CHAPTER III.

THE PROGRESS OF CARD-PLAYING.

Having now shown at what period cards were certainly well known in

Europe, and at what period card-making was a regular business in Italy

and Germany, I shall proceed to lay before the reader a series of facts

showing the prevalence of the game in various countries, both among

great and little people.

From the repeated municipal regulations forbidding card-playing, to

be found in the Burgher-books of several cities of Germany, between

1400 and 1450, it would seem that the game was extremely popular in

that country in the earlier part of the fifteenth century; and that

it continued to gain ground, notwithstanding the prohibitions of men

in office. There are orders forbidding it in the council-books of

Augsburg, dated 1400, 1403, and 1406; though in the latter year there

is an exception which permits card-playing at the meeting-houses of the

trades. It was forbidden at Nordlingen in 1426, 1436, and 1439; but in

1440 the magistrates, in their great wisdom, thought proper to relax

in some degree the stringency of their orders by allowing the game to

be played in public-houses. In the town-books of the same city there

are entries, in the years 1456 and 1461, of money paid for cards at the

magistrates' annual goose-feast or corporation dinner. In the books of

the company of "Schuflikker"--cobblers--of Bamberg, there is a bye-law

agreed to in 1491, which imposes a fine of half a pound of wax--not

shoemakers', but bees' wax for the company's holy candle, to burn at

the altar of the patron saint,--upon any brother who should throw the

backgammon pieces, cards, or dice out of the window.[109] From this

it may be concluded that the "Schuflikker" of Bamberg in 1491 were

accustomed, like gamesters of a more recent period, to vent their rage,

when losers, on the cards and dice.

Baptista Platina, in his treatise 'De Honesta Voluptate'--which is

neither more nor less than an antique "School of Good Living," teaching

how creature comforts may be best enjoyed--mentions cards as a game

at which gentlemen may play, after dinner or supper, to divert their

minds, as deep thinking after a hearty meal impedes digestion. There

was, however, to be no cheating nor desire of gain--which is as much

as to say that the stakes were to be merely nominal--lest bad passions

should be excited, and the process of healthy concoction disturbed.[110]

Galeottus Martius, a contemporary of Platina, is perhaps the earliest

writer who "speculated," or at least published his speculations, on the

allegorical meaning of the marks of the four suits of cards. I shall

give a translation of the passage, which occurs in chapter xxxvi of his

treatise 'De Doctrina promiscua,' written, according to Tiraboschi,

between 1488 and 1490. I leave others to divine the author's precise

meaning, referring them to the original text which is given below. The

topics of this chapter are: "The greater and lesser Dog Star, Orion,

the Evening Star, the Pleiades, the Hyades, Bootes, the Kids, the

planet Venus, and the game of Cards." Towards the conclusion, after

having exhausted his astronomical topics, he thus proceeds, _apropos_

of the benign influence of Venus.

"From the excellency of this planet it is not surprising that the

ancients called a happy throw at dice Venus,--not Jove, though

considered of greater fortune. Thus Propertius:

"Venus I hoped with lucky dice to cast,

But every time the luckless Dogs turned up."

"An unlucky cast was called the Dog--"_Canis_"--and also the Little

Dog--"_Canicula_"--with reference to the Stars. Thus Persius:

"Far as the luckless little Dog-star's range."

"What kind of stars the Great and Little Dog were, has been already

shown. Some persons, indeed, might laugh at the invention of such

kind of games being ascribed to the learned, were it not plain from

reason that the game of cards was also devised by wise men. To say

nothing about the Kings, Queens, Knights, and Footmen,--for every

one knows the distinction between dignity and military service,--is

it not evident, when we consider the significance of swords, spears,

cups, and country loaves, that the inventor of the game was a man of

shrewd wit? When there is need of strength, as indicated by the Swords

and Spears, many are better than few; in matters of meat and drink,

however, as indicated by the Loaves and Cups, a little is better than

a great deal, for it is certain that abstemious persons are of more

lively wit than gluttons and drunkards, and much superior in the

management of business. What I call country loaves, from their form

and colour,--Pliny speaks of bread of a yellow colour--are the marks

which are ignorantly supposed to signify pieces of money. The Cups are

goblets, for wine."[111]

The remainder of the passage cannot be literally translated into

English, as it relates chiefly to the pronunciation of the word

"_Hastas_"--Spears. The substance of it, however, is as follows: "The

common people say 'Hastas,' as the aspiration H, and the letter V

are interchangeable, and so are B and V, both in Greek and Latin. As

Bastoni [clubs] are vulgarly called Hastoni, so have they sometimes

the form of spears [Hastarum], but mostly that of bills, for both

are military weapons." The original passage is extremely perplexing;

and the only thing in it that appears plain to me is the writer's

desire to convert Bastoni--Clubs--into "Hastas," Spears. The Bastoni,

which he says are called Hastoni, or the Hastoni which are called

Bastoni,--for there is here an ambiguity, as in the celebrated oracular

response, "Aio te, Æacida, Romanos vincere posse"--can only relate

to the figures of the things as seen on cards, and not to the things

themselves; for the author says that they have sometimes the shape of

spears, but more frequently that of bills. The real meaning of this I

take to be, that the Bastoni--Clubs--on cards were more like bills than

spears, notwithstanding that H and V, and V and B, were interchangeable

letters. From the account of Galeottus, it is evident that the usual

marks of the suits of Italian cards were in his time, Coppe, Spadi,

Danari, and Bastoni,--Cups, Swords, Money, and Clubs.

In 1463 it would appear that cards were well known in England; for,

by an act of parliament passed in that year, which was the third of

Edward IV, the importation of playing cards was expressly prohibited.

This act, according to Anderson, was passed in consequence of the

manufacturers and tradesmen of London, and other parts of England,

having made heavy complaints against the importation of foreign

manufactured wares which greatly obstructed their own employment.[112]

If we suppose that cards were included in the prohibition for the

above reason, it would follow that card-making was then a regular

business in England.

Whether cards were home-manufactured or obtained from abroad, they

appear about 1484 to have been, as they are at present, a common

Christmas game. Margery Paston thus writes to her husband, John Paston,

in a letter dated Friday, 24th Dec., 1484: "Right worshipful husband,

I recommend me unto you. Please it you to weet that I sent your eldest

son John to my Lady Morley, to have knowledge of what sports were used

in her house in the Christmas next following after the decease of my

lord her husband; and she said that there were none disguisings, nor

harpings, nor luting, nor singing, nor none loud disports; but playing

at the tables, and chess, and _cards_; such disports she gave her

folks leave to play, and none other. Your son did his errand right

well, as ye shall hear after this. I sent your younger son to the

Lady Stapleton; and she said according to my Lady Morley's saying in

that, and as she had seen used in places of worship thereas [where]

she hath been."[113] It may not be improper here to caution the reader

against confounding "places of worship," with "houses of prayer,"

and hence inferring that cards were then a common game in churches,

with gentlemen's servants, at Christmas time. By "places of worship"

are meant the dwelling-places of worshipful persons, such as lords,

knights, and justices of the peace: in those days there were no

stipendiary police-magistrates, and every Shallow on the bench was "a

gentleman born."

Whether Richard III, in whose reign the letter above quoted was

written, added dicing and card-playing to his other vices, we have

no account either in public history which deals, or ought to deal,

wholesale, in "great facts," or in private memoirs, which are more

especially devoted to the retailing of little facts. His successor,

however, Henry VII, was a card player; for Barrington observes that

in his privy-purse expenses there are three several entries of money

issued for his majesty's losses at cards. Of his winnings there is no

entry; though his money-grubbing majesty kept his accounts so exactly

as to enter even a six-and-eightpenny bribe, given to propitiate

his mercy in favour of a poor criminal,--thus turning a penny by

trafficking with his prerogative of pardoning:

"To have the power to forgive,

Is empire and prerogative."

It would appear that cards was a common game at the court of Henry the

VII, even with the royal children; for, in 1503, his daughter Margaret,

aged 14, was found playing at cards by James IV of Scotland, on his

first interview with her, after her arrival in Scotland for the purpose

of being married to him.[114] James himself is said to have been

greatly addicted to card-playing; and in the accounts of his treasurer

there are several entries of money disbursed on account of the game. On

Christmas night, 1496, there are delivered to the king at Melrose, to

spend at cards, "thirty-five unicornis, eleven French crowns, a ducat,

a ridare, and a leu"--in all forty-two pounds. On the 23d August, 1504,

when the king was at Lochmaben, he appears to have lost several sums

at cards to Lord Dacre, the warden of the English marches; and on the

26th of the same month, there is an entry of four French crowns given

"to Cuddy, the Inglis luter, to louse his cheyne of grotis, quhilk he

tint at the cartis,"--to redeem his chain of groats which he lost at

cards.[115]

M. Duchesne, in his 'Observations sur les Cartes à jouer,' says,

somewhat inconsistently, that cards are of Italian origin, and that

it was either at Venice or at Florence, that the Greek refugees from

Constantinople, first made them known. M. Duchesne is as incorrect in

his chronology, as he is singular in his notions with respect to the

Italian origin of playing cards,--first brought to Venice or Florence,

by Greeks.[116] The refugees to whom he apparently alludes were the

Greeks who sought an asylum in Italy, when Constantinople was taken

by the Turks, in 1453, which is sixty years after the time that we

have positive evidence of cards being known in France. But though no

evidence has been produced to show that cards were first brought into

Europe from Constantinople, it is yet certain that they were known

to the Greeks, before the end of the fifteenth century; for Ducange,

in his Glossary of Middle-Age Greek, under the word "XAPTIA, Ludus

chartarum,[117] quotes the following verse from a manuscript of Emanual

Georgillas on the Plague at Rhodes:

"Και τα ταυλια, και τα χαρτια, και ζαρια κατακαυσουν"

"Burn the tables, cards, and dice."

"It appears from this," says Ducange, "that the game of cards, the

origin of which is uncertain, was at least known in 1498, the year in

which this mortality happened." In the 'Journal des Dames,' for the

10th April, 1828--a publication, which I have not had the fortune to

see, but which is referred to by Brunet the younger, in his 'Notice

Bibliographique sur les Cartes à jouer,'--there is a detailed account

of the modern Greek cards manufactured at Frankfort.[118]

Towards the close of the fifteenth, and in the early part of the

sixteenth century, before Luther had sounded the tocsin of religious

reform, and given a new impulse to both the busy and the idle, the

Germans appear to have been greatly addicted to gaming. Woodcuts of

this period showing men and women playing at cards and dice are common.

