Forms: 6 barle-breyke, barla-breik, 7 barly-breake, -brake, barley-, barlibreake, 7–8 barlibreak, barley-brake, -break, 9 Sc. barley-brack. [Of uncertain etymology; the first part has been explained from the prec. word, also from the grain barley, because played in a corn-field, or in a stack-yard (Jam.); the second from break as explained below.] An old country game, varying in different parts, but somewhat resembling Prisoner’s Bars, originally played by six persons (three of each sex) in couples; one couple, being left in a middle den termed ‘hell,’ had to catch the others, who were allowed to separate or ‘break’ when hard pressed, and thus to change partners, but had when caught to take their turn as catchers. (See poetical description by Sidney in Arcadia, I. Lamon’s song, and Suckling in Poems (1646), 24.) In Scotland, according to Jamieson, one person had to catch the rest of the company, each of these as taken assisting their captor.
1557. Machyn, Diary (1848), 132. Master parsun … entryd into helle, and ther ded at the barle breyke with alle the wyffe of the sam parryche.
a. 1581. A. Scott, On May. Sum rynnis at barla breikis lyk rammis.
1608. Armin, Nest Ninn. (1842), 56. Like a girle at barley brake, leauing the last couple in hell, away she gads, and neuer lookes behinde her.
1794. Southey, Wat Tyler, I. Wks. II. 24. Since we were boys together And play’d at barley-brake.
1837. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 81. At barley-bracks, we laughin’ chased ilk kimmer we could see.
