_My ladyes and my maistresses echone,_ _Lyke hit unto your humbylle wommanhede_ _Resave in gré_ (good part) _of my sympille persone_ _This rolle, which withouten any drede_ _Kynge Ragman me bad mesoure in brede,_ _And cristyned yt the meroure of your chaunce;_ _Draweth a strynge, and that shal streight yow leyde_ _Unto the verry path of your governaunce--_ _i. e._ it will tell you exactly how you behave yourself, what is your character. This game is alluded to by the poet Gower in the “Confessio Amantis:”-- _Venus, whiche stant withoute lawe,_ _In non certeyne, but as men drawe_ _Of_ Ragemon _upon the chaunce,_ _Sche leyeth no peys_ (weight) _in the balaunce_. The ragman’s roll, when rolled up for use, would present a confused mass of strings hanging from it, probably with bits of wax at the end, from which the drawer had to select one. This game possesses a peculiar historical interest. When the Scottish nobles and chieftains acknowledged their dependence on the English crown in the reign of Edward I., the deed by which they made this acknowledgment, having all their seals hung to it, presented, when rolled up, much the appearance of the roll used in this game; and hence, no doubt, they gave it in derision the name of the _Ragman’s Roll_. Afterwards it became the custom to call any roll with many signatures, or any long catalogue, the various headings of which were perhaps marked by strings, by the same name. This game of chance or fortune was continued, under other names, to a late period. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the burlesque characters were often inscribed on the back of roundels, which were no doubt dealt round to the company like cards, with the inscribed side downwards. [Illustration: _No. 164. Ball-Playing._]