John Geiler of Kaisersberg, a famous preacher in his day, who, like

Latimer, was accustomed to season his sermons with a little humour--not

to say fun--rings a peal against gaming in his 'Speculum Fatuorum,'

first printed at Strasburg about 1508. He says that there are some

games at cards which are purely of chance, such as "_der offen Rusch

und Schantzen_,"[119] while others, such as "_des Karnefflins_" depend

on both chance and skill. In treating of the lawfulness of playing

at cards, dice, and similar games "for the sake of recreation"--a

saving clause which appears to have been introduced in favour of the

laboriously studious and devout,--he cites authorities both _pro_

and _con_. A certain gloss says that to play at such games, whether

for money, or "gratis," is a deadly sin; and Hostiensis says that to

play for recreation, for money,--"to kill themselves for love, with

wine"--is a deadly sin in the laity as well as the clergy. Angelus,

however, says that it is lawful for both clergy and laity to play for

recreation, for small stakes: "_pro modico non notabili_." Geiler's own

conclusion is that, as doctors differ, there is danger. Gaming in his

time, as in our own, appears to have levelled all distinctions: lords

and ladies, and even clergymen, dignified or otherwise, eager to win

money, and confiding in their luck, or their skill, cared but little

for the rank or character of those with whom they played, provided they

could but post the stakes; and felt no more compunction in winning a

ruffling burgher's money, than a peer would in receiving the amount

of a bet from a cab-man, or a wealthy citizen, a few years ago, in

rendering bankrupt the wooden-legged manager of a thimble-rig table at

Epsom or Ascot.--The "thimble-rig," however, is now numbered with the

things that have been--"_fuit_." Lord Stanley brought it into political

disrepute; and Sir James Graham put it down, just about the time that

the railway speculation began to be the "rage" under the auspices of a

knowing Yorkshireman.

Thomas Murner, a Franciscan friar, availing himself apparently of

the popularity of card-playing, introduced the term "Chartiludium"

as a "caption" in the title of his 'Logica Memorativa,' printed at

Strasburg, in 1509.[120] The work is evidently that of a scholastic

pedant, who might possibly be expert enough in ringing the changes on

verbal distinctions, but who had not the least knowledge of things, nor

any idea of the right use of reason. The book is adorned with numerous

cuts, which represent cards, inasmuch at the top of each there is an

emblem, just as there is the mark of the suit in each of our coat

cards. The cuts and the text taken together, for they mutually render

each other more intelligible, form such a mass of complicated nonsense

as would puzzle even a fortune-teller to interpret. In his prologue,

Murner asks pardon for the title of his book; and assures the studious

youths, for whose instruction it was devised, that he had not been led

to adopt it from any partiality to card-playing; that, in fact, he had

never touched cards, and that, from his very childhood he had abhorred

the perverse passion for play. In 1518 Murner, apparently stimulated by

the success of his logical card-play, published an introduction to the

civil law, written and pictorially illustrated in the same manner as

the former.[121]

As I have not been able to make anything of Murner's logical

card-play, either as regards the instruments or the matter professed

to be taught, I willingly avail myself of what Mons. Leber has said on

the subject in his 'Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer.'--"These

cards," says Mons. Leber, "made much noise in their time; and this

might well be, for they were a novelty which it was easier to admire

than to comprehend. At first people fancied that they saw in them the

work of the devil; and it was even a question whether the author should

not be burnt, seeing that he could be nothing more than a conjurer

with the logicians of that age. But the conjurer's pupils made such

extraordinary progress, that people cried out "wonderful!" and Murner's

book was pronounced divine. Although those cards are fifty-two in

number, they have nothing in common with our pack. They differ from

all other cards, whether for gaming, or of fanciful device, in the

multiplicity and the division of the suits, which the inventor has

applied to the divisions of logic, after a method of his own. Of these

suits there are no less than sixteen, corresponding with the same

number of sections of the text, and having the following names and

colours:

I. ENUNCIATIO Bells.

II. PREDICABILE Crayfish.

III. PREDICAMENTUM Fish.

IV. SILLOGISMUS Acorns.

V. LOCUS DIALECTICUS Scorpions.

VI. FALLACIA Turbans.

VII. SUPPOSITIO Hearts.

VIII. AMPLIATIO Grasshoppers.

IX. RESTRICTIO Suns.

X. APPELLATIO Stars.

XI. DISTRIBUTIO Pigeons.

XII. EXPOSITIO Crescents.

XIII. EXCLUSIO Cats, or Tigers.

XIV. EXCEPTIO Shields of Arms.

XV. REDUPLICATIO Crowns.

XVI. DESCENSUS Serpents.

"Such is the whimsicality of those signs, and such the oddity of

their relation to the things signified, that the learned Singer has

been deterred from the attempt to make them known; at any rate, he

declares that he will not undertake to explain that which even the most

profound logicians of the day might not be able to comprehend. This is

easily said, but we see no impossibility in explaining how the author

understood himself. One example will be sufficient to give an idea of

Murner's figured language, and of the parts which might be played

by serpents, cats, acorns, and crayfish in the chair of Aristotle when

its occupant was a friar of the sixteenth century.

"The figure of a man with a crown on his head, a patch over one of

his eyes, a book in one hand, and a trowel in the other, relates to

section, or "Tractatus," X, APPELLATIO. It displays three symbols,

the object of which is intelligence or definition: 1, the logical

appellation; 2, relative terms or ideas which have become connected in

the mind; 3, privative terms, expressive of privation or exclusion.

The open book, [which appears shut] is the symbol of the definition;

the trowel indicates connexion; and the patch over the eye signifies

privation. The star, which occupies the place of the mark of the suit,

and casts its light on all the other three symbols, signifies that

clearness is the first merit in every definition." The cut here given

is a fac-simile of that referred to.

[Illustration]

Rogers, availing himself of the poetic license, though but to a small

extent, has represented the followers of Columbus as playing at cards

in his first voyage of discovery, to the West Indies, in 1492.

"At daybreak might the caravels be seen,

Chasing their shadows o'er the deep serene;

Their burnish'd prows lash'd by the sparkling tide,

Their green-cross standards waving far and wide.

And now once more to better thoughts inclined,

The seaman, mounting, clamour'd in the wind.

The soldier told his tales of love and war;

The courtier sung--sung to his gay guitar.

Round, at Primero, sate a whiskered band;

So Fortune smiled, careless of sea or land."[122]

Garcilasso de la Vega, to whom Mr. Rogers refers, says nothing about

Primero or the followers of Columbus playing at the game; he only

mentions, in his 'History of the Conquest of Florida,' that the

soldiers who were engaged in that expedition, having burnt all their

cards after the battle of Mauvila, [about 1542], made themselves

new ones of parchment, which they painted admirably, as if they had

followed the business all their lives; but as they either could not, or

would not, make so many as were wanted, players had the cards in their

turn for a limited time.[123] Although we have no positive evidence of

the fact, it is yet not unlikely that there were cards in the ships

of Columbus; unless indeed they had been especially prohibited to the

crews on this occasion, as they were to the soldiers and sailors of the

Spanish Armada in 1588.[124] Herrera has recorded in his 'History of

the Spanish Discoveries in America,' that Montezuma, emperor of Mexico,

who was made prisoner by Cortes in 1519, took great pleasure in seeing

the Spanish soldiers play at cards.

Barrington, in his 'Observations on the Antiquity of Card-playing in

England,' says, "During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, this

amusement seems not to have been common in England, as scarcely any

mention of it occurs either in Rymer's Fœdera, or the statute book."

Had Mr. Barrington been as well read in old poems and plays as he was

in the more ancient statutes, it is likely that he would have been of

a different opinion. He says, "It is not improbable, however, that

Philip the Second, with his suite, coming from the court of Charles

V, made the use of cards much more general than it had been, of which

some presumptive proofs are not wanting." The supposition is plausible;

but as the presumptive proofs which he alleges, were as likely to be

found in the reign of Edward IV, as in the reign of Mary, they are

of no weight in the determination of the question. As Catherine, the

wife of Henry VIII, was a Spanish princess, and as it is recorded

that, amongst her other accomplishments, she could "play at tables,

tick-tack, or gleek, with cardes or dyce,"[125] the persons forming

her suite were just as likely as those of the suite of Philip II, to

have brought into England Spanish cards with the marks of swords and

clubs proper--_Espadas_ and _Bastos_: but there can scarcely be a doubt

that such cards were known in England long before. Mr. Barrington's

partiality to his theory about Spanish cards, and of the game becoming

much more general in England after the marriage of Philip and Mary, has

probably caused him either to entirely overlook, or attach too little

importance to a presumptive proof, to be found in the statute-book, of

cards being a common amusement in England in the reign of Henry VIII.

In a statute relating to plays and games, passed in the thirty-third

year of that king's reign, 1541, we find the following restrictions.

"No Artificer, or his Journeyman, no Husbandman, Apprentice, Labourer,

Servant at Husbandry, Mariner, Fisherman, Waterman, or Serving-man,

shall play at Tables, Tennis, Dice, _Cards_, Bowls, Closh, Coyting,

Logating, or any other unlawful game out of Christmas; or then, out of

their master's house or presence, in pain of 20_s._; and none shall

play at Bowls in open places, out of his garden or orchard, in pain

of 6_s._ 8_d._"[126] In the morality of Hycke-Scorner, reprinted in

Hawkins's 'Origin of the English Drama,' from a black letter copy in

Garrick's collection, of at least as early a date as the commencement

of the reign of Henry VIII, the following are enumerated as forming

part of the company of the ships that came over with Hycke-Scorner:

"Braulers, lyers, getters, and chyders,

Walkers by night, and great murderers,

Overthwarte gyle, and joly carders."

In the morality of Lusty Juventus, written by R. Wever, in the reign of

Edward VI, Hypocryse says to Juventus, whom he invites to breakfast:

"I have a furny carde in a place,

That will bear a turne besides the ace;

She purvoyes now apace

For my commynge."

From a subsequent passage it appears that this "furny carde"[127] is

the naughty woman, "litle Besse," the personification of "Abhominable

Livyng."

In the comedy of 'Gammer Gurton's Needle,' said to have been first

printed in 1551, old dame Chat thus invites two of her acquaintance to

a game at cards:

"What, Diccon? Come nere, ye be no stranger:

We be fast set at trump, man, hard by the fire;

Thou shalt set on the king, if thou come a little nyer.

Come hither, Dol; Dol, sit down and play this game,

And as thou sawest me do, see thou do even the same;

There is five trumps besides the queen, the hindmost thou shalt

find her."

