[109] Heller, Vom Ursprung der Spielkarten, in der Geschichte der Holzschneidekunst, s. 307.

[112] Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. i, p. 483.—The passage relating to cards, in the act referred to, was pointed out to the Hon. D. Barrington by Mr. John Nichols. Gough, in his 'Observations on the Invention of Cards,' in the Eighth Volume of Archæologia, says, that Mr. Le Neve produced before the Society of Antiquaries a minute to show that cards were manufactured in England before the 1st of Edward IV; for then a person had his name from his ancestor having been a card-maker. Mr. Gough observes that the ancestor of this person—Hugh Cardmaker, prior of St. John the Baptist, at Bridgenorth—was probably a maker of cards for dressing flax or wool. A Karter—a wool-comber—occurs in the town-books of Nuremberg, in 1397.

[113] Fenn's Paston Letters, vol. ii, p. 333, edit. 1778.

[114] "The kynge came privily to the said castell [of Newbattle], and entred within the chammer with a small company, where he founde the quene playing at the CARDES."—Leland's Collectanea, vol. iii, Appendix, p. 284. Cited by Warton, in his History of English Poetry, who also observes that cards are mentioned in a statute of Henry VII, in the year 1496.

[115] Private Life of James IV of Scotland, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, Nos. 9 and 10, 1832.

[116] "Les cartes, comme tout ce qui tient aux arts, out une origine Italienne: c'est à Venise ou à Florence que les Grecs réfugiés de Constantinople les ont d'abord fait connaître."—Annuaire Historique pour I'année 1837, p. 188.

[117] Ducange, Glossarium ad Scriptores mediæ; et infimæ Græcitatis. Folio, 1688. Under the words Αζαρια and Χαρτια. Ταυλια is merely a different mode of spelling ταβλια—tabulæ, tables, a kind of backgammon board with its appendages.

[118] The following is Mons. Brunet's prefatory note to his brochure, which was published at Paris, in 1842. "Les curieux, les amateurs de livres recherchent avec empressement tout ce qui a rapport aux cartes; c'est ce qui m'a porté à consacrer un instant de loisir à la traduction de ce que je venais de lire, à cet égard, dans un ouvrage allemand, vaste répertoire de I'érudition bibliographique la plus étendue (Lehrbuch einer Literargeschichte der berühmtesten Volker des Mittelalters, von J.G.T. Grasse, Dresden und Leipsig, Arnoldische Buchhandlung, 1842, Band II, s. 879-85); j'ajoute quelques indications nouvelles à cet aperçu, que je n'imprime d'ailleurs qu'à quelques exemplaires."

[119] Geiler's second bell—his peal consists of seven—rings to this tune. "Secunda nola est: ludcre alea dissimilibus. Tangit hæc nola feminas nobiles et sacerdotes: feminas, inquam, quæ immiscent se turbis virorum et cum eis ludunt, contra c. ii de judiciis, lib. vi; sacerdotes et prelatos ludentes cum laicis,—laici sunt clericis oppido infesti, unde scandalizantur; nobiles qui ludunt cum nebulonibus et lenonibus, ut in speculo nostro vulgari habes."—Speculum Fatuorum, auctore Joanne Geiler de Keisersberg, concionatore Argentorense, sect. LXXVII. Lusorum turba (Spiel Narre). Edit. Strasburg, 1511. It may here be observed that Geiler's bells are intended by himself for the caps of "Spiel Narre"—gambling fools.

[120] "Logica Memorativa: Chartiludium logice, sive dialectice memoria; et novus Petri Hyspani textus emendatus. Cum jucundo pictasmatis exercitio: eruditi viri F. Thomæ Murner, ordinis minorum, theologie doctoris eximii." 4to, Strasburg, 1509 Leber says that the book was first printed at Cracow in 1507; and that an edition of it, in octavo, was printed at Paris in 1629. Murner was one of Luther's early opponents; and one of the pamphlets which was published during their controversy bears the following title: "Antwort dem Murner, uff scine frag, ob der Künig von Engellant ein lügner sey, oder der götliche doctor Mart. Luther, 1523." "An answer to Mumer on his question, 'Whether the King of England, or the reverend Doctor Martin Luther, is a liar?'"

