The Bewties Of The Fute-ball is a brief, anonymous

Middle Scots Middle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 15th century, its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually ...

poem of the sixteenth century.The Maitland Folio Manuscript
/ref> It depicts the game of

medieval football Mob football is a modern term used for a wide variety of the localised informal football games which were invented and played in England during the Middle Ages. Alternative names include folk football, medieval football and Shrovetide football. ...

, as it was played in the same era, as being violent and unruly.

Historical context

Ball games played between opposing teams were widespread in pre-modern Europe. Many localities are known to have had a variety including the Calcio of Florence and

La Soule ', later ' (french: chôle), is a traditional team sport that originated in Normandy and Picardy. The ball, called a ', could be solid or hollow and made of either wood or leather. Leather balls would be filled with hay, bran, horse hair or moss ...

of northern France In Scotland football games were common enough for the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

to attempt to outlaw them on several occasions. An act of 1457, under

James II James II may refer to: * James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade * James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier * James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily * James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...

, is typical.Laws forbidding football and golf in Scotland. (National Library Of Scotland)
/ref> The act was principally intended to encourage archery practice but decreed that football, and also

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, should be simultaneously discouraged. :Item. It is ordanyt and decretyt that Wapinschawing be haldin be the lordis and baronys spirituale and temporale four tymes in the yeir. And that the futebawe and the golf be uterly cryt done and not usyt. or in translation, :Item. It is ordained and decreed that weapon shows be held by the Lords and Barons, Spiritual and Temporal, four times a year and that football and golf be utterly cried down and not used. Despite these bans, in 16th-century

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

apprentices progressing to become master craftsmen traditionally had to pay for a banquet and hold a football match.Michael Pearce, 'A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland', ''Regional Furniture'', XXXII (2018), p. 127. Several ball games which appear to predate the modern era exist in modern Scotland. The

Kirkwall Ba Game The Kirkwall Ba' Game (known locally as The Ba') is one of the main annual events held in the town of Kirkwall, in Orkney, Scotland. It is one of a number of Ba' Games played in the streets of towns around Scotland; these are examples of medieva ...

is an example.

The text

The Bewties Of The Fute-ball is preserved only in the Maitland Folio Manuscript of the latter sixteenth century. It consists of two pairs of rhyming

couplet A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

s and it is attributed to no author. :Brissit brawnis and brokin banis, :Stride, discord and waistie wanis. :Crukit in eild syne halt withal, :Thir are the bewties of the fute-ball. In

Modern Scots Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700. Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of ...

: :Birsed brawns an breuken banes, :Stride, discord an wastie hames. :Creukit in eild syne haut withaw, :Thir are the beauties o the fitbaw. The poem might be translated into modern English as, :Torn muscles and broken bones, :Strife, discord and impoverished homes. :Stooping in old age then lameness too, :Those are the beauties of football. It is not clear whether the poem is genuinely criticising the game for its roughness or praising it ironically for the same reason.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bewties Of The Fute-ball Scottish poems Middle Scots poems