In a Satire on Cardinal Wolsey and the Romish Clergy by William Roy,

without date, but most likely printed in 1527,[128] some of the bishops

are charged with gaming in addition to their other vices:

"To play at the cardes and dyce,

Some of theym are nothynge nyce,

Both at hasard and mom-chaunce."

In the privy purse expenses, from 1536 to 1544, of the Princess Mary,

daughter of Henry VIII, afterwards Queen Mary, there are numerous

entries of money delivered to the princess to play at cards. In a

prefatory memoir, Sir Frederick Madden remarks: "Cards she seems to

have indulged in freely; and there is a sum generally allotted as

pocket-money for the recreation every month."[129] As Mary is said to

have been extremely devout, we may presume that, adopting the decisions

of the more indulgent casuists, she availed herself of their permission

to play at cards as a recreation when her mind was fatigued with the

exercise of her strenuous piety. The records of the burning of men and

women in her reign for the sake of _religion_, form a singular contrast

with the entries in her privy purse expenses of money delivered to her

to play at cards.

From the preceding incidental notices of cards in poems and plays,

as well as from the direct evidence of the statute book and the privy

purse expenses of the Princess Mary, it would appear that card-playing

was common in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI,

both in the cottage and the palace; and there is reason to believe

that about the same period the game was equally common in Scotland.

William Dunbar, who wrote in the reigns of James IV and James V, in his

'General Satire,' exposing the depravity of all classes of people in

the kingdom, thus alludes to the prevalence of dicing and card-playing:

"Sic knavis and crakkaris, to play at carts and dyce,

Sic halland-scheckaris, qwhilk at Cowkilbyis gryce

Are haldin of pryce, when lymaris do convene;

Sic store of vyce, sae mony wittis unwyse,

Within this land was nevir hard nor sene."

In the poems of Sir David Lyndsay, there are several allusions to

card-playing; and in his 'Satire of the Three Estaites,' which Chalmers

says was first acted at Cupar, Fifeshire, in 1535, the Parson declares

himself to be an adept at the game:

"Thoch I preich nocht, I can play at the caiche:

I wot there is nocht ane amang yow all

Mair ferylie can play at the fute-ball;

And for the cartis, the tabels, and the dyse,

Above all parsouns I may beir the pryse."

In Sir David's poem, entitled 'The Cardinal,' exposing the personal

vices and tyrannical conduct of Cardinal Beaton, who was assassinated

at St. Andrews in 1546, that prelate is represented as a great

gamester:[130]

"In banketting, playing at cartis and dyce,

Into sic wysedome I was haldin wyse;

And spairit nocht to play with king nor knicht,

Thre thousand crownes of golde upon ane night."

In the examination of Thomas Forret, a dean of the Kirk, and vicar

of Dollar, on a charge of heresy brought against him by John Lauder,

a tool of Cardinal Beaton's, at Edinburgh, 1st March, 1539, Forret's

answer to one of the charges of his accuser, affords some idea of the

manner in which many bachelor priests of the period were accustomed to

spend their tithes:

"_Accuser._ False Heretic, thou sayest it is not lawful to Kirkmen to

take their teinds (tythes) and offerings and corps-presents, though we

have been in use of them, constitute by the Kirk and King, and also our

holy father the Pope hath confirmed the same?

"_Dean Forret._ Brother, I said not so; but I said it was not lawful

to Kirkmen to spend the patrimony of the Kirk, as they do, on riotous

feasting, and on fair women, and at playing at cards and dice."[131]

Pinkerton, in his 'History of Scotland,' says: "Stewart the poet, in an

address to James V, advises him to amuse himself with hunting, hawking,

and archery, justing, and chess; and not to play at cards or dice,

except with his mother or the chief lords, as it was a disgrace for a

prince to win from men of inferior station, and his gains at any time

ought to be given to his attendants."

At a period somewhat later, it would appear that card-playing was

a common amusement on the borders of Scotland, and that the sturdy

rievers, whose grand game was cattle lifting, were accustomed to while

away their idle hours at cards for placks and hardheads. The following

curious passage occurs in a letter dated Newcastle, 12th January

(1570), printed in the second volume of Sir Ralph Sadler's 'State

Papers.' The writer was a gentleman named Robert Constable, who appears

to have been sent into Scotland to endeavour to persuade his kinsman,

the Earl of Westmoreland, to return to England and submit himself to

Elizabeth's mercy.[132]

"I left Ferniherst, and went to my ostes house,[133] where I found

many guests of dyvers factions, some outlaws of England, some of

Scotland, some neighbours thereabout, at cards; some for ale, some for

placks and hardhedds [a small coin]; and after I had diligently learned

and enquired that there was none of any surname that had me in deadly

fude, nor none that knew me, I sat down and plaid for hardhedds among

them, where I heard _vox populi_ that the Lord Regent would not, for

his owne honour, nor for the honour of his country, deliver the Earls,

if he had them bothe, unless it were to have their Quene delivered to

him; and if he wold agree to make that change, the borderers would

start up in his contrary, and reave both the Quene and the Lords from

him, for the like shame was never don in Scotland; and that he durst

better eate his own lugs than come agen to seke Farneherst; if he did,

he should be fought with ere he came over Sowtray edge. Hector of

Tharlows[134] hedd was wished to have been eaten amongs us at supper."

In the old ballad entitled 'The Battle of the Reed Swire,' giving an

account of a fray at a Warden meeting, which ended in a general fight,

we find cards mentioned. This meeting was held in 1576 near the head

of the river Reed, on the English side of the Carter fell; and appears

to have been attended, like a fair, by people from both sides of the

Border.

"Yet was our meeting meik enough,

Began with mirriness and mows;

And at the brae abune the heugh

The clerk sat down to call the rows;

And sum for kye, and sum for ewes,

Callit in of DANDRIE, HOB, and JOCK:

I saw come marching owre the knows

Fye hundred FENNICKS in a flock.

"With jack and speir, and bowis all bent,

And warlike weapons at their will;

Howbeit they were not weil content,

Yet be me troth we feird na ill:

Some gaed to drink, and some stude still,

And sum to cards and dyce them sped;

While on ane Farstein they fyld a bill,[135]

And he was fugitive that fled."

About the same period the game of cards was a common amusement in the

south of Ireland. Spenser, in his 'View of the State of Ireland,'

written about 1590, speaks of an idle and dissolute class of people

called "Carrows," who, he says, "wander up and down to gentlemen's

houses, living only upon cards and dice; the which, though they have

but little or nothing of their own, yet will they play for much money;

which, if they win, they waste most lightly; and if they lose, they

pay as slenderly, but make recompense with one stealth or another;

whose only hurt is not that they themselves are idle lossels, but that

through gaming they draw others to lewdness and idleness."[136]

The counterpart to this picture was to be found in Spain about the

same period; and as the intercourse between the two countries was

frequent, and the favorite game in both was "One-and-Thirty," it is

not unlikely that the Irish obtained their knowledge of cards from the

Spaniards. In Cervantes' 'Comical History of Rinconete and Cortadillo,'

a young Spanish vagabond gives the following account of his skill

at cards: "I took along with me what I thought most necessary, and

amongst the rest this pack of cards, (and now I called to mind the

old saying, 'He carries his All on his back,') for with these I have

gained my living at all the publick houses and inns between Madrid and

this place, playing at One-and-Thirty; and though they are dirty and

torn, they are of wonderful service to those who understand them, for

they shall never cut without leaving an ace at bottom, which is one

good point towards eleven, with which advantage, thirty-one being the

game, he sweeps all the money into his pocket: besides this, I know

some slight tricks at Cards and Hazard; so that though you are very

dexterous and a thorough master of the art of cutting buskins, I am

every bit as expert in the science of cheating people, and therefore I

am in no fear of starving; for though I come but to a small cottage,

there are always some who have a mind to pass away time by playing a

little;[137] and of this we may now try the experiment ourselves: Let

us spread the nets, and see if none of these birds, the carriers, will

fall into them; which is as much as to say that you and I will play

together at One-and-Thirty, as if it was in earnest; perhaps somebody

may make the third, and he shall be sure to be the first to leave his

money behind him."

At what period cards were first used in Europe for the purposes

of divination or fortune-telling has not been ascertained. In the

'Magasin Pittoresque' for 1842, page 324, there is a cut entitled

"Philippe-le-Bon consultant une tireuse de cartes," copied from a

painting ascribed to John Van Eyck. Though it has been denied that this

picture is really by Van Eyck, it is yet admitted that the costume

is that of the reign of Charles VIII, between 1483 and 1498.[138]

Supposing then that the picture belongs to the latter period, we have

thus evidence of cards being used for the purposes of fortune-telling

before the close of the fifteenth century. The gypsies, who are

unquestionably of Asiatic origin, appear to have long used them for

this purpose; and if they brought cards with them in their earliest

immigration into Europe, as Breitkopf supposes, they are just as likely

to have brought with them their occult science of cards as to have

acquired it subsequently from Europeans. The earliest work, expressly

treating of the subject appears to be 'Le Sorti,' written or compiled

by Francesco Marcolini, printed at Venice in 1540. In the prologue,

the author professes to explain the mode of applying what he calls his

pleasant invention--"piacevole inventione;" but beyond the fact that

certain cards are to be used, I have not been able to make out his

meaning. The only cards to be employed were the King, Knight, Knave,

ten,[139] nine, eight, seven, deuce, and ace of the suit Danari or

Money. Besides the small cuts of cards, of which the following are

specimens, the work contains a number of wood-engravings, some of which

are designed in a spirited manner. A work similar to Marcolini's,

entitled 'Triompho di Fortuna,' by Sigismond Fanti, professing to teach

the art of solving questions relating to future events, but without

using cards, was printed at Venice in 1527.

[Illustration]

Juggling and fortune-telling by means of cards, whenever introduced,

appear to have had many professors in the latter half of the sixteenth

century. A trick performed with cards by a juggler, appears to have

excited the inquisitive genius of Lord Bacon when a boy; and his

biographer, Basil Montagu, thinks that from this circumstance his

attention was first directed to an inquiry into the nature of the

imagination.[140] Reginald Scott, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, first

published in 1584, has a chapter "Of Cards, with good cautions how to

avoid cousenage therein; special rules to convey and handle the cards;

and the manner and order how to accomplish all difficult and strange

things wrought with cards."