[121] "Chartiludium Institute summarie, doctore Thoma Murner memorante et ludente." 4to, Strasburg, 1518. A copy of this book was sold at Dr. Kloss's sale in 1835; and in the Catalogue, No. 2579, we are informed that "this very rare and curious volume contains very many wood-engravings, illustrative of four distinct games played by the ancients with paper." Such games, we may presume, as are played at with the Statutes at large. If Murner understood any game, he must have learnt it subsequent to the publication of his Logical Card-play; and if he were able to make it subservient to the explanation of anything else, he must have improved himself greatly between 1508 and 1518.

[122] The Voyage of Columbus, in Poems by Samuel Rogers. Mr. Rogers's note on the passage above quoted is: "Among those who went with Columbus were many adventurers and gentlemen of the court. Primero was then the game in fashion. See Vega, p. 2, lib. iii, c. 9."

[123] "Y porque decimos, que estos Españoles jugavan, y no hemos dicho con què; es de saber, que despues que en la sangrienta battalla de Manvila los quemaron los naypes, que llevavan con todo lo demàs que alli perdieron, hacian naypes de pergamino, y los pintavan à las mil maravillas; porque en qualquiera necessidad que se los ofrescia, se animavan à hacer lo que avian menester. Y salian con ello, como si toda su vida huvieran sido Maestros de aquel oficio; y porque no podian, ò no querian hacer tantos, quantos eran menester, hicieron los que bastavan, sirviendo por horas limitadas, andando por rueda entre los jugadores; de donde (ò de otro paso semejante) podriamos decir, que huviese nascido el refràn, que entre los Tahures se usa decir jugando: Demonos priesa señores, que vienen por los naypes; y como los que hacian los nuestros eran de cuero, duravan por peñas."—La Florida del Inca [Garcilasso de la Vega], Parte Primera del Libro Quinto, capitulo i, p. 198. Folio, Madrid, 1723.

[124] "Also I order and command that there be a care that all soldiers have their room clean, and unpestered of chests, and other things, without consenting in any case to have cards; and, if there be any, to be taken away presently: neither permit them to the mariners; and if the soldiers have any, let me be advertised."—Orders set down by the Duke of Medina to be observed in the Voyage towards England, 1588; reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany.

[125] Strutt, who quotes this passage in his Sports and Pastimes, refers to Sir William Forrest, and Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. iii, sect. iii, p. 311. Sir William Forrest's work, entitled 'The Poesye of Princelye Practise,' was written towards the conclusion of the reign of Henry VIII, and presented to Edward VI. The author allows that a king, after dinner, may for a while "repose" himself at tables, chess, or cards; but denies the latter to labouring people. Strutt says that the work is in manuscript, in the Royal Library.

[126] Sir Robert Baker, in his Chronicle, states that in the eighteenth year of Henry VIII a proclamation was made against all unlawful games, so that in all places, tables, dice, cards, and bowls were taken and burnt; but that this order continued not long, for young men, being thus restrained, "fell to drinking, stealing conies, and other worse misdemeanours."

[127] Furny—French, fourni—prepared, sorted, furnished, in complete fashion, in full equipage. The card was a coat card, in a certain sense, though certainly not an honour.

[128] For some account of the author of this satire, the reader is referred to Annals of the English Bible, by Christopher Anderson, vol. i, pp. 63, 116, 136, 137. 8vo, 1845.

[130] The charge of gaming is frequently alleged against the more wealthy members of the Roman Catholic clergy by writers who were in favour of the Reformation. "Item les grosses sommes de deniers qu'ils jouent ordinairement, soit à la Prime, à la Chance, à la Paulme, n'ont pas esté mises en compte. Qui est le bon Papiste qui pourroit se contenter de voir son Prelat jouër et perdre pour une après disnee, quatre, cinq, et six mil escus: pour une reste de Prime, avoir couché cinq cens escus; pour un Aflac en perdre mille; que la pluspart des episcopaux, jusques aux moindres chanoines, tiennent berland ouvert à jouër à tous jeux prohibez et defendus, non seulement par le droit canon, mais par les ordonnances du roi? L'exces y est bien tel, qu'on monstrera qu'au simple chanoine, en achapt de cartes et de dez, a employé durant une année cent, et six vingts escus, compris la chandelle et le vin de ceux qui la mouchoyent."—Le Cabinet du Roy de France, dans lequel il y a trois Perles precieuses d'inestimable valeur, p. 65. 12mo, 1581. This virulent attack on the French clergy is ascribed by Mons. Le Duchat to Nicolas Froumenteau; and by L'Isle de Sales to Nicolas Barnaud.

[131] Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii, p. 500.

[132] The Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland were the principal leaders of the Rebellion, or "Rising in the North," in 1569.

