but adds, that "syttynge pastymes are seldom found good, especially in the day-time;" he therefore advises the pursuit of those that afforded both air and exercise. [965] In another part of his poem he speaks in strong terms against the practice of card-playing, as productive of idleness, especially when it is followed by the labouring people, in places of common resort:
Forrest's manuscript is in the Royal Library, [967] and at the commencement of the poem he is represented presenting it to king Edward VI. The author of an old morality, entitled Hycke Scorner, [968] written probably some time before this poem by Forrest, has placed the card-players with such company as evinces he had not a good opinion of their morals:
And also in Barclay's translation of the Ship of Fooles, by Sebastian Brant, printed by Pynson in 1508, are these lines:
It is not, however, necessary to produce any further evidence from the writers of the former times to prove the evil tendency of card-playing, when it is indulged beyond the limits of discretion. Too many instances of ruin and destruction may be brought forward in the present day to convince us of the justness of their censures.
XXIII.—ANCIENT CARDS.
The early specimens of playing-cards that have been produced, differ very little in their form from those now used. This form is certainly the most convenient for the purposes assigned to them, and has been most generally adopted. We shall, however, prove, that it was subject to variation. The figures and devices that constitute the different suits of the cards seem anciently to have depended upon the taste and invention of the card-makers; and they did not bear the least resemblance to those in present use.
It has been observed, that outlines made upon blocks of wood were stamped upon the cards, and afterwards filled up by the hand; but, soon after the invention of engraving upon copper, the devices were produced by the graver, and sufficiently finished, so that the impressions did not require any assistance from the pencil. It appears also, that the best artists of the time were employed for this purpose. I am exceedingly happy to have it in my power to lay before my readers a curious specimen of ancient engraved cards, in the possession of Francis Douce, esq., with whose permission they are added to this work. I have chosen one from each of the different suits, namely, the King of Columbines, the Queen of Rabbits, the Knave of Pinks, and the Ace of Roses; which answered to the spades, the clubs, the diamonds, and the hearts, of the moderns. The annexed engravings are of the same size as the originals. They are nearly square, and, originally, I have no doubt but they were perfectly so.
Upon the other cards belonging to the pack the number of the flowers or animals answered to the pips at present, with the addition of numeral figures corresponding with the devices, that they might be readily distinguished without the trouble of counting them. The originals of these cards, I make no doubt, are the work of Martin Schoen, a well-known and justly celebrated German artist; and Mr. Douce is in possession of part of another set, which evidently appear to be the production of Israel Van Mecheln, who was contemporary with Schoen. Mecheln outlived Martin Schoen a considerable time; the latter died in 1486, and the former in 1523. The earliest print that I have seen by Mecheln with a date is 1480; but he practised the art of engraving some time prior to that period.
A set or pack of cards, but not equally ancient with those above mentioned, were in the possession of Dr. Stukeley: the four suits upon them consisted of bells, of hearts, of leaves, and of acorns; by which, the doctor imagined, were represented the four orders of men among us: the bells are such as are usually tied to the legs of the hawks, and denoted the nobility; the hearts were intended for the ecclesiastics; the leaves alluded to the gentry, who possess lands, woods, manors, and parks; the acorns signified the farmers, peasants, woodmen, park-keepers, and hunters. But this definition will, I trust, be generally considered as a mere effusion of fancy. It is remarkable that in these cards there are neither queens nor aces; but the former are supplied by knights, the latter have no substitute. Dr. Stukeley's cards were purchased at his sale by Mr. Tuttet, and again at his sale by Mr. Gough, in whose possession they now remain. [969] The last gentleman has given a full description of them in a paper upon the subject of card-playing, in the Archæologia. [970] The figured cards, by us denominated court cards, were formerly called coat cards; and originally, I conceive, the name implied coated figures, that is, men and women who wore coats, in contradistinction to the other devices of flowers and animals not of the human species. The pack or set of cards, in the old plays, is continually called a pair of cards; which has suggested the idea that anciently two packs of cards were used, a custom common enough at present in playing at quadrille; one pack being laid by the side of the player who is to deal the next time. But this supposition rests entirely upon the application of the term itself, without any other kind of proof whatever: and seems, indeed, to be entirely overturned by a passage in a very old play entitled The longer thou livest the more Foole thou art; in which Idleness desires Moros the clown to look at "his booke," and shows him "a paire of cardes." [971] In a comedy called A Woman killed with Kindness, a pair of cards and counters to play with are mentioned.