"Having now," says he, "bestowed some waste money among you, I will

set you to cards; by which kind of witchcraft a great number of people

have juggled away not only their money, but also their lands, their

health, their time, and their honesty. I dare not (as I could) show the

lewd juggling that cheaters practice, lest it minister some offence to

the well-disposed, to the simple hurt and losses, and to the wicked

occasion of evil doing. But I would wish all gamesters to beware, not

only with what cards and dice they play, but especially with whom, and

where they exercise gaming. And to let dice pass, (as whereby a man may

be inevitably cousened,) one that is skilful to make and use Bumcards

may undo a hundred wealthy men, that are not given to gaming; but if he

have a confederate present, either of the players or standers-by, the

mischief cannot be avoided. If you play among strangers, beware of him

that seems simple or drunken; for under their habit the most special

couseners are presented; and while you think by their simplicity and

imperfections to beguile them, (and thereof, perchance, are persuaded

by their confederates, your very friends as you think,) you yourself

will be most of all over-taken. Beware also of the betters by and

lookers on, and namely of them that bet on your side; for whilst they

look on your game without suspicion, they discover it by signs to your

adversaries, with whom they bet and yet are their confederates."

Among the tricks with cards which he notices, are the following: "How

to deliver out four Aces and to convert them into four Knaves. How

to tell one what card he seeth in the bottom, when the same card is

shuffled into the stock. To tell one, without confederacy, what card

he thinketh. How to tell what card any man thinketh, how to convey the

same into a nut-shell, cherry-stone, &c., and the same again into one's

pocket. How to make one draw the same, or any card you list, and all

under one devise." The two verses which he quotes in the margin should

be inscribed as a motto on the dial-plate of every gamester's watch.

"Of dice play, and the like unthrifty games, mark these two old verses,

and remember them:

Ludens taxillis, bene respice quid sit in illis:

Mors tua, sors tua, res tua, spes tua, pendet in illis."

Rowland, in his 'Judicial Astrology Condemned,' relates the following

anecdote of Cuffe, the Secretary of the Earl of Essex, "a man of

exquisite wit and learning, but of a turbulent disposition," who was

hung at Tyburn, on the 13th of March, 1602, for having counselled and

abetted the Earl in his treason. "Cuffe, an excellent Grecian,[141]

and Secretary to the Earl of Essex, was told twenty years before his

death that he should come to an untimely end, at which Cuffe laughed,

and in a scornful manner, intreated the astrologer to show him in what

manner he should come to his end; who condescended to him, and calling

for cards, intreated Cuffe to draw out of the pack three which pleased

him. He did so, and drew three Knaves and laid them on the table with

their faces downwards, by the wizard's direction, who then told him, if

he desired to see the sum of his bad fortunes, to take up those cards.

Cuffe, as he was prescribed, took up the first card, and looking on it,

he saw the portraiture of himself, _cap-a-pie_, having men compassing

him about with bills and halberds; then he took up the second, and

there he saw the judge that sat upon him; and taking up the last card,

he saw Tyburn, the place of his execution, and the hangman, at which he

laughed heartily; but many years after, being condemned for treason, he

remembered and declared this prediction."

Queen Elizabeth, as well as her sister, Mary, was a card player;

and even her grave Lord Treasurer, Lord Burleigh, appears to have

occasionally taken a hand at Primero.[142] That she sometimes lost her

temper, when the cards ran against her, may be fairly inferred from

the following passage, which occurs in a letter, written in the latter

part of her reign, by Sir Robert Carey to his father, Lord Hunsdon:

her violent language must have been the result of her holding a bad

hand at the moment that the presence of young Carey reminded her of his

father's procrastination. "May it please your L. t'understande that

yesterday yn the afternune I stood by hyr Ma^{tie} as she was att Cards

in the presens chamber. She cawlde me to hyr, and askte me when you

mente too go too Barwyke. I towlde hyr that you determinde to begyn

your jorney presently after Whytsontyd. She grew yntoo a grete rage,

begynnynge with Gods wonds, that she wolde sett you by the feete, and

send another in your place yf you dalyed with hyr thus, for she wolde

not be thus dalyed withall.[143]

Though the laity of all ranks and conditions--except

apprentices[144]--appear to have played at cards and dice without let

or hinderance, notwithstanding any statute to the contrary, yet the

clergy seem to have been rather more sharply looked after. In the

'Injunctions geven by the Quenes Majestie, as well to the Clergye as

the Laity,' printed by Richard Jugge and John Cawood, 1559, the clergy

are thus admonished: "Also the sayde ecclesiastical persons shall in

no wyse, nor for any other cause then for theyr honeste necessities,

haunt or resort to anye Tavernes or Alehouses. And after theyr meates,

they shall not geve themselves to any drynkyng or ryot, spendyng theyr

tyme idelly by day or by nyght, at dyse, cardes, or tables playing,

or anye other unlawfull game."[145] In the 'Injunctions exhibited by

John, Bishop of Norwich, at his first visitation, in the third year

of our Soveraign Ladie Elizabeth,' printed at London by John Daye,

1561, officials are enjoined to inquire, "Whether any parson, vicare,

or curate geve any evell example of lyfe; whether they be incontinent

parsones, dronkardes, haunters of tavernes, alehouses, or suspect

places; dycers, tablers, carders, swearers, or vehementlie suspected

thereof."

A notice of a dramatic representation of the game of cards occurs in

the accounts of Queen Elizabeth's 'Master of the Revels,' 1582.[146] In

that year he and his officers were commanded "to show on St. Stephen's

day at night, before her Majesty at Wyndesore, a Comodie or Morral

devised on a game of the cardes," to be performed by the children of

her Majesty's Chapel. From the following observations of Sir John

Harrington on this "Comodie or Morral," it would seem to have been a

severe satire on those Knaves who enrich themselves at the nation's

expense: "Then for comedies, to speake of a London comedie, how much

good matter, yea and matter of state, is there in that comedie cald the

play of the cards? in which it is showed how foure Parasiticalle knaves

robbe the foure principall vocations of the Realme, _videlicet_, the

vocations of Souldiers, Scollers, Marchants, and Husbandmen. Of which

comedie I cannot forget the saying of a notable wise counseller who is

now dead (Sir Frauncis Walsinghame), who, when some (to sing Placebo)

advised that it should be forbidden, because it was somewhat too

plaine, and indeed, as the old saying is, _Sooth boord is no boord_,

yet he would have it allowed, adding that it was fit that 'They which

doe that they should not, should heare that they would not.'"[147]

The mention of a comedy shown before the Queen at Windsor by the

children of her Majesty's Chapel, naturally suggests the recollection

of John Lyly's Court Comedies, which were wont to be shown by the

same children, as well as by the "children of Poules;" and as in one

of those comedies,--Alexander and Campaspe,--Lyly has committed an

anachronism with respect to cards,[148] an opportunity is thus afforded

of here introducing the pleasantly conceited song that contains the

error,--a song, which Elia would have encored, and which even Mrs.

Battle herself would have allowed to be sung at the card table during

the intermission of the game at the end of a rubber, when cutting in

for new partners.[149]

"Cupid and my Campaspe play'd

At cards for kisses; Cupid paid:

He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,

His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;

Loses them too: then down he throws

The coral of his lip, the rose

Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);

With these the chrystal on his brow,

And then the dimple of his chin:

All these did my Campaspe win.

At last he set her both his eyes:

She won, and Cupid blind doth rise.

O Love, has she done this to thee?

What shall, alas, become of me!"

Before taking leave of the reign of Elizabeth, it seems proper to

insert here what Philip Stubbes says about Cards, Dice, Tables,

Tennis, and other games, in his 'Anatomie of Abuses.'[150] "As for

Cardes, Dice, Tables, Boules, Tennisse, and such like," says the moral

dissector, speaking in the person of Philoponus, "thei are _Furta

officiosa_, a certaine kind of smothe, deceiptfull, and sleightie

thefte, whereby many a one is spoiled of all that ever he hath,

sometimes of his life withall, yea, of bodie and soule for ever: and

yet (more is the pitie) these be the only exercises used in every mans

house, al the yere through. But especially in Christmas time there is

nothyng els used but Cardes, Dice, Tables, Maskyng, Mummyng, Bowling,

and such like fooleries. And the reason is, thei think thei have a

commission and prerogative that tyme to doe what thei list, and to

followe what vanitie they will. But (alas) doe thei thinke that thei

are privileged at that time to doe evill? the holier the time is (if

one time were holier then another, as it is not) the holier ought their

exercises to bee."

He, however, thinks that at some games, under certain circumstances,

Christian men may play for the sake of recreation; for, in answer to

the question of Spudeus, "Is it not lawfull for one Christian man

to plaie with an other at any kinde of game, or to winne his money,

if he can?" Philoponus thus replies: "To plaie at Tables, Cardes,

Dice, Bowles, or the like, (though a good Christian man will not

so idely and vainely spende his golden daies), one Christian with

an other, for their private recreations, after some oppression of

studie, to drive awaie fantasies, and suche like, I doubt not but

thei may, using it moderately, with intermission, and in the feare

of God. But for to plaie for lucre of gaine, and for desire onely of

his brothers substance, rather then for any other cause, it is at no

hande lawfull, or to be suffered. For as it is not lawfull to robbe,

steale, and purloine by deceite or sleight, so is it not lawfull to

get thy brothers goodes from hym by Cardyng, Dicyng, Tablyng, Boulyng,

or any other kind of theft, for these games are no better, nay worser

than open theft, for open theft every man can beware of; but this

beying a craftie polliticke theft, and commonly doen under pretence of

freendship, fewe, or none at all, can beware of it. The commaundement

saieth, Thou shall not covet nor desire any thing that belongeth to thy

neighbour. Now, it is manifest, that those that plaie for money, not

onely covet their brothers money, but also use craft, falshood, and

deceite to winne the same."--There are doubtless many card-players,

who, conscious of their want of craft, can safely deny the truth of

Stubbes's sweeping conclusion; but it is to be feared that most crafty

players will not lose if they can avoid it, either by hook or by crook.

