Nowadays mouseplay means to take a breather from
work and to escape your boss it comes from the
popular expression "when the cat'
s is away, the mice will play."
Mouseplay stems from the original usage by Shakespeare in 'Henry the Fifth,' in 1599 - "Playing the mouse in absence of the cat" (Act
1,
Scene 2, Page 6, line 195). Older versions include the Latin proverb - "Dum felis dormit, mus gaudet et exsi litantro" – 'when the cat sleep, the mouse rejoices and exits the hole' and the French version - "Ou chat na rat regne" -
'Where there is no cat, the rat is king'