XXIV.—GAMES FORMERLY PLAYED WITH CARDS.
Primero is reckoned among the most ancient games of cards known to have been played in England; each player, we are told, had four cards dealt to him one by one; the seven was the highest card in point of number that he could avail himself of, which counted for twenty-one; the six counted for sixteen, the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same; but the two, the three, and the four, for their respective points only. The knave of hearts was commonly fixed upon for the quinola, which the player might make what card or suit he thought proper; if the cards were of different suits the highest number won the primero, if they were all of one colour he that held them won the flush. [972]
Prime, mentioned by Sir John Harrington in his satirical description of the fashionable court games, published in 1615, the hon. Daines Barrington thinks was not the same as primero; he has not, however, specified the difference between them. The poet says,
Trump. A game thus denominated in the old plays is perhaps of equal antiquity with primero, and at the latter end of the sixteenth century was very common among the lower classes of people. Dame Chat, in Gammer Gurton's Needle, says to Dicon, "we be set at trump, man, hard by the fire, thou shalt set upon the king;" and afterwards to her maid,
Trump is thought to have borne some resemblance to the modern game of whist.
Gresco is mentioned in conjunction with primero in the comedy of Eastward Hoe; [974] "he would play his hundred pounds at gresco and primero as familiarly as any bright piece of crimson of them all."
Sir John Harrington, after having mentioned prime, proceeds to enumerate the games that succeeded in the following manner:
Gleek is mentioned with primero in Green's Tu quoque, where one of the characters proposes to play at twelve-penny gleek, but the other insists upon making it for a crown at least.
Coeval with gleek we find Mount Saint, or more properly Cent, in Spanish Cientos, or hundred, the number of points that win the game. Thus in a play by Lewis Machin, called the Dumb Knight, the third edition printed in 1608, the queen says of this game, "the name is taken from hundreds;" and afterwards to Philocles, "you are a double game, and I am no less; there is an hundred, and all cards made but one knave." [978] Mount Saint was played by counting, and probably did not differ much from Picquet, or picket, as it was formerly written, which is said to have been played with counters, and to have been introduced in France about the middle of the seventeenth century. Picket is mentioned in Flora's Vagaries, printed in 1670.
New Cut is mentioned in A Woman killed with Kindness, a play written by Thomas Heywood, third edition, 1617, where one of the characters says, "if you will play at new cut, I am soonest hitter of any one heere for a wager."
Knave out of Doors occurs also in the same play, together with Ruff, which is proposed to be played with honours; double ruff, and English ruff, with honours, are mentioned in the Complete Gamester, published in 1674, and is distinguished from French ruff.
Lansquenet is a French game, and took its name from the Lansquenets, or light German troops, employed by the kings of France in the fifteenth century. [979]
Basset, said by Dr. Johnson to have been invented at Venice, was a very fashionable game towards the close of the seventeenth century.
Ombre was brought into England by Catherine of Portugal, queen to Charles II.
Quadrille, a modern game, bears great analogy to ombre, with the addition of a fourth player, which is certainly a great improvement.
Whist, or as it was formerly written, whisk, is a game now held in high estimation. At the commencement of last century, according to Swift, it was a favourite pastime with clergymen, who played the game with swabbers; these were certain cards by which the holder was entitled to part of the stake, in the same manner that the claim is made for the aces at quadrille. Whist, in its present state of improvement, may properly be considered as a modern game, and was not, says the hon. Daines Barrington, played upon principles till about fifty years ago, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrington's paper on card-playing in the Archæologia, was published in 1787, and the author says that the first mention he finds of the game of whist is in the Beaux Stratagem, a comedy by Geo. Farquhar, pub. A. D. 1707. He also thinks that whist might have originated from the old game of trump. Cotgrave explains the French word triomphe in this manner; the game called ruff, or trump; also the ruff, or trump in it.