In the reign of James I, the game "went bonnily on." His son, Henry,

Prince of Wales, who died in 1612, aged nineteen, used occasionally to

amuse himself at cards, but so nobly and like himself, as showed that

he played only for recreation, and not for the sake of gain.[151] James

himself was a card-player; and his favorite game was Maw, which appears

to have been the fashionable game in his reign, as Primero was in the

reign of Elizabeth. His Majesty appears to have played at cards just

as he played with affairs of State--in an indolent manner, requiring

in both cases some one to hold his cards, if not to prompt him what to

play. Weldon, speaking of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in his

'Court and Character of King James,' says: "The next that came on the

stage, was Sir Thomas Monson; but the night before he was to come to

his tryal, the King being at the game of Maw, said, 'to-morrow comes

Thomas Monson to his tryal.' 'Yea;' said the King's card-holder, 'where

if he do not play his master's prize, your Majesty shall never trust

me.' This so ran in the King's mind, that at the next game he said he

was sleepy, and would play out that set next night." From the following

passage in a pamphlet, entitled 'Tom Tell-troath,' supposed to have

been printed about 1622,[152] it would seem that the writer was well

acquainted both with his majesty's mode of playing at cards, and with

the manner in which he was tricked in his dawdling with state affairs:

"In your Majestie's owne tavernes, for one healthe that is begun to

your-selfe, there are ten drunke to the Princes your forraygn children.

And, when the wine is in their heads, Lord have mercie on their tonges!

Ever, in the very gaming ordinaries, where men have scarce leisure to

say grace, yet they take a time to censure your Majestie's actions,

and that in their oulde schoole terms. They say, you have lost the

fairest game at Maw that ever King had, for want of making the best

advantage of the five finger, and playing the other helpes in time.

That your owne card-holders play bootie, and give the signe out of your

owne hand. That hee you played withall hath ever been knowne for the

greatest cheater in Christendome.[153] In fine, there is noe way to

recover your losses, and vindicate your honour, but with fighting with

him that hath cozened you. At which honest downe righte play, you will

be hard enough for him with all his trickes."

The following verses, which might have been written by Tom Tell-troath

himself, form part of an inscription beneath a caricature engraving

of the same period, representing the Kings of England, Denmark, and

Sweden, with Bethlem Gabor, engaged in playing at cards, dice, and

tables with the Pope and his Monks.[154]

"Denmarke, not sitting farr, and seeing what hand

Great Brittayne had, and how Rome's loss did stand,

Hopes to win something too: Maw is the game

At which he playes, and challengeth at the same

A Muncke, who stakes a chalice. Denmarke sets gold,

And shuffles; the Muncke cuts: Denmarke being bold,

Deales freely round; and the first card he showes

Is the five finger, which, being turn'd up, goes

Cold to the Muncke's heart; the next Denmarke sees

Is the ace of hearts: the Muncke cries out, I lees!

Denmarke replyes, Sir Muncke, shew what you have;

The Muncke could shew him nothing but the Knave."

From the allusions to the five fingers and the ace of hearts, in the

preceding extracts, it would appear that the game of Maw was the same

as that which was subsequently called Five-Cards, for, in both games,

the five of trumps--called the five fingers--was the best card, and

next to that was the ace of hearts.[155]

From the frequent mention of cards by writers of the time of James

I, it would appear that the game was as common a diversion with his

Majesty's peaceable subjects, as it was with the fighting men who

followed the banner of Wallenstein or Tilly in the Thirty-Years' War.

Inordinate gaming in one country, according to certain authorities,

was the result of long-continued peace and too much ease; according

to others, it was the natural consequence of war; in England, the

devil, finding men idle, gave them employment at cards and dice; and in

Germany, where they were busy in the work of destruction, he encouraged

them to play as a relaxation from their regular labours. Prodigals, in

each country, lighted their candle at both ends: English gallants used

to divert themselves with cards at the playhouse before the performance

began;[156] and desperate hazarders in the imperial camp staked, on a

cast at dice, their plunder, ere it had well come into their possession.

In the reign of James I, a controversy arose respecting the nature of

lots, in which the lawfulness--"_in foro theologorum_"--of deciding

matters by lot, and of playing at games of chance, such as cards and

dice, was amply discussed. It was maintained by one party, that as lots

were of divine ordinance, for the purpose of determining important

matters,[157] and of so ascertaining, as it were, the divine will,

their employment for the purpose of amusement, was a sinful perversion

of their institution, and a disparaging of Divine Providence, which was

thus made the arbiter of idle and immoral games.[158] In opposition

to this opinion, the learned Thomas Gataker published his treatise,

historical and theological, 'Of the Nature and Use of Lots,' in

1619. In this work he treats of casual events in general, and of the

different kinds of lots, which he thus classes under three heads: 1,

Lots which are commonly employed in serious affairs; 2, Lots which

enter into games of chance; 3, Lots extraordinary or divinatory.

The first are generally admitted to be innocent; but the third are

absolutely condemned by Gataker, except when they are expressly

required to be used by a revelation or a divine command.[159] With

regard to lots of the second kind, he contends that they are neither

prohibited in the Scriptures nor evil of themselves; though, like those

of the first, they are liable to great abuse. The abuse he earnestly

condemns; but at the same time shows that it is not a necessary

consequence of the employment of lots in games of amusement. He also

refutes the arguments of James Balmford, who, in a small tract which

appears to have been first published about 1593, had maintained that

all games of chance were absolutely unlawful. An account of the

controversy on this subject, between Gataker on one side, and William

Ames and Gisbert Voet on the other, will be found in the preface to

the second edition of Barbeyrac's 'Traité du Jeu.'[160]

In the reign of James I, and in the early part of that of his

successor, ere the discussion of political grievances had produced a

decided effect on the public mind, the fashionable vices of excess

in apparel, gaming, drinking, and smoking tobacco, were fertile

themes of declamation with a certain class of reformers, both lay and

clerical. Their denunciations of the vanity and wickedness of wearing

fine clothes are merely variations to Stubbes's 'Anatomy of Abuses;'

while their fulminations against tobacco are generally pitched in the

somewhat loud key of King James's Counterblast. Their common-places

against drunkenness and gaming, are, in general, "very common

indeed,"--as Sir Francis Burdett said of a certain common lawyer, who,

since his elevation to the peerage, has been convicted of a petty

larceny on the literary property of Miss Agnes Strickland, and who

seems to be an adept at Cribbage, though no card-player.

In a woodcut on the title-page of 'Woe to Drunkards,' a sermon preached

by Samuel Ward, of Ipswich, 1627, the vices of that age are typically

contrasted with the virtues of a former one. In the upper compartment

we are shown what men were of old by the open Bible, the foot in the

stirrup, and the hand grasping the lance; while in the lower, the

degeneracy of their descendants is typified by the leg and foot,

decorated with a broad silk garter and a large rosette; by cards and

dice, and a hand holding at the same time a lighted pipe and a drinking

cup with a cockatrice in it. Twenty years afterwards, these types

would have been more strictly applicable, with the inscriptions merely

transposed.

[Illustration]

At what time the manufacture of cards was established in this country,

has not been ascertained; though from their being included in an Act of

Parliament of 1463, prohibiting the importation of sundry articles, as

being injurious to native manufacturers and tradesmen, it would seem

that there were card-makers in England even at that early period.[161]

Barrington, referring to a proclamation of Elizabeth, and another of

James I, says, "It appears that we did not then make many cards in

England." In his paper in the 'Archæologia,' he gives a fac-simile of

the cover of an old pack of cards, as a decisive proof that cards were

originally made in Spain. On this cover was printed a wood engraving

of the arms of Castile and Leon, together with a Club, a Sword, a

Cup, and a piece of Money, the marks of the four suits of Spanish

cards. To an inscription purporting that they were fine cards, made

by JEHAN VOLAY--"Cartas finnas faictes par Jehan Volay"--there was

also added, in letters of a different character, either by a stencil,

or by means of inserting a new piece of wood in the original block,

the name "EDWARD WARMAN," probably that of the English vendor of the

cards. The maker's name, Barrington reads, "JE (for JEAN or JOHN)

HAUVOLA," and the final Y he mistakes for the Spanish conjunction

"and." The whole of the inscription, he says, being rendered into

English, runs thus: "Superfine cards made by John Hauvola, and (Edward

Warman)," the last name being substituted for that of a former

partner of John Hauvola.[162] Mr. Barrington's reading of the maker's

name, JE. HAUVOLA, instead of JEHAN VOLAY, and his then introducing

_Edward Warman_ into the firm, by means of the final Y, construed

as a copulative conjunction, are fair specimens of the proofs and

illustrations which he adduces in favour of his theory about Spanish

cards.

Jean Volay, as I learn from Leber,[163] was one of the most celebrated

French card-makers of the sixteenth century; at what time "Edward

Warman" lived, whose name also appears on the cover, is not known; but

Mr. Barrington says that a person of that name kept a stationer's shop

somewhere about Norton Folgate, about fifty years before the date of

his paper, that is about 1737. Any vogue that Spanish cards might have

had in the more northerly countries of Europe, during the times of

Elizabeth and James I, was probably owing rather to the circumstance of

so many Spaniards being then resident in the Low Countries than to any

superiority of the cards manufactured in Spain. Until a comparatively

recent period, large quantities of cards used to be sent from Antwerp

to Spain.[164]

[Illustration]

From the following verses, in "The Knave of Harts his Supplication

to the Card Makers," in Samuel Rowlands' satire entitled 'The Knave

of Harts,'[165] 1612, it would appear that cards were then commonly

manufactured in England, for it cannot be fairly supposed that the

Knave's supplication was addressed to foreign card-makers. The

foregoing cut, which is a fac-simile of that prefixed to the edition of

1613, shows the Knaves of Hearts and Clubs in the costume complained of.

"We are abused in a great degree,

For there's no Knaves so wronged as are we

By those that chiefly should be our part-takers:

And thus it is, my maisters, you card-makers,

All other Knaves are at their own free-will,

To brave it out, and follow fashion still

In any cut, according to the time,

But we poore Knaves (I know not for what crime),

Are kept in pie-bald suites, which we have worne

Hundred of years; this hardly can be borne.

The idle-headed Frenche devis'd us first,

Who of all fashion-mongers is the worst;

For he doth change farre oftner than the moone;

Dislikes his morning suite in th' after-noone.

The English is his imitating ape,

In every toy the tailors-sheares can shape,

Comes dropping after as the divell entices,

And putteth on the French-man's cast devices;

Ye wee (with whom thus long they both have plaid),

Must weare the suites in which we first were made.

* * * * *

How can we choose but have the itching gift,

Kept in one kinde of cloaths, and never shift?

Or to be scurvy how can we forbeare,

That never yet had shirt or band to weare?

How bad I and my fellow Diamond goes,

We never yet had garter to our hose,

Nor any shooe to put upon our feete,

With such base cloaths, 'tis e'en a shame to see't;

My sleeves are like some morris-dauncing fellow,

My stockings idiot-like, red, greene, and yellow:

My breeches like a paire of lute-pins be,

Scarce buttock-roome, as every man may see.

