The Ballad Game

Source: What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games And Pastimes
Category: OUTDOOR GAMES FOR GIRLS



Another home-made game is described by E. H. thus:--"The game is taken
from the player's favorite ballads. In our play the eldest of the
four players, who was also the best organizer, represented the cruel
father. The youngest little girl was the fair damsel. The other two
represented the wicked lover and the faithful knight, the part of the
faithful knight being taken by the fleetest of the party to balance
the combination of the father and the wicked lover. The game begins by
the fair damsel being imprisoned in the coach-house because she
refuses to marry the wicked lover. (Of course any shed would do.) Here
she waits until her knight comes to rescue her, and they escape
together, pursued by the other two. If the lovers succeed in getting
away the story has a happy ending; but the more dramatic ending is the
tragic one, when the faithful knight is overtaken, and after killing
the cruel father and the wicked lover, himself dies of his wounds, the
fair damsel slaying herself with his sword over his dead body.

"The interest of this game is greatly increased by having retainers.
These are armies of sticks which are planted at particular corners.
There must be some mark by which your own retainers can be
distinguished from the enemy's. For instance, the faithful knight may
have peeled sticks and the others unpeeled. If, when charging round
the house, you come across a troop of the enemy's retainers, you
cannot go on until you have thrown them all down, as they are set to
guard the pass. So, if the lovers are escaping and they find their way
blocked by the father's retainers (the father and the wicked lover may
have separate sets of retainers, in which case the war is always
bitterest between the two rivals, as the father's retainers are
sometimes spared for the damsel's sake), they have to lose time by
first overcoming the retainers and that gives time to their pursuers
to come up. But if they are so far in advance that they can stop to
set up their own retainers in the place of the enemy, it serves to
give them further time to make good their escape, as the others have
to wait to overthrow the knight's sticks in their turn. In no case are
you allowed to take away your enemy's sticks. If the lovers are
overtaken, the rivals have to fight, and meanwhile the father once
more carries off and imprisons the damsel."

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