I cleep, you cleep, he cleeps

Fri Sep 17 16:52:35 UTC 2010

The boys' pastimes indeed, as in the following exercise.  Long, but I
think useful.  Spoiler alert:  I think George's "cleep" is the
ancient "clepe", essentially "to call".

A.   I suppose in Prisoner's Base neither of the captains had a bat
to use in choosing his "partners".

B.   Almost exactly the same text as George's is in an 1847 second
edition of a work having the title page "The Boy's Treasury of
Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations. With nearly Four Hundred
Engravings.  Designed by Williams, and Engraved by Gilbert.  Second
American Edition.  Boston: John P. Hill. 1848."  Page 62.  [Google Books]

Page 63 claims "Prisoner's Base is mentioned in proclamations in the
reign of Edward III.; and Shakespeare speaks of 'the country base.'
The game was formerly played by men, especially in Cheshire, and the
adjoining counties."

I asked myself, does this and the sound of the word "cleep" suggest
an old origin?

C.  Looking for "the country base" led me on eventually to:

 From what Google Books calls
      "Shakespeare's world/world Shakespeares: the selected
proceedings ... - Page 60 / International Shakespeare Association.
       World Congress, Richard Fotheringham, Christa Jansohn - 2008 -
436 pages / Page 60:"
and Harvard calls:
    Author :      International Shakespeare Association. World
Congress (8th : 2006 : Brisbane, Australia)
    Title :          Shakespeare's world/world Shakespeares : the
selected proceedings of the International Shakespeare
         Association World Congress Brisbane, 2006 / edited by
Richard Fotheringham, Christa Jansohn, and R. S. White.
    Published :  Newark : University of Delware [sic; sometimes
Harvard calls it wrong] Press, c2008.

The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day
Is crept into the bosom of the sea.
And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades
That drag the tragic melancholy night;
Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings
Cleep dead men's graves, and from their misty jaws
Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air.
      (2 Henry VI, 4.1.1-11)

... The unusual use of Anglos-Saxon "cleep" (to call) ...

My edition of Shakespeare (The Works ... Gathered into One Volume,
New York, Printed for the Shakespeare Head Press and Published by
Oxford University Press, 1934; I make no excuses for the date or
edition, it was a gift from my mother) has the line as:

Clip dead men's graves, and from their misty jaws

Perhaps the Shakespeare scholars will wish to dispute whether it
should be "clip", in some sense of that verb, vs. the following.

D.  HOWEVER,  searching the OED for quotations containing "cleep*"
finds one in:

"clepe, v" [and note "yclept"]:
    1. intr. To cry, call; to call on, appeal to (a person), for or
after (a thing). Obs.
    2. trans. To call (a person); to summon, bid come; to invite; to
invoke, call to witness; = CALL v. 4, 5, 20c. Obs.
      b. To call upon or to, speak to, address. Obs.
      c. Sc. Law. clepe and call: to summon, cite.
    3. With complemental obj.: To call by the name of, call, name; =
CALL v. 11. Obs. (exc. as in b), but occasionally used as a literary archaism.
      b. In this sense, the pa. pple. ycleped, yclept
({shti}{sm}kl{ope}pt), was retained in use (beside the ordinary
cleped) down through the ME. period, was greatly affected in 16th c.,
and is still a frequent literary archaism. See also YCLEPT.
    4. ellipt. To mention by name, speak of. Obs.

This looks like George's "cleep".

E.   The Shakespeare "country base" is from Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene
2.  "The plays of Shakespeare", ed. by Howard Staunton,  1858, Volume
1 - Page 42, comments (although on "Two Gentlemen of Verona"):

"(7) Scene II. -- I bid the base for Proteus.]  Lucetta, playing on
the word _base_, turns the allusion to an ancient and still practised
sport, known as _the base_, or _prison base_, or _prison bars_.  The
game is frequently mentioned by the old writers.  [*What* old
writers, you anal retentive?] ..."

The description following this sounds a bit like "Capture the flag"
-- a base and safety but no flag.

F.   WorldCat lists an 1844 London edition of "The Boy's Treasury",
held by among other places the New York Public and Harvard:

Title:         The boy's treasury of sports, pastimes, and recreations
Author:     Samuel Williams
Publisher:  London : D. Bogue, (Late Tilt and Bogue), 1844.

(I make no claims about the appearance of "cleep" -- or "clepe" -- in
this edition.)

Joel

At 9/17/2010 10:51 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>This word isn't in DARE or the OED.
>
>"Prisoner's Base is a very lively and amusing game, and is played as
>follows: Two captains being appointed, they "cleep" for partners, i.
>e. they advance towards each other, by bringing, alternately, the
>heel of one foot to the toe of the other, until at last there be not
>room for one of them to put his foot down between the toe of his
>opponent and his own; this player has the first choice of partners.
>
> From The Boy's Book of Sports and Games. . . . By Uncle John,
> Philadelphia & New York, Appleton, 1851, p. 49, as read from Google Books.
>
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org