[133] His host was George Pyle, of Millheugh, on Ousenam water, about four miles south-eastward from Jedburgh. The Earl of Westmoreland was then staying with Kerr of Fairniherst.

[134] Hector, or Eckie of Harlaw, as he is called in the Border Minstrelsy, delivered up the Earl of Northumberland, who had sought refuge with him, to the Regent Murray.

[135] The name of the person against whom the bill was filed was Henry Robson, probably of Falstone. His non-appearance seems to have caused the dispute between the wardens, Sir J. Foster and Sir J. Carmichael, which ended in a general combat between their followers.

[138] "Il existe en Belgique plusieurs tableaux attribués à Jean Van Eyck, qu'il est inutile de désigner, et qui par les costumes des personnages dénotent une postériorité d'un grand nombre d'années. Nantes en possède un, également attribué à ce maître, dont les costumes sont ceux du règne de Charles VIII. Le sujet, sous le titre de Philippe-le-Bon consultant une tireuse de cartes, en a été donné dans le Magasin Pittoresque, année 1842, p. 324."—Quelques Mots sur la Gravure au Millésime de 1418, p. 13. Philippe-le-Bon, Duke of Burgundy, died in 1467; John Van Eyck in 1445.

[139] Though the ten is one of the cards employed in Marcolini's System of Fortune-telling, it appears to have been generally omitted in the packs of cards used by the Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century. Leber, who says that he had examined "un grand nombre de tours de cartes" described in the pamphlets of the most famous Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century, yet refers only to two works on the subject printed before 1600; one of them entitled 'Opera nuova non più vista, nella quale potrai facilmente imparare molti giochi di mano. Composta da Francesco di Milano, nominato in tutto il mondo il Bagatello.' 8vo, circa 1550. The other, 'Giochi di carte bellissimi e di memoria, per Horatio Galasso.' Venetia, 1593. The author of the following work, also referred to by Leber, appears to have been the original "Pimperlimpimp," whose fame as a mountebank physician appears to have been still fresh in the memory of the wits of the reign of Queen Anne: 'Li rari et mirabili Giuochi di Carte, da Alberto Francese, detto Perlimpimpim.' 8vo, Bologna, 1622.

[140] Life of Lord Bacon, p. 5. Lord Bacon relates the circumstances, and a certain curious man's explanation of them, in his Sylva, Century xth, p. 245. Edit. 1631.

[141] Cuffe assisted Colombani in the "editio princeps" of the Greek text of the romance of Daphnis and Chloe, printed at Florence, 4to, 1598.

[142] "Observations on a picture by Zuccaro, from Lord Falkland's collection, supposed to represent the game of Primero. By the Hon. Daines Barrington." In the Archæologia, vol. viii. Mr. Barrington says, "According to tradition in the family, it was painted by Zuccaro, and represented Lord Burleigh playing at cards with three other persons, who from their dress appear to be of distinction, each of them having two rings on the same fingers of both their hands. The cards are marked as at present, and differ from those of more modern times only by being narrower and longer."

[143] Original Letters Illustrative of English History, with Notes by Sir Henry Ellis. Second Series, vol. iii, p. 102.

[144] When the prohibition to play at cards or dice was first introduced into apprentices' indentures I have not been able to learn. It occurs, however, in the form of an indenture for an apprentice in 'A Book of Presidents,' printed about 1565, and said to have been compiled by Thos. Phaer, the translator of the seven first books of the Æneid. In the title-page of his translation, 1558, Phaer describes himself as "Solicitour to the King and Queenes Majesties."

[145] Those injunctions with respect to tavern-haunting and gaming are embodied in the seventy-fifth canon of the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, 1603.

[147] A Briefe Apologie of Poetrie, 1591. Quoted by Mr. P. Cunningham, in his notes to Extracts from Accounts of the Revels, p. 223. In dramatic representations of the game of cards we seem to have preceded the French. In 1676, a comedy by Thomas Corneille, called 'Le Triomphe des Dames,' was acted at Paris, in the theatre of the Hôtel de Guegenaud, and the ballet of the Game of Piquet was one of the interludes. "The four Knaves first made their appearance with their halberts, in order to clear the way. The Kings came in succession, giving their hands to the Queens, whose trains were borne up by four Slaves, the first of whom represented Tennis, the second Billiards, the third Dice, and the fourth Backgammon."—Historical Essays upon Paris. Translated from the French of Mons. de Saintfoix, vol. i, p. 229. Edit. 1766.

