The general opinion respecting the origin of playing-cards is, that they
were first made for the amusement of Charles VI. of France, at the time
he was afflicted with a mental derangement, which commenced in 1392, and
continued for several years. In proof of this supposition, an article in
the treasury registers belonging to that monarch is quoted, which states
that a payment of fifty-six sols was made to Jacquemin Gringonneur,
painter, for three packs of cards gilded and painted with divers colours
and different devices, to be carried to the king for his diversion.
In Spain, as early as A.D. 1387, John I., king of Castile, in an edict,
forbade playing of cards and dice in his dominions. The provost of
Paris, January 22, A.D. 1397, published an ordinance, prohibiting the
manufacturing part of the people from playing at tennis, dice, cards,
&c. which has inclined several modern writers upon this subject to refer
the invention of cards from France to Spain; and the names of some of
the cards, as well as of many of the most ancient games, being evidently
derived from the Spanish language, are justly considered as strong
corroborating arguments in favour of such an opinion.
A very intelligent writer upon the origin of engraving, Baron Heineken,
asserts, that playing-cards were invented in Germany, where they were
used towards the latter end of the fourteenth century; but his reasons
are by no means conclusive. He says they were known there as early as
the year 1376.
At the time that cards were first introduced, they were drawn and
painted by the hand without the assistance of a stamp or plate; it
follows of course that much time was required to complete a set or pack
of cards; and the price they bore, no doubt, was adequate to the labour
bestowed upon them, which necessarily must have enhanced their value
beyond the purchase of the under classes of the people. For this reason
it is, I presume, that card-playing, though it might have been known in
England, was not much practised until such time as inferior sets of
cards, proportionably cheap, were produced for the use of the
commonalty, which seems to have been the case when Edward IV. ascended
the throne, for in 1463, early in his reign, an act was established, on
a petition from the card-makers of the city of London, prohibiting the
importation of playing-cards; and soon after that period card-playing
became a very general pastime.
The increasing demand for these objects of amusement, it is said,
suggested the idea of cutting the outlines appropriated to the different
suits upon separate blocks of wood, and stamping them upon the cards;
the intermediate spaces between the outlines were filled up with various
colours laid on by the hand. This expeditious method of producing cards
reduced the price of them, so that they might readily be purchased by
almost every class of persons. The common usage of cards was soon
productive of serious evils, which all the exertions of the legislative
power have not been able to eradicate.
CARMINATIVE, _s._ Carminatives are such things as dispel wind, and
promote insensible perspiration.
The disorders for which carminatives are employed are flatulent or
spasmodic colic, gripes, fret, and botts.