To the games already mentioned we may add the following: Put, and the High Game; Plain Dealing, Wit and Reason, Costly Colours, Five Cards, Bone Ace, [980] Queen Nazareen, Lanterloo, Penneech, Art of Memory, Beast, Cribbage, and All Fours. Nearly all these games may be found in a small book entitled the Complete Gamester, with the directions how to play them. Crimp, mentioned in the Spectator, [981] I take to be a game played with the cards, and one might be led to think the same of Roulet by the wording of the act 18 Geo. II. by which it is prohibited. The words are, "And whereas a certain pernicious game, called Roulet, or Roly-poly, is daily practised," the act then directs "that no place shall be kept for playing at the said game of roulet, or roly-poly, or any other game with cards or dice," &c.
XXV.—THE GAME OF GOOSE—AND OF THE SNAKE.
In addition to the pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages, I shall produce two or three more; and they are such as require no skill in the performance, but depend entirely upon chance for the determination of the contest.
We have a childish diversion usually introduced at Christmas time, called the Game of Goose. This game may be played by two persons; but it will readily admit of many more; it originated, I believe, in Germany, and is well calculated to make children ready at reckoning the produce of two given numbers. The table for playing at goose is usually an impression from a copper-plate pasted upon a cartoon about the size of a sheet almanack, and divided into sixty-two small compartments arranged in a spiral form, with a large open space in the midst marked with the number sixty-three; the lesser compartments have singly an appropriate number from one to sixty-two inclusive, beginning at the outmost extremity of the spiral lines. At the commencement of the play, every one of the competitors puts a stake into the space at No. 63. There are also different forfeitures in the course of the game that are added, and the whole belongs to the winner. At No. 5 is a bridge which claims a forfeit at passing; at 19, an alehouse where a forfeit is exacted and to stop two throws; at 30, a fountain where you pay for washing; at 42, a labyrinth which carries you back to 23; at 52, the prison where you must rest until relieved by another casting the same throw; at 58, the grave whence you begin the game again; and at 61, the goblet where you pay for tasting. [982] The game is played with two dice, and every player throws in his turn as he sits at the table: he must have a counter or some other small mark which he can distinguish from the marks of his antagonists, and according to the amount of the two numbers thrown upon the dice he places his mark; that is to say, if he throws a four and a five, which amount to nine, he places his mark at nine upon the table, moving it the next throw as many numbers forward as the dice permit him, and so on until the game be completed, namely, when the number sixty-three is made exactly; all above it the player reckons back, and then throws again in his turn. If the second thrower at the beginning of the game casts the same number as the first, he takes up his piece, and the first player is obliged to begin the game again. If the same thing happens in the middle of the game, the first player goes back to the place the last came from. It is called the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth compartment in succession a goose is depicted, and if the cast thrown by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the number of his throw.
We have also the Game of Snake, and the more modern Game of Matrimony, with others of the like kind; formed upon the same plan as that of the goose, but none of them, according to my opinion, are in the least improved by the variations.
XXVI.—CROSS AND PILE.
Cross and pile, or with us head or tail, is a silly pastime well enough known among the lowest and most vulgar classes of the community, and to whom it is at present very properly confined; formerly, however, it held a higher rank, and was introduced at the court. Edward II. was partial to this and such like frivolous diversions, and spent much of his time in the pursuit of them. In one of his wardrobe rolls we meet with the following entries: "Item, paid to Henry, the king's barber, for money which he lent to the king to play at cross and pile, five shillings. Item, paid to Pires Barnard, usher of the king's chamber, money which he lent the king, and which he lost at cross and pile; to Monsieur Robert Wattewille eightpence." [983]
A halfpenny is generally now used in playing this game; but any other coin with a head impressed on one side will answer the purpose: the reverse of the head being called the tail without respect to the figure upon it, and the same if it was blank. Anciently the English coins were stamped on one side with a cross. One person tosses the halfpenny up and the other calls at pleasure head or tail; if his call lies uppermost when the halfpenny descends and rests upon the ground, he wins; and if on the contrary, of course he loses. Cross and pile is evidently derived from a pastime called Ostrachinda, Οστρακινδα, known in ancient times to the Grecian boys, and practised by them upon various occasions; having procured a shell, it was seared over with pitch on one side for distinction sake, and the other side was left white; a boy tossed up this shell and his antagonist called white or black, Νυξ et ημερα, (literally night and day), as he thought proper, and his success was determined by the white or black part of the shell being uppermost.