1788.3

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New Interpretation of Homer Translations Cites ‘Baste-Ball’.

Salience Noteworthy
Tags English Base Ball, Females
City/State/Country: London, England
Game Baste ball
Immediacy of Report Contemporary
Age of Players Adult
Text

From a new interpretation of Homer's Odyssey, describing Princess Nausicaa:

"[S]he is the very pattern of excellence,…she drives four in hand and manages her whip with utmost skill, …she sings most charmingly, and, in fine, is not above playing a game of baste-ball with her attendants."

Sources

"The Trifler," by Timothy Touchstone, Number XXIX, Dec. 13, 1788, p. 374

This passage is discussed in David Block, Pastime Lost (UNebraska Press, 2019), pp 53-55.

 

 

 
 

 

Comment

"Baste-ball" is one of several alternate spellings of baseball that are found in 18th and 19th century writings.

"The Trifler" was a weekly satirical literary journal that ran for less than one year. Its authors, writing under the nom de plume Timothy Touchstone, were reputed to be two Cambridge students and two Oxford students, all under the age of 20.

An earlier (1616) translator used the term "stool-ball," a game well known in England, for the ballplaying scene.  Block explains: "Stool-ball by then [1780s] was fading in popularity.  Instead, girls and young women of he towns and villages of southern England were embracing the game of baseball."   (Pastime Lost, page 56.)

 

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Submitted by David Block
Submission Note Email of 9/16/2020



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