The game of football was a nasty sport in England during Shakespeare's era. It is more appropriate to say football was considered a lower-class diversion in Shakespeare's time. By the early 17th century the kings of England were still trying to rid the land of football. James I outlawed the game from his royal court because it was, 'meeter for lameing than making able the user thereof', i.e., the game ended with too many injuries.
The reflection of contemporary animosity towards football is beautifully portrayed in the works of Shakespeare too. At least we find two references to football in his plays. Because all cultures have had various forms of recreation, people of Shakespeare's time were no different. Many of their sports and games were similar to the ones we play today; others are no longer played. Though we begin with football, we will make references to various sports in the works of Shakespeare.
References to the game of football became more and more widespread in England at the time. Shakespeare referred to football in King Lear (Act I, Scene IV) when Kent taunts Oswald, a steward to Goneril, by calling him a 'base football player'.
In Comedy of Errors (1592, Act II) Shakespeare's humorous dialogues on football read:
Adriana: Hence, prating peasant! Fetch thy master home.
Dromio of Epheseus: Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
Apart from football, the Bard has made interesting and thought provoking references to sports like billiards, rugby, tennis, bowling balls, backgammon set, tennis balls, croquet set, bear-baiting, archery, chess, wrestling, dice game, card game, board game, jousting, hunting and falconry .
In Hamlet's famous "to be, or not to be" soliloquy, the Prince of Denmark ponders, "To die, to sleep; / To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub" referring to a game called bowling. Hamlet's procrastination whether to kill or not to kill himself is vividly drawn here with the image of 'rub' which is an obstacle that disrupts the path of the ball in bowling.
Shakespeare employs imagery that not only evokes a picture but also carries meaning and relevance. Before King Henry V leads his army into France to reclaim the French throne, the French Dauphin sends a peculiarly insulting gift to Henry with the implication that he is more fit for games than kingship. Henry maintains his composure after receiving the insulting memento but prophetically pronounces the grave consequences that will come upon France after their final defeat at the battle of Agincourt.
King Henry V enquires about the gift and the dialogue follows:
Henry: What treasure, uncle?
Exeter: Tennis balls, my liege.
Henry: When we have matched our rackets to these balls / We will in France, by God's grace, play a set / Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
In Measure for Measure (1.2.190), Lucio mentions the game of tick-tack in a sexually suggestive way. Tick-tack, in Shakespeare's time, most resembled the game named backgammon. Scored by means of pegs set into the holes, the game lends itself easily to a comparison with sexual intercourse, the predominant theme of the play.
Another popular game in Shakespeare's time called loggats involved throwing shaped pieces of wood at a stake in the ground. Hamlet mentioned this game in the grave digging scene.
In As You Like It, we find a wrestling match with a highly regarded wrestler named Charles, who is however defeated by Orlando.
Primiero refers to card game played during Shakespeare's days. In The Merry Wives of Windsor (4, 5), Falstaff says, "I never prospered/ Since I forswore myself at Primero. It is also the game Shakespeare has Henry VIII and the Duke of Suffolk play in Henry VIII, as they await the birth of Anne Boleyn's child, the future Queen Elizabeth 1.
Mark Antony was fond of women as well as games and sports. Brutus describes Antony as one who "is given to sports, wildness and much company" in Julius Caesar (2.1. 89). In Antony and Cleopatra, Octavious says, "From Alexandria / This is our news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes / The lamps of night in revels"(1.4.4).
Billards, a variation of the game known to us today as billiards, is mentioned in Antony and Cleopatra. Pining for her absent Antony, Cleopatra suggests playing billiards with Charmian (2.5.3).
A supposedly innocent fencing match turns murderous at the end of Hamlet. King Claudius and Laertes plot to murder Hamlet and make it seem as if it were a fencing accident. However, their plan is foiled, and virtually all characters of note who gathered to enjoy fencing end up dead.
Rugby is a character in Shakespeare's play, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Although it really has nothing to do with sport other than his name, John Rugby is the servant of the foolish Dr. Caius.
In a number of Shakespeare's plays, the Bard makes references to masques, a special type of dramatic entertainment that was performed at court and involved elaborate scenery and spectacle. In A Midsummer Night's Dream (5.1.39), Duke Theseus says, "What abridgement have you for this evening? / What masque? How shall we beguile/ The lazy time, if not with some delight?"
Shakespeare uses sports in his themes not for sports alone. In addition to serving the trend of his time, he refers to sports which border on reality, sometimes heightening the tragic note in a play. In King Lear, Gloucester is hoodwinked by his bastard son Edmund. It leads to his losing both of his eyes and unfortunate banishment of his legal and loyal son Edgar. After losing eyesight, he philosophizes on the action of divinity, "As flies to the wanton boys, are we to the gods / They kill us for their sport."
It is a cliché to say Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist. He deals with imperial themes but he makes use of all these otherwise trifling games so artistically that they fit in his great design to impart comic relief on one hand; and on the other they also meaningfully define a philosophy of life.

Md Shafiqul Islam, a senior civil servant, studied English literature at Dhaka University.