[148] In an engraving of St. Peter denying Christ, after a painting by Teniers, two soldiers are seen playing at cards in the hall of the high priest; and, from the chalks on the table, the game appears to be Put.

[149] See Mr. Battle's Opinions on Whist, in Essays by Elia (Charles Lamb).

[150] "The Anatomie of Abuses, containing A Discoverie, or breife summarie of such notable vices and corruptions as now raigne in many Christian countreyes of the world; but especially in the countrey of Ailgna: [Anglia, England.] Together with the most fearefull examples of God's judgements executed upon the wicked for the same, as well in Ailgna of late, as in other places elsewhere. Made Dialogue-wise by Philip Stubs," p. 112. Edit. printed by Richard Jones, 1583.—The Jew's supposition that a thunder-storm was evidence of the divine displeasure at his being about to indulge in a rasher of bacon, is nothing compared with Master Stubbes's announcement of the wrath of heaven against those who indulge in starched collars, fine linen shirts, and velvet breeches.

[151] A Discourse of the most illustrious Prince, Henry, late Prince of Wales. Written in 1626 by Sir Charles Cornwallis. Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany.

[152] 'Tom Tell-troath: or a free Discourse touching the manners of the time.' Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany. The king's "forraygn children" mentioned in this pamphlet are his daughter Elizabeth and her family. Elizabeth was married to Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, the competitor of the Emperor Ferdinand II for the crown of Bohemia.

[153] "The King of Spain, or Gondemar, his ambassador."

[154] This engraving is preserved in a collection of Proclamations, Ballads, &c., formed by the late Joseph Ames, and now in the library of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. For the part played by Bethlem Gabor in the affairs of Europe, between 1618 and 1628, the reader is referred to Schiller's History of the Thirty-Years' War.

[155] "Five-Cards is an Irish game, and is as much played in that kingdom, and that for considerable sums of money, as All-Fours is played in Kent, but there is little analogy between them. There are but two can play at it; and there are dealt five cards a piece.... The five-fingers (alias five of trumps) is the best card in the pack; the ace of hearts is next to that, and the next is the ace of trumps."—The Compleat Gamester, p. 90. Edit. 1709. First printed in 1674.

[156] Malone's Supplemental Observations on Shakspeare, cited by Barrington. Dr. Moore, in his Views of Society and Manners in Italy, mentions the card-playing at the opera at Florence. "I was never more surprised," says he, "than when it was proposed to me to make one of a whist party, in a box which seemed to have been made for the purpose, with a little table in the middle. I hinted that it would be full as convenient to have the party somewhere else; but I was told, good music added greatly to the pleasure of a whist party; that it increased the joy of good fortune, and soothed the affliction of bad."

[157] Numbers, xxvi, 55, 56; Proverbs, xvi, 33; Acts, i, 24-26.

[158] This appears to have been one of the chief grounds of objection against cards and dice-play in Scotland, about a century later. Adam Petrie, "the Scottish Chesterfield," adopts Balmford's conclusion: "Lott is an ordinance whereby God often made known his mind, and therefore ought not to be turned into a play; but Cards and Dice are Lott; therefore they ought not to be turned into a play."—Rules of Good Deportment, or of Good Breeding, printed at Edinburgh, 1710; reprinted 1835.

[159] John Wesley, who sometimes "sought an answer" by lots of this kind, was charged by the Rev. Augustus Toplady with "tossing up for his creed, as porters or chairmen toss up for a halfpenny."—Letter to the Rev. John Wesley, p. 7. Edit. 1770.

[160] Traité du Jeu, où l'on examine les principales questions de Droit naturel et de Morale qui ont du rapport à cette matière. Par Jean Barbeyrac, Professeur en Droit à Groningue. Seconde édition, revue et augmentée. En trois tomes, 12mo. Amsterdam, 1737.

[161] Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, Edward Darcy obtained a patent for the manufacture of cards; and in the reign of James I the importation of cards was prohibited, after 20th July, 1615, as the art of making them was then brought to perfection in this country. As a duty or tax of five shillings for every twelve dozen packs was levied about that time by the authority of the Lord Treasurer, the statement that such a tax was first levied in 1631, in the reign of Charles I, is erroneous. This tax was one of the impositions complained of by the Commons, in the reign of Charles I, "as arbitrary and illegal, being levied without consent of Parliament." I am informed that the first act of parliament imposing a tax on cards was passed in 1711, in the reign of Queen Anne. The company of card-makers was first incorporated by letters patent of Charles I in 1629.—See Singer's Researches, pp. 223, 224, 226, 365.

