The game is up.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim

At objects in an airy height;

The little pleasure of the game

Is from afar to view the flight.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721): To the Hon. Charles Montague.

The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 232.

But war's a game which were their subjects wise

Kings would not play at.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 187.

Whose game was empires and whose stakes were thrones,

Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Age of Bronze. Stanza 3.