Athletics and Football (extract)

12 ATHLETICS' Puritans, however, tdhiedir best to suppress all these sports tirely. John Northbrooke, writing as early as 1577, and demand­ ing a Governmesnutpervision of fairs, alludetso the festivals in the following complimentary terms : ' There would not be so many loyteriindgle persons, ruffians, blasphemers, swingebuck- lers, tossepotteest,c. etc.' (there is a c scendo of abuse, and the extract must of necessity be Bowdlerised) ' if these dunghills and filth in commonweales were removed.' Stubbs, anotPhueri­ tan writer, tahuethor thoef £ Anatomie of Abuses,' expresses himself agaitnhset fairs eqiunally strotnegrms. His attitude to sport in general mbeay gatheredfrom thfeact ohfis speak­ ing of' tennise, bowles, asnudch like fooleries.'If the fairs, however, were ' dunghills,' the practice of sp rts at the wak s, or Church festivals, and on ordinary Sundays, was still more shocking to the reformers. In 157o0ne othf em paraphrased into English, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, the foreign work ofne Kirchmaier, who, as e wrote in Latin, adopted the namoef Naogeorgus. The translator, Barnabe Googe, says of the peoploen Sundays : Now whentheir dinner once is done, and that they well have fed, To play thgeoy, to casting of the stonet,o runneor shoote, To toss tlhigeht andwindy ball aloftwith handeor foote. Some others triteheir skill in gonnes, some wrastell all the day And some to schooleof fence do goeto gaze upotnhe play. About the same time Thomas Cartwright, in his admonition to Parliament,asserts that the parson is as bad as his flock. 'He pusheth it over (the service) f ast as he can galloppe: for eithehr e hathtwo placetso serveo, r there are some ga s to beplayde thien afternoon.'However, we need say no more as tothe Puritaenfforts sutoppress athletic sports. The merits of the Puritans can hardly obtainfair hearing in a history of sport; they, no doubt, succeeded for a time in discount­ enancing it, and in putting down its practice very effectually upon Sundays, but whenthe Puritan government fell, its fall, to paraphrase Ridley's words, ' lighted saucfirhe ' of sporting enthusiasm as has neveyret been extinguisheind England.