Strephon, in this third game, pursues Urania; Klaius, his rival suitor, suddenly interposed. For with pretence from Strephon her to guard, He met her full, but full of warefulness, With in-bow’d bosom well for her prepared, When Strephon cursing his own backwardness Came to her back, and so, with double ward, Imprison’d her, who both them did possess As heart-bound slaves.------ Her race did not her beauty’s beams augment, For they were ever in the best degree, But yet a setting forth it some way lent, As rubies lustre when they rubbed be; The dainty dew on face and body went, As on sweet flowers, when morning’s drops we see: Her breath then short, seem’d loth from home to pass, Which more it moved, the more it sweeter was. Happy, O happy! if they so might bide To see their eyes, with how true humbleness, They looked down to triumph over pride; With how sweet blame she chid their sauciness-- Till she brake from their arms------ And farewelling the flock, did homeward wend, And so, that even, the _Barley-break_ did end. This game is mentioned by Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” as one of our rural sports, and by several of the poets, with more or less of description, though by none so fully as Sidney, in the first eclogue of the “Arcadia,” from whence the preceding passages are taken. The late Mr. Gifford, in a note on Massinger, chiefly from the “Arcadia,” describes Barley-break thus: “It was played by six people, (three of each sex,) who were coupled by lot. A piece of ground was then chosen, and divided into three compartments, of which the middle one was called _hell_. It was the object of the couple condemned to this division to catch the others, who advanced from the two extremities; in which case a change of situation took place, and hell was filled by the couple who were excluded by preoccupation from the other places: in this _catching_, however, there was some difficulty, as, by the regulations of the game, the middle couple were not to separate before they had succeeded, while the others might break hands whenever they found themselves hard pressed. When all had been taken in turn, the last couple were said to be in _hell_, and the game ended.” Within memory, a game called Barley-break has been played among stacks of corn, in Yorkshire, with some variation from the Scottish game mentioned presently. In Yorkshire, also, there was another form of it, more resembling that in the “Arcadia,” which was played in open ground. The childish game of “Tag” seems derived from it. There was a “tig,” or “tag,” whose touch made a prisoner, in the Yorkshire game. * * * * * BARLA-BREIKIS.