To all Folky's vertuose,
That gentil bene and amerouse,
Which love the fair play notable,
Of the Chesse most delytable,
Whith all her hoole full entente,
Where they shall fynde, and son anoone,
How that I not yere agoone,
Was of a Fers so Fortunate,
Into a corner drive and maat.
The old English names in Lydgate, are 1, Kynge, 2, Queen or
Fers, 3, Awfn, or Alfin, 4, Knyght, or Horseman, 5, Roke or
Rochus, 6, Paune.
Although Shakespeare makes no mention of chess in his works,
some of his brother dramatists, and other writers who were
contemporary with him, were fond of referring to it. Skelton, poet
laureate to Henry the Eighth, says:
For ye play so at the chesse,
As they suppose and guess,
That some of you but late,
Hath played so checkmate,
With Lords of High estate,
And again,
Our dayes be datyed,
To be check matyed.
Many other poets and writers of that age, drew similes and
figures of speech from the chess board, including Spencer, Cowley,
Denham, Beaumont and Fletcher, quaint Arthur Saul and John
Dryden.
Middleton's Comedy of Chesse, 1624, was acted at the Globe.
It was however a sort of religious controversy, the game being
played by a member of the Church of England, and another of
the Church of Rome, the former in the end gaining the victory.
The play being considered too political, the author was cast into
prison, from which he obtained his release by the following
petition to the King.
A harmless game, coyned only for delight,
T'was played betwixt the black house and the white,
The white house won, yet still the black doth brag,
They had the power to put me in the bag,
Use but your hand, tw'll set me free,
T'is but removing of a man, that's me.
Philidor states in his work that historians have commemorated
the following Sovereigns as chess players: Charlemagne,
Tamerlane, Sebastian, King of Portugal, Philip II King of
Spain, The Emperor Charles V, Catherine of Medecis, Queen of
France, Pope Leo X, Henry IV of France, Queen Elizabeth,
Louis XIII, James I of England (who used to call the game a
philosophical folly,) Louis XIV, William III, Charles XII, and
Frederick of Russia.
Of these, Charlemagne, who reigned 768 to 814 is the earliest
name. Tamerlane or Timur who dominated at the end of the
14th century is the next. The remainder date from the 16th
century.
To this list the renowned and esteemed Philidor might have
made some very material additions. If the first Indian account
of Kings, Kaid and Porus, in Alexander the Great's time, is to
be relied on, the Macedonian conqueror who was in friendly
alliance with Porus in 326 B.C., might have become acquainted
with chess, and Aristotle, some time his tutor, may have played
it as supposed in one of the Arabian manuscripts. Chosroes,
King of Persia, who reigned from 531 to 579, Harun Ar Rashid,
786 to 809, Al Amin, his first son, 809 to 813, the magnificent
Al Mamun, his second son, 813 to 833, Al Mutasem, the most
skilful player among the rulers, 833 to 842, and Al Wathick,
842 to 847, the five successive Caliphs of the powerful Abbasside
dynasty, during the palmy period called the Golden Age of
Arabian Literature, are identified with a very interesting period
of chess practice and progress, and are all recorded to have been
chess players. Al Walid the Sixth, of Umeyyah, 705 to 715,
who through his generals, Tarik Ibn Zeyyad and Musa Ibn
Nosseyr and their armies invaded, conquered and occupied Spain,
is the earliest ruler we read of as a chess player after its first
great friend and patron Chosroes, but it is pretty certain that
Justinian, who died in 565, and was contemporary with Chosroes,
was also an exponent and supporter of the game.
Of the one hundred and sixty monarchs who ruled the East
Africa and Spain from the days of Bekr, Omar, and the Prophet to
the downfall of Moorish ascendancy in the middle of the
Thirteenth century, we read of several who emulated the tastes
of their most famous predecessors, and the Rahmans, Mansur and
An Nassirs vied with Harun and Al Mamum in their patronage
and encouragement of all sorts of learning arts and sciences.
Of the powerful Abbasside dynasty which lasted from 749 to 1258,
there were 37 Caliphs whose chess doings and sayings alone
would, it is said fill a good-sized volume.
NOTE. In addition to the 37 of Abbas and 14 of Umeyyah 664 to 749,
there were 17 of Beni Umeyyah 755 to 1030, there were 14 Fatimites,
893 to 1169, 5 Almmoravides (exclusive of Abdullah, the founder),
the Mahdi, 1059 to 1145, 13 Almohades, 1130 to 1269, and 8 Sultans
of Almowat, 1095 to 1256. These with about 52 other rulers,
Sultans, Emperors or Kings of Cordova, Toledo, Seville, Khorassan,
Valentia and Badajoz, make up a list of about 160 rulers, who
swayed the East Africa and Mohammedan Spain for about 650 years.
The Moors after suffering great defeats in 1085 and 1139 received
a final check in the great battle of 1212, and in 1248 when
Ferdinand III of Castile took Seville their powers of aggression
had vanished.