[162] Observations on the Antiquity of Card-playing, Archæologia, vol. viii.

[163] Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 30. Mons. Leber had in his collection some cards of Jean Volay's manufacture, which were discovered in the boards of a book. Those cards are described in the Catalogue of his books, tom. i, p. 241, Article xvii. There are also cards manufactured by Jean Volay preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, at Paris.

[164] The Netherlands seem to have been famed at an early period for the manufacture of cards. Albert Durer, in the journal which he kept during his visit to those parts in 1521, notes that he bought half a dozen packs for seven stivers: "Item hab umb ein halb dutzet Niederländischer Karten geben 7 Stüber."—Albrecht Dürers Reisejournal, in Von Murr's Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 7ter Theil, s. 96. From a passage in Ascham's Toxophilos, 1545, quoted by Singer, it would appear that the price of cards was then about twopence a pack: "He sayd a payre of cards cost not past ii.d."

[165] The Four Knaves: a series of Satirical Tracts by Samuel Rowlands. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by E. F. Rimbault, Esq. Reprinted for the Percy Society, 1843. For the loan of the cuts of the Four Knaves the publisher is indebted to the Percy Society.

[166] On the word mandilions, Mr. Rimbault has the following note: "Mandiglione, a jacket, a Mandilion?—Florio's New World of Words, ed. 1611. Stubbes (apud Strutt, dress and habits, vol. ii, p. 267) says that it covered the whole body down to the thighs; and Randle Holme describes it as 'a loose hanging garment, much like to our jacket or jumps, but without sleeves, only having holes to put the arms through; yet some were made with sleeves, but for no other use than to hang on the back.'"

[169] The two following are of later date but in the same strain. 'A Murnival of Knaves: or Whiggism plainly display'd, and if not grown shameless, burlesqu'd out of countenance, a Poem. 1683.' 'Win at first, lose at last; or the Game of Cards which were shuffled by President Bradshaw, cut by Col. Hewson the Cobler, and played by Oliver Cromwell and Ireton till the Restoration of Charles II. 1707'—A Murnival, at the game of Gleek, was all the four aces, kings, queens, or knaves.

[170] Poems on State Affairs, vol. iii, p. 25. Edit. 1704. "Tricon is, at cards, that which we now call a gleek of Kings, Queens, Knaves, &c., viz. three of them in one hand together."—Howell's Edition of Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary, 1673. The term Gleek is probably derived from the German Gleich, signifying like; thus the Gleek was a certain number of cards of a like kind. See further illustrations of the word Gleek in Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic Words.

[171] William Maxwell, in a catalogue of his works prefixed to his 'Admirable Prophecies concerning the Church of Rome,' 4to, 1615, inserts the following as one already published: "Jamesanna, or a Pythagorical play at cards, representing the excellency and utility of Union and Concord, with the incommodities of Division and Discorde, dedicated to the most hopefull Prince Charles." He also mentions another work of his, of the same kind, unpublished, written in imitation of More's Utopia. The author informs us, that his grandfather, William Maxwell, son of the Laird of Kirkconnel, was man-at-arms to the Most Christian King, and had the honour to serve the mother of Mary Queen of Scots, and also Mary herself. The Maxwells are still "Lairds of Kirkconnel," in Dumfries-shire. "Fair Kirkconnel Lea," mentioned in the old ballad, "I wish I were where Helen lies," is one of the most beautiful spots in Britain.

[172] Saunt he properly explains by centum, a hundred. Cientos was a Spanish game, resembling Piquet.

[173] Englands Balme: or, Proposals by way of Grievance and Remedy, humbly presented to his Highness and the Parliament; towards the Regulation of the Law and better Administration of Justice. Tending to the great Ease and Benefit of the good People of the Nation. By William Sheppard, Esq. 12mo, 1657. The disregard of such good men as Mr. Sergeant Sheppard for the feelings and opinions of those whom they were pleased to consider bad, and who formed a great majority of the nation, paved the way for the restoration of Charles II.

[174] Though this pamphlet does not treat of the game, but is wholly political, it cannot be doubted that Ombre was well known in England at the time of its publication.

[175] Titus Britannicus: An Essay of History Royal, in the Life and Reign of his late Sacred Majesty, Charles II, of ever blessed and immortal memory. By Aurelian Cook, Gent. p. 296. Edit. 1685. Aurelian is loud in his praises of his Titus for his piety and religion. According to his account, it would seem that in these respects the "Martyr Charles" was nothing to "Old Rowley."

