pilferers, The
Pinch Without Laughing
Post and Pair, or Even and Sequence
Pounding Stick, The
Pretty Pigeon, The
Prick and Spare Not, The
Prick Him Forward, or Jog Breech
Prickle Me Tickle Me
Primero
Primus Secundus
Prison Bars
Puff, or Let Him Speak that have it
Pull Yet a Little
Purpose in Purpose
Put Out
Queens, The
Queen's Game, or Doublets
Quick and Dead Judge, The
Quoits, The
Ramcod Ball, The
Re-Wedding, The
Relapse, The
Reynard the Fox
Riding the Wild Mare, or Battabum
Rifle, The
Rogue and Ruffian
Rub and Rice
Rush Bundles, The
Saint Cosme I Come to Adore Thee
Salt Doup, The
Sanct is Found, The
Scutchbreech
Sequences, The
Shaggy, Waggy, or Shoggyshou
Shoggyshou, Shaggy, or Waggy
Short Bowls, The
Short Staff, The
Shrovetide Ox, or the Flowered Ox
Slash and Cut
Soilie Smutchy, The
Sow, The
Squares, The
Span-Counter, The
Stick and Hole
Stook and Rook, Shear and Threave
Straths, or the Dales
Surly, The
Tables, The
Take Nothing and Throw Out
Tarots, The
Three Dice, or Maniest Bleaks
Three Hundred
Thrust Out the Harlot
Thwack Swinge Him
Tilt at Weekie
Tip and Hurle
To the Crutch Hulch Back
Toad, The
Tods Body
Torture, The
Trades, The
Trill Madam, or Grapple My Lady
Trudgepig
Trump
Truss
Twigs, The
Twirly Whirlytril
Unfortunate Woman, The
Unlucky Man, The
Unoven the Iron
Unshoing of the Ass, The
Veere and Tourn, The
Vine-Tree Hug, The
Waggy, Shoggyshou, or Shaggy
Whip-Top
Whirling Gigge, The
White at Buts, The
Who Doth the One, and Doth the Other
Whole Frisk and Gambole, The
Wolf's Tail, The

We present this list for several purposes. One is that we have friends interested in medieval games, and this is a reference or resources for them. Another is that we are intersted in the playful parts of late medieval culture. Many of these games we know nothing about. Their names are often suggestive of a point to the game, but we'd like to know more. If I get enough comments or descriptions, I'll cull this out to a separate website, and include links from each known game to its material.

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