Like three-penie watchmen three of us doe stand,

Each with a rustie browne-bill in his hand:

And Clubs he holds an arrow, like a clowne,

The head-end upward, and the feathers downe.

Thus we are wrong'd, and thus we are agriev'd,

And thus long time we have beene unreliev'd.

But, card-makers, of you Harts reason craves,

Why we should be restrained, above all Knaves,

To weare such patched and disguis'd attire?

Answer but this, of kindnesse, we require.

* * * * *

Good card-makers (if there be goodness in you),

Apparell us with more respected care,

Put us in hats, our caps are worne thread-bare;

Let us have standing collers, in the fashion,

(All are become a stiff-necke generation);

Rose hat-bands with the shagged-ragged ruffe,

Great cabbage-shoostrings (pray you bigge enough),

French dublet, and the Spanish hose to breech it,

Short cloakes, old mandilions[166] (we beseech it);

Exchange our swords, and take away our bils,

Let us have rapiers, (Knaves love fight that kils);

Put us in bootes, and make us leather legs:

This Harts, most humbly, and his fellows begs."

In Rowlands' 'More Knaves Yet? The Knaves of Spades and Diamonds,'

published after his 'Knave of Harts,' the Knaves of Spades and Diamonds

are represented in a modernised costume, bestowed on them by the

printer, and the favour is thus acknowledged.

[Illustration]

"Our fellow Hartes did late petition frame,

To card-makers some better sutes to clayme,

And for us all, did speake of all our wronges:

Yet they, to whom redresse herein belongs

Amend it not, and little hope appeares.

I thinke before the conquest many yeares,

We wore the fashion which we still retaine:

But seeing that our sute is spent in vaine,

Weele mend our selves as meanes in time doth grow,

Accepting what some other friends bestowe.

As now the honest printer hath bin kinde,

Bootes and stockins to our legs doth finde,

Garters, polonia heeles and rose shooe-strings,

Which, somewhat, us two knaves in fashion brings;

From the knee downeward, legs are well amended,

And we acknowledge that we are befrended,

And will requite him for it as we can:

A knave some time may serve an honest man.

To do him pleasure such a chaunce may fall,

Although indeed no trust in knaves at all.

He that must use them, take this rule from mee,

Still trust a knave no further than you see.

Well, other friends I hope wee shall beseech

For the great large abhominable breech,

Like brewers hop-sackes; yet since new they be,

Each knave will have them, and why should not wee?

Some laundresse we also will intreate,

For bandes and ruffes, which kindnes to be great

We will confesse, yea and requite it too,

In any service that poore knaves can doe:

Scarffes we do want, to hange our weapons by,

If any punck will deale so courteously

As in the way of favour to bestow them,

Rare cheating tricks we will protest to owe them.

Or any pander with a ring in's eare,

That is a gentleman (as he doth sweare),

And will afford us hats of newest blocke,

A payre of cardes shall be his trade and stocke,

To get his lyving by, for lack of lands,

Because he scornes to overworke his handes.

And thus ere long we trust we shall be fitted,

Those knaves that cannot shift are shallow witted."

By a proclamation of Charles I, June, 1638, it was ordered that after

the Michaelmas next all foreign cards should be sealed at London, and

packed in new bindings, or covers. A few years later, it would appear

that the importation of foreign cards was absolutely prohibited; for,

in July, 1643, upon the complaint of several poor card-makers, setting

forth that they were likely to perish by reason of divers merchants

bringing playing-cards into the kingdom, contrary to the laws and

statutes, order was given, by a committee appointed by parliament for

the navy and customs, that the officers of the customs should seize all

such cards, and proceed against the parties offending.[167]

When the civil war commenced, and the people became interested in a

sterner game, card-playing appears to have declined. The card-playing

gallant whose favorite haunts had been the playhouse and the tavern,

now became transformed into a cavalier, and displayed his bravery in

the field at the head of a troop of horse; whilst his old opponent,

the puritanical minister, incited by a higher spirit of indignation,

instead of holding forth on sports and pastimes and household vices,

now thundered on the "drum ecclesiastic" against national oppressors;

urged his congregation to stand up for their rights as men against the

pretensions of absolute monarchy and rampant prelacy, and to try the

crab-tree staff against the courtier's dancing rapier.

Among the numerous pamphlets which appeared during the contest there

are a few whose titles show that the game of cards, though not so much

in vogue as formerly, was still not forgotten.[168] The following are

the titles of three of such pamphlets, all quartos, the usual form of

the literary light infantry of the period. "Chartæ Scriptæ, or a New

Game at Cards, called Play by the Booke, 1645."--"Bloody Game of Cards,

played between the King of Hearts and his Suite against the rest of the

pack, shuffled at London, cut at Westminster, dealt at York, and played

in the open field."--"Shuffling, cutting, and dealing, in a game at

pickquet, being acted from the year 1653 to 1655, by O. P. and others,

1659."[169] In a 'Lenten Litany,' a backward prayer for the Rump,

written in the time of the Long Parliament, the appointment of three

keepers to the great seal is thus commemorated:

"From Villany dressed in a doublet of Zeal,

From three Kingdoms baked in one Commonweal,

From a Gleek of Lord Keepers of one poor seal

Libera nos Domine."[170]

It was probably as much owing to the circumstance of regular

playing-cards being in small request, as to any desire to promote

learning, that we have the "Scientiall Cards" mentioned in the

following title of a work, in which cards are made subservient to

the purposes of instruction, and which appears to have been one of

the earliest of the kind published in England.[171] "The Scientiall

cards; or a new and ingenious knowledge grammatically epitomised,

both for the pleasure and profit of schollers, and such as delight to

recollect (without any labour) the rudiments of so necessary an art

as grammer is, without hindering them from their more necessary and

graver studies, offering them as a second course unto you. Which, in

all points and suits, do represent your vulgar or common cards; so that

the perfection of the grammer principles may hereby be easily attained

unto, both with much delight and profit. Together with a key showing

the ready use of them. Written by a lover of ingenuity and learning.

And are to be sold by Baptist Pendleton at his house, near St.

Dunstan's Church in the east, or by John Holden, at the Anchor in the

New Exchange. 1651." Of those cards, or of the key, showing how they

are to be used, I know nothing beyond what is contained in the title

above given, which is preserved amongst Bagford's collections, Harleian

MSS. No. 5947, in the British Museum. I, however, greatly suspect that

the "lover of learning and ingenuity" who devised them, was specially

employed for the purpose by the maker, Mr. Baptist Pendleton, who,

sensible of the decline of his regular business, and noting the signs

of the times, might think it both for his interest and credit to

manufacture cards, which might serve indifferently for the purposes of

instruction, but equally as well for play as "your vulgar or common

cards," which were then in very bad repute. The Scientiall cards would

appear to have been well adapted for the use of persons who wished to

save appearances with the Puritans, and yet had no objection to play a

quiet game with the profane.

In 1656 was published a little book intitled 'The Schollers Practicall

Cards,' by F. Jackson, M.A., containing instructions by means of

cards how to spell, write, cypher, and cast accounts; together with

many other excellent and necessary rules of calculation, without

either almanack or ephemeris. "I am persuaded," says the author in his

preface, "that the cards, now in common use, may be reduced to such a

way of use as may not only contribute to knowledge and good learning,

but may also remove the scandall and abuse, which every tinker that

can but tell his peeps [pips] exposeth them unto. To that end I have

framed, for the recreation of sober and understanding people, that

which (although in form they represent common cards) in the inside,

as to the use that be made of them, affords profitable learning and

honest recreation: and herein there is much difference; the common

cards being meer fiction, like the foolish romances, not applicable to

any morall, or anything to be learned by them that is laudable." His

method, like all others of the same kind, may be interesting, from its

complicated absurdity, to those who already understand what he proposes

to teach; but must have formed an almost unsurmountable obstacle to the

unlettered, unless they were previously well grounded in Gleek, Ruff,

Post and Pair, Saunt,[172] Lodam, and Noddy,--the games to which he

chiefly refers in his instructions.

William Sheppard, sergeant-at-law, a great stickler, during the

ascendency of the Rump, for the reformation of the law and the

correction of manners, thus sets forth certain grievances, and, like

a good Samaritan, propounds a remedy for them in his work, entitled

'Englands Balme.'[173]

"It is objected,

"That there is no certain and clear law to punish prophane jesting,

fidling, ryming, piping, juggling, fortune-telling, tumbling, dancing

upon the rope, vaulting, ballad-singing, sword-playing, or playing

of prizes, ape-carrying, puppet-playing, bear-baiting, bull-baiting,

horse-racing, cock-fighting, carding, dicing, or other gaming;

especially the spending of much time, and the adventuring of great sums

of money herein.

"It is offered to consideration,

"That to the laws already made: 1. That it be in the power of any two

justices of the peace to binde to the goode behaivour such as are

offensive herein. 2. That they be, so long as they use it, uncapable

of bearing any office in the commonwealth. 3. That all payments to the

commonwealth be doubled on such persons."

His saintly delicacy, if not his Christian charity, is displayed in the

following "grievance" and "remedy:"

"There are some other cases wherein the law also is said to be somewhat

defective: as

"That there is no law against lascivious gestures, wanton and

filthy dalliance and familiarity, whorish attire, strange

fashions; such as are naked breasts, bare shoulders, powdering,

spotting, painting the face, curling and shearing the hair; excess

of apparel in servants and mean people.

"It is offered to consideration,

"1. That the justices of the peace at their Quarter Sessions may

binde any such to the good behaivour.

"2. That for a whorish attire, something of note be written upon

the door of her house to her disgrace, there to continue till she

wear sober attire."

The character of this puritanical reformer's liberality may be

estimated by his proposed remedies for the abuses of the press. As

his party were in power, there was no longer any occasion for free

discussion. Milton was opposed to such canting reformers as Sheppard,

and maintained the liberty of unlicensed printing.

"It is objected,

"That there are disorders in printing of books, for which there is

no remedy.

"It is offered for this to consider of these things:

"1. That printing-houses be reduced to a number.

"2. That no books be printed but be first perused.

"3. That no dangerous books be printed here, carried beyond sea,

and brought in hither.

"4. That the right of every mans copy be preserved.

"5. That every man shall licence his own book and be answerable

for it."