[176] In Heath's Chronicles, a right loyal publication, it is said that Dr. Dorislaus,—the Parliamentary envoy, who was assassinated at the Hague in May, 1649,—was accustomed to play at cards on Sundays at Sir Henry Mildmay's, in Essex.—The Democracy, or pretended free State, being the 2d part of the Brief Chronicle of the late intestine War, p. 435. Edit. 1662.

[177] Basset would seem to have been a common game at the court of France about the same period. "The King (Louis XIV) now seldom or never plays, but contents himself sometimes with looking on; but formerly he hath been engaged, and has lost great sums. Mons. S. rookt him of near a million of livres at Basset by putting false cards upon him, but was imprisoned and banished for it some years."—Dr. Martin Lister, Journey to Paris in the year 1698. In 1691, Louis XIV issued an ordonnance prohibiting Faro, Basset, and other similar games. Whoever should be convicted of playing at any of those games was to be fined a thousand livres; and the person who allowed them to be played in his house incurred a penalty of six thousand livres. Basset and Flush—il Frusso—appear to have been known in Italy in the fifteenth century. They are mentioned by Lorenzo de Medici in his Canti Carnascialeschi, quoted by Singer, Researches, p. 26.

[178] The following is the title of a pack of geographical cards, now lying before me, which appear to have been engraved in the reign of Charles II. "The 52 Counties of England and Wales, geographically described in a pack of Cards, whereunto is added the length, breadth, and circuit of each county, the latitude, situation, and distance from London of the principal Cities, Towns, and Rivers, with other Remarks; as plaine and ready for the playing of all our English Games as any of the common Cards." The heads of the Kings are shown at the top of the maps of Hereford, Monmouth, Middlesex, and Yorkshire; of the Queens at the top of the maps of Durham, Huntingdon, Radnor, and Worcestershire; and of the Knaves at the top of the maps of Anglesey, Gloucester, Leicester, and Rutland. If the deviser had any particular meaning in his assignment of the coat cards, it is not easy to be discovered; though it may be "shrewdly guessed at" as respects Monmouth and York.

[179] Lord Chesterfield is reported to have said to Anstis on one occasion, when the latter was talking to him about heraldry, "You silly man, you do not understand your own foolish business."

[180] Menestrier, Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive, tom. ii, p. 180.

[181] By card-makers the coat cards—King, Queen, and Knave—are technically termed têtes, and the others pips.

[182] "Jeu d'Armoires, où tous les termes du Blazon sont expliqués et rangés par ordre. Dedié à Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne. Se vend à Paris, chez Vallet, dessinateur et graveur du Roy." The privilege to the author, Sieur Gauthier, is dated 15th December, 1686.

[183] "The PUFF COLLUSIVE is the newest of any; for it acts in the disguise of determined hostility. It is much used by bold booksellers and enterprising poets."—The Critic, act i. The "puff collusive" was not an invention of Sheridan's time, but merely the revival of an old trick.

[184] The advertisement of those cards is preserved amongst Bagford's collections, Harleian MSS. No. 5947.

[186] About the same period Moxon, "glancing from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven," published a pack of Astronomical Cards. In the life of Beau Hewitt, in Lucas's Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the most Famous Gamesters and Celebrated Sharpers in the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne, 1714, the Beau is represented as having "most assiduously studied the use of the geometrical playing-cards, set forth by Monsieur Des Cartes, the famous French philosopher and mathematician; but that finding the demonstrations of that great man to be founded on no certainty, he resolved to try his luck at dice." It is said that Pascal's attention was first directed to the calculation of chances in consequence of some questions proposed to him by the Chevalier de Meré, a great gamester.

[187] In the text, Beast is said to be called by the French "La Bett" [La Bête].

[188] The following appear to have been the principal games at cards played in England before the reign of Charles II: the game of Trumps, in the time of Edward VI; Primero, Maw, Lodam, Noddy, La Volta, and Bankerout, mentioned by Sir John Harrington; and Gleek, Crimp, Mount-Saint, Knave out of Doors, Post and Pair, and Ruff, mentioned in Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays.—See Barrington and Bowle on Card-playing, in the Archæologia, vol. viii.

[189] "Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he found himself weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated; and he continued to divert himself, as usual, with correcting his own works for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with the conversation of his friends; and sometimes, in the evening, with a party at his favorite game of whist."—Dr. Adam Smith, Letter to Wm. Strahan.

