ins the bias or weight that inclines the bowl in running from
a direct course, being sometimes called the eye.

[779] Rub is still a term at the game, expressive of the
movement of the balls. Cf. "King Lear" (ii. 2), and "Love's
Labour's Lost" (iv. 1), where Boyet, speaking of the game,
says: "I fear too much rubbing."

A further reference to this game occurs in the following dialogue in
"Richard II." (iii. 4):

"_Queen._ What sport shall we devise here in this garden,
To drive away the heavy thought of care?

_1 Lady._ Madam, we'll play at bowls.

_Queen._'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs,
And that my fortune runs against the bias"

--the _bias_, as stated above, being a weight inserted in one side of a
bowl, in order to give it a particular inclination in bowling. "To run
against the bias," therefore, became a proverb. Thus, to quote another
instance, in the "Taming of the Shrew" (iv. 5) Petruchio says:

"Well, forward, forward! thus the bowl should run,
And not unluckily against the bias."

And in "Troilus and Cressida" (iv. 5), the term "bias-cheek" is used to
denote a cheek swelling out like the bias of a bowl.[780]

[780] Halliwell-Phillipps' "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 43.

_Cards._ Some of the old terms connected with card-playing are curious,
a few of which are alluded to by Shakespeare. Thus, in "King Lear" (v.
1), Edmund says:

"And hardly shall I carry out my side,"

alluding to the card table, where to carry out a side meant to carry out
the game with your partner successfully. So, "to set up a side" was to
become partners in the game; "to pull or pluck down a side" was to lose
it.[781]

[781] Staunton's "Shakespeare," vol. iii. p. 592.

A lurch at cards denoted an easy victory. So, in "Coriolanus" (ii. 2),
Cominius says: "he lurch'd all swords of the garland," meaning, as
Malone says, that Coriolanus gained from all other warriors the wreath
of victory, with ease, and incontestable superiority.

A pack of cards was formerly termed "a deck of cards," as in "3 Henry
VI." (v. 1):

"The king was slily finger'd from the deck."

Again, "to vie" was also a term at cards, and meant particularly to
increase the stakes, and generally to challenge any one to a contention,
bet, wager, etc. So, Cleopatra (v. 2), says:

"nature wants stuff
To vie strange forms with fancy."

_Cherr