On the accession of Charles II, a reaction took place; and people who

had felt themselves coerced in their amusements by the puritanical

party, seem now to have gloried in their excesses, not so much from

any positive pleasure that they might feel in their vicious courses,

but as evincing their triumph over those who formerly kept them in

restraint. From the example of the king himself, a sensual, selfish

profligate, vice became fashionable at court, where gross depravity

of manners seems to have been admitted as _prima facie_ evidence of

loyal principles. His majesty's personal favorites, from the wealthy

noble who had a seat at the council-table, to the poor gentlemen who

served as a private in the horse-guards, seem all to have been eager

to divert the "merry monarch" by their shameless profligacy. The man

of _ton_ of the period, was professionally a rake and a gamester,

and often a liar and cheat; boasting of an intrigue with "my lady,"

while in truth he was _kept_ by "my lord's" mistress; and pretending

that he had won a hundred pieces of "the duke," at the groom-porter's

at St. James's, when he had merely "rooked" a gay city 'prentice

of five pounds at a shilling ordinary in Shire Lane. The morals and

manners of the country, generally, at that period, are not, however,

to be estimated by those of the court and the so-called "fashionable

world." A numerous and influential class remained uncontaminated by

their example; and laboured zealously to stem the torrent of vice

which, issuing from the court, threatened to deluge the whole country.

Though "the saints" no longer enjoyed the fatness of the land, they

still exercised great influence over the minds of the middle classes,

and fostered in them a deep religious feeling, and a strict observance

of decency, which were in direct opposition to the principles and

practice of the sovereign and his court. At no period of our history,

do the profligacy of one class and the piety of another appear in

more striking contrast. On looking closer, however, it would seem

that this effect is, in a great degree, produced by the approximation

of the extremes of each,--of sinners who painted themselves blacker

than they really were, and of saints who heightened their lights and

exalted their purity, while they were in truth but as "a whitened

wall." A slight glance at the literature of the time of Charles II,

will show that mankind do not become worse as the world grows older:

the depravity which existed in his reign, is generally dwelt on by

historians and moralists, though but few take the trouble of informing

their readers that correctives for it, in the shape of good books,

were at no period more abundant. For a picture of the manners of the

time, we are referred to licentious plays and obscene poems, as if they

formed the staple literature of the day,--as if all men frequented the

playhouse and read Rochester, but never went to church or conventicle,

nor read the numerous moral and religious works which then issued from

the press. In the time of Charles II, the representation of plays was

almost exclusively confined to London; and it may be questioned if

even one of the licentious comedies of the period was represented on a

provincial stage. The obscene books which were written in his reign for

the entertainment of the fashionable world have sunk into disrepute,

and are only to be found in the libraries of collectors of what are

termed "Facetiæ;" while those of higher purpose are in constant demand,

and are known to millions. More copies of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'

have been sold than of all the bad books that ever were written through

the encouragement of Charles II and his courtiers.

But to come from this digression to the game we have in hand.

Barrington, who is singularly unfortunate in his speculations about

cards, and who seems to have been prone to draw general conclusions

from special premises, says, that "Ombre was probably introduced

by Catherine of Portugal, the queen of Charles II, as Waller hath

a poem 'On a card torn at Ombre by the Queen.'" The game, however,

was introduced before the arrival of the queen; for a work entitled

the 'Royal game of Ombre' was published at London in 1660,[174] and

Catherine did not arrive at Portsmouth till 14th May, 1662. Charles,

on hearing of the queen's arrival, seems to have intrusted a right

reverend prelate with a delicate commission: his majesty, according to

Aurelian Cook, Gent., "having sent the Bishop of London thither before

him to consummate the sacred rights of marriage, which was to be done

in private."[175]

From the following passage in Pepys's Diary, under the date 17th Feb.

1667, it would appear that her majesty was accustomed to play at cards

on a Sunday,--a crime of the greatest magnitude in the eyes of certain

persons, who insist that the Christian Sunday should be observed like

a Jewish Sabbath, and who yet have no objection to roast pig.[176]

"This evening," says Mr. Pepys, "going to the Queene's side to see the

ladies, I did finde the Queene, the Duchesse of York, and another or

two, at cards, with the room full of ladies and great men; which I was

amazed at to see on a Sunday, having not believed it, but, contrarily,

flatly denied the same a little while since to my cosen Roger Pepys."

The Duchess of York here mentioned, was Anne Hyde, first wife of James,

Duke of York, afterwards James II. Her daughter, Mary, afterwards

Queen of England, used also to play at cards on a Sunday, as we learn

from the following passage in the diary of her spiritual director, Dr.

Edward Lake, printed in the Camden Miscellany, vol. i, 1847: "Jan. 9.

1677-8. I was very sorry to understand that the Princess of Orange,

since her being in Holland, did sometimes play at cards upon the

Sundays, which would doubtless give offence to that people. I remember

that about two years since being with her highness in her closett,

shee required my opinion of it. I told her I could not say 'twas a sin

to do so, but 'twas not expedient; and, for fear of giving offence, I

advised her highness not to do it, nor did shee play upon Sundays while

shee continued here in England." Card-playing on Sundays would appear

to have been equally common with the select circle who had the honour

of partaking of his majesty's amusements. Evelyn, in his Memoirs,

writing on 6th Feb. 1685, the day when James II was proclaimed, says,

"I never can forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming

and all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God (it

being Sunday evening), which this day se'nnight I was witness of, the

king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleaveland,

and Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing love songs in that glorious

gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute

persons were at Basset[177] round a large table; a bank of at least

£2000 in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with me

made reflexions with astonishment. Six days after, all was in the dust!"

In the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles II an act was passed

which might justly be entitled "An Act to legalise Gaming; to prevent

wealthy Pigeons being plucked by artful Rooks, and to discourage

Betting or Playing for large Sums upon Tick." An act of the same kind,

passed in the reign of Queen Anne, was repealed in 1844, in consequence

of its penalties being likely to fall heavy on some eminent sporting

characters who had been so indiscreet as to receive sundry large sums

in payment of bets lost to them upon credit. Its enactment and its

repeal are significant indications of the state of the sporting world

at the two respective periods. It seems to have been framed on a

presumption that, in gaming, noble and wealthy sportsmen would be most

likely to lose; and to have been repealed because certain noble and

wealthy sportsmen had won, and received their bets. The parties in

whose favour the act was repealed, were said to have been liable to

penalties to the amount of £500,000: the law did not anticipate that

lords and squires would be winners, nor intend that needy prosecutors

should be enriched at their expense. The preamble and some of the

provisions of the act of Charles II are here given as "Curiosities of

Gambling Legislation."

"Whereas all lawful Games and Exercises should not be otherwise used

than as innocent and moderate recreations, and not as constant trades

or callings, to gain a living, or make unlawful advantage thereby; and

whereas by the immoderate use of them many mischiefs and inconveniences

do arise, and are dayly found to the maintaining and encouraging of

sundry idle, loose, and disorderly persons in their dishonest, lewd,

and dissolute course of life, and to the circumventing, deceiving,

cousening, and debauching of many of the younger sort, both of the

nobility and gentry, and others, to the loss of their precious time,

and the utter ruin of their estates and fortunes, and withdrawing them

from noble and laudable employments and exercises.

"Be it therefore enacted, that if any person or persons, of any degree

or quality whatsoever, shall by any fraud, cousenage, circumvention,

deceit, &c. in playing at Cards, Dice, Tables, Tennis, Bowls, Kittles,

Shovel-board, or in or by Cock-fightings, Horse-races, Dog-matches, or

Foot-races &c. or by betting on the sides or hands of such as play,

win, obtain, or acquire any sum or sums of money or any other valuable

thing; that then every person so offending shall _ipso facto_ forfeit

treble the sum or value of money, or other thing, so won, gained, or

acquired.

"And for the better avoiding and preventing of all excessive and

immoderate playing and gaming for the time to come, be it further

enacted, that if any person shall play at any of the said games, or any

other pastime whatsoever (otherwise than with and for ready money), or

shall bet on the sides of such as play, and shall lose any sum of money

or other thing played for, exceeding the sum of one hundred pounds, at

one time or meeting, upon ticket or credit, or otherwise, and shall

not pay down the same at the time when he shall so lose the same, the

party who loseth the said moneys, or other things so played for, above

the said sum of one hundred pounds, shall not, in that case, be bound

or compelled to pay or make good the same; and that all Contracts,

Judgments, Statutes, Recognizances, Mortgages, &c. made, given,

acknowledged, or entered for security and payment of the same shall be

utterly void and of none effect. And, lastly, it is enacted, that the

person, or persons, so winning the said moneys, or other things, shall

forfeit and lose treble the value of all such sum and sums of money, or

other thing which he shall so win (above the said sum of one hundred

pounds), the one moiety to the King, and the other to the Prosecutor."

The passion for gaming at that period, and its consequences to wealthy

flats, are thus described by Dryden:

"What age so large a crop of vices bore,

Or when was avarice extended more?

When were the dice with more profusion thrown?

The well-filled fob not emptied now alone,

But gamesters for whole patrimonies play:

The steward brings the deeds which must convey

The lost estate. What more than madness reigns,

When one short sitting many hundreds drains,

And not enough is left him to supply

Board wages, or a footman's livery?"

During the reign of Charles II, the business of card-making greatly

increased in England: and the game appears to have been so generally

understood as to induce many ingenious persons to employ cards not only

as a means of diffusing useful and entertaining knowledge, but also of

advertising their wares. The same mode of instruction was adopted about

the same period in France; but in England it appears to have embraced

a wider range of subjects; in France, scientific cards appear to have

been devised for the exclusive use of the nobility and gentry, and to

have been confined to their instruction in the conundrums of heraldry

and the elements of history and geography;[178] while in England they

were "adapted to the meanest capacity;" and in addition to the uses

for which they were employed in France, were made subservient to the

purposes of communicating knowledge in grammar, history, politics,

morality, mathematics, and the art of carving.

A Mons. De Brainville invented at Lyons, about 1660, a pack of

Heraldic cards, in which the Aces and Knaves, "les As et Valets,"

were represented by the arms of certain princes and nobles. Now as

this was evidently a breach of etiquette and a derogation of heraldic

nobility--Mons. De Brainville, like Mr. Anstis, does not seem to

have rightly understood his own "foolish business"[179]--the plates

were seized by the magistrates. As it appeared, however, that he had

given offence through pure inadvertence, and not with any satirical

intention, the plates were restored to him on condition of his

altering the odious names of "As" and "Valets" into Princes and

Chevaliers. In 1678 Antoine Bulifon carried the same kind of cards to

Naples, where Don Annibal Aquaviva established a society to play at

Blazon, under the name of "Armeristi," with the map of Europe for a

device, and the motto, "Pulchra sub imagine Ludi."[180]

About the same time that Heraldic cards were introduced into Naples, a

pack of the same kind as these of Mons. De Brainville were engraved in

England. In these cards, specimens of which are given in the annexed

plate, the honours of the several suits are thus represented. Each of

the cards representing a Knave, is marked P, for Prince; and a stamp

appears on the Ace of Spades.