[190] Whist, a poem in twelve Cantos. By Alexander Thomson, Esq., p. 21. Second Edition, 1792.

[191] Mr. Barrington seems to have obtained his information respecting the succession of Whist to Quadrille from an authority whom he did not like to acknowledge, namely, Sir Calculation Puzzle, in the Humours of Whist. "Egad, you remind me, Sir John, of an observation I have made too; which is, that as long as Quadrille and Ombre were the games in vogue, we certainly were under French influence. Whereas since Whist has come in fashion, you see our politics are improved upon us."—The Humours of Whist. A Dramatic Satire, as acted every day at White's, and other Coffee-houses and Assemblies. 8vo, 1743.

[193] "'The clergymen used to play at Whisk and Swabbers.'—Swift."

[194] "Whist is a game not much differing from this" [English Ruff and Honours].—Compleat Gamester, p. 86. Edit. 1709. "Triomphe, the card-game called Ruffe, or Trump."—Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary. Edit. 1611.

[195] Taylor's Motto: Et habeo, et careo, et curo.

[196] The writer of an article on Whist, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 48, discussing the etymology of the name, says: "The Irish injunction, Whisht—'be quiet,' may be thought to require consideration. It is the exact form of the word, barring only the pure s; but this is not the Sibboleth, or touchstone, here. At the utmost, the difficulty is but a dialectical variety, elegantiæ causa, for the sake of elegance; just as shoup, for soup."—Nares, in his Glossary, under the word Whist, an exclamation enjoining silence, says of the game, "That the name of Whist is derived from this, is known, I presume, to all who play, or do not play."

[197] A Whisk, a small kind of besom: a swab or swabber, a kind of mop.

[198] "Whist; by an Amateur: its History and Practice," p. 28, 1843.—A beautiful little book, with appropriate illustrations, designed by Kenny Meadows, and engraved on wood by Orrin Smith and W. J. Linton.

[199] "Oldsworth upbraided the late Earl of Godolphin with having a race-horse, and the Earl of Sunderland with having a library, very honestly insinuating that the former made an ill use of the one, and the latter no use at all of the other."—The Censor censured; or Cato turned Cataline, a pamphlet, published in 1722.

[200] "Mr. Pope's beautiful description of the manner of playing this game."—Seymour's Court Gamester, 1722.—"It is Belinda's game in the Rape of the Lock, where every incident in the whole deal is so described, that when Ombre is forgotten (and it is almost so already) it may be revived with posterity from that admirable poem."—Barrington on the Antiquity of Card-playing. Pope's Grotto, and Hampton Court, excite in the mind of Miss Mitford "vivid images of the fair Belinda and of the inimitable game at Ombre."—Our Village, fourth series.

[201] Serious Reflections on the dangerous tendency of the common practice of Card-playing; especially the game of All-Fours, as it hath been publickly played at Oxford in this present year of our Lord, 1754.

[202] The Princesses were the daughters of George Prince of Wales, afterwards George II. One of them, Amelia, in her old maidenhood, was a regular visitor at Bath, seeking health at the pump, and amusement at the card-table.

[203] About 1721, a pack of cards was published, ridiculing the principal bubble schemes of the day, but more especially the South Sea project. About the same time, a set of caricature cards, ridiculing the Mississippi scheme, was published in Holland.

[204] "The Saxons called it Akeman-ceaster, which has been interpreted the City of Valetudinarians."—Bath Guide. It is worthy of remark that most watering-places much visited by wealthy invalids, abroad as well as at home, are also the haunts of gamesters. "Where the carrion is, there are the vultures."

[205] "At this period it was the fashion for the ladies to adorn their heads, before they entered the bath, with all the lures of dress. By these means their charms were set off to such advantage, that the husband of a lady, who, with Nash and other spectators, was admiring the female dabblers, told his wife 'she looked like an angel, and he wished to be with her.' Nash seized the favorable occasion to establish his reputation as a man of gallantry and spirit, and therefore suddenly taking the gentleman by the collar and the waistband of his breeches, soused him over the parapet into the bath."—Life of Beau Nash.

[206] An analogous case, at cards, of begging for a point in order to inspire the adversary with an erroneous opinion of the beggar being weak, is thus related by Paschasius Justus of Pope Leo X. His holiness once, when playing at a game similar to Primero, held such cards as made it impossible for him to lose, except from the circumstance of his being the last player; but as his adversary, whose turn it was to declare first, proposed a heavy stake, he concluded that he held as good cards as himself. Being reluctant to yield the game, "give me a point," he cried, "and I will see you." The other, not suspecting that the Pope held such capital cards, readily assented, and consequently lost.—The narrator says that he could applaud the trick, if his holiness had returned the loser his stake.—Pasc. Justi Aleæ, lib. i, p. 50. Edit. Neapoli Nemetum [Neustadt, in the diocese of Spires], 1617.

