"lads more like to run The country base than to commit such slaughter." To "bid a base," or "the base," was a common phrase for challenging to a game of this kind, and we often find it used figuratively; as in _Venus and Adonis_, 303, in the spirited description of the horse, which, like many other passages, shows Shakespeare's interest in the animal:-- "Sometimes he scuds far off, and there he stares; Anon he starts at stirring of a feather; To bid the wind a base he now prepares, And whether he run or fly they know not whether, For through his mane and tail the high wind sings, Fanning the hairs, who wave like feather'd wings." In the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (i. 2. 97), Lucetta says to Julia, with a pun upon the phrase: "Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus." Drayton, in the _Poly-Olbion_, includes this game with others that have been described above: "At hood-wink, barley-brake, at tick [that is, tag], or prison-base"; and Spenser in the _Shepherd's Calendar_ (October) refers to it among rustic pastimes: "In rymes, in ridles, and in bydding base." Foot-ball is mentioned by Shakespeare in the _Comedy of Errors_ (ii. 1. 82), where Dromio of Ephesus says to his mistress Adriana, who has been chiding him:-- "Am I so round with you as you with me, That like a foot-ball you do spurn me thus? You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither; If I last in this service, you must case me in leather." In _Lear_ (i. 4. 95), Oswald says to Kent, "I'll not be struck, my lord!" and Kent replies, "Nor tripped neither, you base foot-ball player." The game was popular with the common people of England at least as early as the reign of Edward III., for in 1349 it was prohibited by royal edict--not, apparently, from any particular objection to the game in itself, but because it was believed to interfere with the popular interest in archery. The sport was, however, a rough one then as now. Alexander Barclay, who died in 1552, in one of his _Eclogues_, tells how "The sturdie plowman, lustie, strong, and bold, Overcometh the winter with driving the foote-ball, Forgetting labour and many a grievous fall." Edmund Waller, in the next century, writes:-- "As when a sort [company] of lusty shepherds try Their force at foot-ball; care of victory Makes them salute so rudely breast to breast, That their encounter seems too rough for jest." King James I., in his _Basilicon_--a set of rules for the nurture and conduct of Henry, Prince of Wales, the heir-apparent to the throne--says:--