CLUBS.

KING, by the arms of the Pope.

QUEEN " King of Naples.

PRINCE (Knave) " Duke of Savoy.

ACE " Republics of Venice, Genoa, and Lucca.

SPADES.

KING " King of France.

QUEEN " Sons of France, the Dauphin, Duke of Anjou,

and Duke of Orleans.

PRINCE " Princes of the Blood--Bourbon, Berry,

Vendome, and Alençon.

ACE " Ecclesiastical Peers--Rheims, Langres,

and Laon.

DIAMONDS.

KING " King of Spain.

QUEEN " King of Portugal.

PRINCE " Castile and Leon.

ACE " Arragon.

HEARTS.

KING " King of England.

QUEEN " Emperor of Germany.

PRINCE " Bohemia and Hungary.

ACE " Poland.

In the annexed specimens, which are of the same size as the originals,

the honours represented are the King of Clubs, the Queen of Hearts,

the King of Diamonds, and the Ace of Spades. The arms of the Pope,

representing the King of Clubs, are those of Clement IX, who was

elected 20th June, 1667, and died 9th December, 1669.

In another pack of Heraldic cards, relating entirely to England,

probably engraved about the same period, the armorial ensigns of the

King and the nobility were thus distributed amongst the _Têtes_ and

_Pips_.[181] The King and Queen of Hearts were respectively represented

by the arms of England and of the Duke of York; of Diamonds, by the

arms of Ireland, and of Prince Rupert; of Spades, by the arms of

France, and of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York; and of Clubs,

by the arms of Scotland, and of the Dukes of Norfolk, Somerset, and

Buckingham. In this pack there were no Knaves. The arms of the Earls

were distributed amongst the sevens, eights, nines, and tens; the

Viscounts furnished the sixes; the Bishops were quartered on the fives;

and the Barons' coats armorial clothed the nakedness of the lower

orders, from the fours to the aces,--the aces in the Heraldic game

being low. From a kind of title-page, or perhaps wrapper, preserved

in Bagford's collection, in the British Museum, it would appear that

the publication of those cards was licensed by the Duke of Norfolk, as

Earl Marshal of England, and as such entitled to take cognizance of all

matters relating to heraldry.

[Illustration: _The_ POPE, _The_ EMPEROUR

_Castille & Leon_,

_Eclesiasticks Dukes and Peirs (Reims, Longres, Laon)_]

In playing the game armorial with Heraldic cards, the players were

required to properly describe the various colours and charges of the

different shields; but as this could not be done without some previous

knowledge of the science of heraldry, a Mons. Gauthier was led to

devise, about 1686, a new pack of Heraldic cards, simply explaining the

terms of blazon, and thus serving as an introduction to the grand

game.[182] The Heraldic game, however, never was popular; and does not

even appear to have been in much esteem with the higher orders, for

whose instruction and entertainment it was specially devised. It would

seem to have declined in France with the glory of Louis XIV, and not to

have survived the Revolution in England.

About 1679, there was published a pack of cards, containing, according

to the advertisement, "An History of all the Popish Plots that have

been in England, beginning with those in Queen Elizabeth's time, and

ending with the last damnable plot against his Majesty Charles II, with

the manner of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's murder, &c. All excellently

engraved on copper-plates, with very large descriptions under each

card. The like not extant. Sold by Randal Taylor, near Stationers Hall,

and by most booksellers, price One Shilling each pack." In a "puff

collusive,"[183] forming a kind of postscript to this announcement,

approbation of these cards is thus indirectly made a test of staunch

Protestantism. "Some persons who care not what they say, and to whom

lying is as necessary as eating, have endeavoured to asperse this

pack by a malitious libel, intimating that it did not answer what is

proposed. The contrary is evident. Aspersers of this pack plainly show

themselves popishly affected."[184]

Such a pack of cards as that announced in the advertisement referred

to--"containing an history of all the popish plots that have been in

England, beginning with those in Queen Elizabeth's time"--I have never

seen; and from the objection which was made to it at the time, namely,

that "it did not answer what was proposed," I am inclined to think that

it was the same pack as that which relates entirely to the pretended

Popish plot of 1678, and the murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey. A pack

of the latter now before me appears to have been published about 1680,

and certainly subsequent to the 18th of July, 1679; as on the Four

of Clubs is represented the trial of Sir George Wakeman and three

Benedictine monks, who on that day were arraigned at the Old Bailey

on an indictment of high treason for conspiring to poison the king.

The complete pack consists of fifty-two cards; and each contains a

subject, neatly engraved, either relating to the plot or the trial

and punishment of the conspirators, with a brief explanation at the

foot. At the top are the marks of the suit; and the value of the low

cards, from one to ten, is expressed in Roman numerals. The suits of

Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs consist chiefly of illustrations of the

pretended plot, as detailed in the evidence of Titus Oates and Captain

Bedloe; while the suit of Clubs relates entirely to the murder of Sir

Edmundbury Godfrey. An idea of the whole pack may be formed from the

following description of a few of the cards of each suit. HEARTS:

King: the King and privy councillors seated at the council-table;

Titus Oates standing before them: inscription at the foot, "_Dr. Oates

discovereth y^e Plot to y^e King and Councell_." The Eight: "_Coleman

writeing a declaration and letters to la Chess_,"--Père la Chaise.

The Ace: the Pope with three cardinals and a bishop at a table, and

the devil underneath: "_The Plot first hatcht at Rome by the Pope and

Cardinalls, &c._" DIAMONDS: Knave: "_Pickerin attempts to kill y^e K.

in S^t James Park_." The Four: "_Whitebread made Provintiall_." The

Ace: "_The consult at the white horse Taverne_." CLUBS: King: "_Cap^t

Bedlow examind by y^e secret Comitee of the House of Commons_." The

Nine: "_Father Connyers preaching against y^e oathes of alegiance &

supremacy_." The Six: "_Cap^t Berry and Alderman Brooks are offer'd_

500£ _to cast the plot on the Protestants_." SPADES: Queen: "_The Club

at y^e Plow Ale house for the murther of S. E. B. Godfree_." The Nine:

"_S^r E. B. Godfree strangled, Girald going to stab him_." The Five:

"_The body of S^r E. B. G. carry'd to Primrose hill on a horse_."

Another pack of historical cards, apparently published in the same

reign, but of inferior execution to the former, appears to have related

to the Rye-house plot. As these cards are of even greater rarity than

those relating to the Popish plot, the following description of four

of them--all that I have ever seen--is here given as a stimulus to

collectors. Queen of Hearts: "_Thompson one of y^e conspirators taken

at Hammersmith_." Knave of Diamonds: "_Rumbold the malster_;" on a

label proceeding from his mouth is the inscription, "_They shall dye_."

Ace of Clubs: "_Keeling troubled in mind_:" on a label proceeding from

his mouth, "_King killing is damnable_." Ace of Spades: "_Hone taken

prisoner at Cambridge_." Shortly after the Revolution of 1688, one or

two packs of cards appeared with subjects relating to the misgovernment

of James II, and the birth of his son the Prince of Wales. In the reign

of either Charles II or James II was published a pack of mathematical

cards, by Thomas Tuttell, "mathematical instrument-maker to the King's

most excellent Majesty." Those cards were designed by Boitard, and

engraved by J. Savage; they represent various kinds of mathematical

instruments, together with the trades and professions in which they are

used. They were evidently "got up" as an advertisement. A few years

afterwards, Moxon, also a mathematical instrument-maker, followed suit.

"It would be difficult," says Mons. Leber, "to name an elementary

book of science or art, which had not a pack of cards as an auxiliary.

Grammar, Rhetoric, Fable, Geography, History, Heraldry, the principles

of Morals and Politics,--all these things, and many others besides,

were to be learnt through the medium of play. The game of cards had

served for the amusement of a royal lunatic; and similar games were

comprehended in the plan for the education of one of our greatest

kings.[185]--Though France had a large share in the dissemination of

such treasures of knowledge, England showed herself not less diligent

in working the same mine; if to us she owes the game of Piquet, it is

from her own proper resources that she has endowed the culinary art

with a game of a different kind, yet highly interesting considered

in its relation to the play of the jaws, the most ancient and highly

esteemed of all play. It was in December, 1692, that the London papers

first announced to the world the invention of the game of Carving at

Table. This precious announcement is conceived in the following terms:

'THE GENTEEL HOUSEKEEPER'S PASTIME; or the mode of Carving at the

table, represented in a pack of Playing Cards, with a book by which

any ordinary capacity may learn how to cut up, or carve in mode, all

the most usual dishes of flesh, fish, fowl, and baked meats, with

the several sawces and garnishes proper to each dish of meat. Price

1_s._ 6_d._ Sold by J. Moxon, Warwick Lane.'"[186] In those cards the

suit of Hearts is occupied by flesh; Diamonds by fowl; Clubs by fish;

and Spades by baked meats. The King of Hearts presides over a sirloin

of beef; of Diamonds over a turkey; of Clubs over a pickled herring;

and of Spades over a venison pasty. A red stamp on the Ace of Spades

belonging to a pack which I have had an opportunity of examining,

contains the words "Six pence." If this was the duty on each pack, it

was certainly great for the period.

In the reign of Queen Anne and that of George I, several packs of

satirical and fanciful cards were published. A pack of the latter

description, now in the possession of Thomas Heywood, Esq., of

Pendleton, near Manchester, relates entirely to the subject of love.

Each card is neatly engraved on copper; and, from the stamp on the Ace

of Spades, it appears evident that they were manufactured and sold for

the purposes of play. The subject of this card is a Cupid plucking a

rose, with the inscription "In love no pleasure without pain," and the

following verses at the foot:

"As when we reach to crop y^e blooming rose

From off its by'r, y^e thorns will interpose;

So when we strive the beauteous nymph to gain,

Y^e pleasures we pursue are mixed with pain."

All the other cards have, in the same manner, explanatory verses at the

foot. The mark of the suit is placed at the top, to the left, and above

it is engraved the value of the card, in Roman numerals. In the coat

cards, the name of each,--King, Queen, or Knave--is engraved above the

mark of the suit. This pack has been in the possession of Mr. Heywood's

family for upwards of a century.