[207] The Literary Register, or Weekly Miscellany, p. 296, Newcastle on Tyne, 1771.

[208] "Uninflammable as the times were, they carried a great mixture of superstition. Masquerades had been abolished, because there had been an earthquake at Lisbon; and when the last jubilee-masquerade was exhibited at Ranelagh, the alehouses and roads to Chelsea were crowded with drunken people, who assembled to denounce the judgments of God on persons of fashion, whose greatest sin was dressing themselves ridiculously. A more inconvenient reformation, and not a more sensible one, was set on foot by societies of tradesmen, who denounced to the magistrate all bakers that baked or sold bread on Sundays. Alum, and the variety of spurious ingredients with which bread, and, indeed, all wares, were adulterated all the week round, gave not half so much offence as the vent of the chief necessary of life on a Sunday."—Earl of Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 283.

[209] The king not only allowed of gaming at the groom porter's at the Christmas holidays, but used to pay a formal visit there himself at the commencement of the "season."

[210] From an advertisement in the public papers, subsequently referred to by the author, it would appear that this compliment to the secretaries of state was ironical. It is there stated that a set of gentlemen of character and fortune had determined to enforce the acts of parliament respecting unlawful games of play, whether with cards or otherwise; and that they were firmly resolved that neither the sanctuary at White's, nor the more sacred mansion of a secretary of state, should prevent their putting their design in execution. It is not surprising that cards should be a favorite game with diplomatists, seeing that their regular vocation consists in cutting and shuffling, and that their grand game is usually won by a trick. Talleyrand was a capital player both at cards and protocols. Espartero, when Regent of Spain, is said to have played at cards with the ministers as he lay in bed. Cabral, the Portuguese minister, is also a great card-player.

[211] This collection of caricatures is contained in a small volume of a square form, like that of a pocket dictionary. In the title, the work is said to have been "digested and published by M. Darly, at the Acorn in Ryder's Court, Cranbourn Alley, Leicester Fields." Subsequently, Darly published another volume, of the same size, entitled 'A Political and Satirical History, displaying the unhappy Influence of Scotch Prevalency in the years 1761, 1762, and 1763; being a regular series of ninety-six humourous, transparent, and entertaining prints. With an explanatory Key to every print.' These two volumes contain the most numerous and interesting series of political caricatures that had hitherto appeared in England. The caricatures which appeared in the Political Register from 1767 to 1772 may be considered as a continuation of the series published by Darly.

[212] In the same volume there is another plate of the same kind, showing the coat cards for 1756.

[213] A Critical Enquiry regarding the real Author of the Letters of Junius, proving them to have been written by Lord Viscount Sackville. By George Coventry, p. 34, 1825. Copies of two of the caricatures on Lord George Sackville are given in this work.

[214] At the foot of the title-page of the second volume, for the years 1761-2-3, there is a notice, that "sketches or hints, sent post-paid [to the publisher], will have due honour shewn them."

[216] Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect, by R. Anderson. An explanation of a few terms in the above verses will render them more intelligible to the reader who has the misfortune to be unacquainted with the Cumberland dialect. Clipt and heeled, prepared for the sport, like cocks for fighting. Lish, sprightly, active. Cuttered, cooed, like billing doves. Stour, dust. Lanter, three-card loo. Caird-lakers, card-players. Lanter, or lant, so common in Cumberland and Northumberland, appears to have been unknown to a deservedly high authority on all sports and games: "The editor does not know the game of Lant."—Bell's Life in London, 4th March, 1838.

[217] Some curious particulars—somewhat exaggerated—respecting certain great card-players of this period will be found in 'The Adventures of a Guinea.'

[218] An Address to Persons of Fashion relating to Balls: with a few occasional Hints concerning Play-houses, Card-tables, &c. By the Author of Pietas Oxoniensis. Sixth edition, 1771.

[219] "The causes of infidelity are various. Before the improved sagacity of Dr. Rennell had discovered that it owed its origin to Popery, his wisdom had detected its source, artfully lurking in the 'unmeaning combinations' of a pack of cards."—Reflections on the Spirit of Religious Controversy, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, of Hexham, England, p. 192. 12mo, New York, 1808.