NOTE. Abbasides is the name generally given to the Beni Abbas or
descendants of Abbas, who succeeded the Beni Umeyyah in the
Empire of the East. Owing to their descent from the uncle of the
Prophet, they had ever since the introduction of Islam been held
in great esteem by the Arabs, and had frequently aspired to the
Khalifate. In the year 132, A.D. 749-750, Abul-abbas Abdullah,
son of Mohammed, son of Ali, son of Abdullah, son of Abbas Ibn
Aldi-l-Mutalib, uncle of the Prophet Mohammed, revolted at Kujah,
and after putting to death Merwan II, the last Khalif of the house
of Umeyyah, was unanimously raised to the throne. Thirty-seven
Khalifs of the dynasty of Abbas reigned for a period of 523 lunar
or Mohammedan years over the East (Spain, Africa and Egypt)
having been successively detached from their Empire, until the
last of them, Al Mut'assem, was deprived both of his kingdom and
his life by the Tartars under Hulaku Khan, 1258.
NOTE. The Khalif Al Mamum was one day playing with one of his
courtiers, who moved negligently and in a careless manner, the
Khalif perceived it and got wrath, and turned over the board and
men, and said: "He wants to deceive me and practice on my
understanding; and he vowed on earth that this person should never
play with him again." In like manner, it is related of Walid ben
Abdul Malik ben Merwan, that on an occasion when one of his
courtiers, who used to play with him negligently at chess,
omitted to follow the proper rules of the game, the Khalif
struck him a blow with the Ferzin (or Queen) which broke his
head, saying: "Woe unto thee! Art thou playing chess, and art
thou in thy senses."
NOTE. The 37th and last Khalif of Abbaside, was dethroned and put
to death by Hulaku. the son of Genghis Khan in 1258, when the
Tartars were also sorely troubling part of the Christian world,
and frightening the Popes. Unluckily for Oriental Literature we
are told, scarcely any of the comparatively few works of the
"Golden Age of Arabian Literature" saved from destruction, have
been translated or made known to us, but we may conclude that of
the one hundred and sixty rulers, not a few emulating Harun, Mamun,
Walid and Mutasem, were more or less like them, devoted to the
game. The powerful Abbaside Dynasty lasted from 749 to 1258, and
there were 37 Khalifs of that race, the chess sayings and doings
of whom alone, it is said, would fill a good-size volume, chess
has had to contend against the consideration that the greatest
historians and biographers, with the exception of Cunningham and
Forbes, and perhaps Gibbon were not players, hence what we do
possess is gathered from scattered allusion, incidental and
accidental rather than sustained or connected narrative or
biographical notice. Canute the Dane, 1016-1035, William the First,
and other English Kings, not so well attested, are absent from
Philidor's list. Henry I, John, two of the Edwards, I and IV,
and Charles I are identified with the chess incidents. Accounts
of Henry VII and Henry VIII, contain items of expense connected
with the game. The bluff king it is said played chess, as Wolsey
and Cranmer did, and as Pitt, and Wilberforce, and Sunderland,
Bolingbroke and Sydney Smyth have in our generations. The vain and
tyrant king, like the Ras of Abyssinia, who we hear of through
Salt and Buckle much preferred winning, and was probably readily
accommodated. Less magnanimous and wise, these two, Henry and Ras,
did not in this respect resemble Al Mamun and Tamerlane, whom Ibn
Arabshah, Gibbon and others tell us, had no dislike to being beaten,
but rather honored their opponents. The chessmen of Henry VIII were
last heard of in the possession of Sir Thomas Herbert, those of
Charles I were with Lord Barrington. Chess men were kept for Queen
Elizabeth's use by Lord Cecil, the Earl of Leicester, and Sir
John Harrington.
In olden times as supposed, Alexander the Great, perhaps from
acquaintance with India and its Kings, and their powerful Porus,
326 B.C., may have known chess and possibly Aristotle, sometime his
tutor, who some say, invented chess, also played it. The most
ancient names are the renowned Prince Yudhistheira, eldest son of
King Pandu of the Sanskrit chess period, the yet earlier Prince
Nala of the translated poems, and further back we have the Brahmin
Radha Kants account from the old Hindu law book, that the wife of
Ravan, King of Lanka, Ceylon, invented chess in the second age of
the world. Associated with games not chess, but more like Draughts
in China, there are Emperor Yao, 2300 B.C., Wa Wung 1122 B.C.,
Confucius 551 B.C., Hung Cochu, 172 B.C, and in Egypt, Queen Hatasu
about 1750 B.C., Amenoph II, 1687 to 1657 B.C., and Rameses IV
1559 to 1493 B.C.
NOTE. The Throne, Cartouche, Signet, and other relics. The
Draught Box and Draughtsmen of Queen Hatasu in the Manchester
Exhibition 1887. Date B.C. 1600. The catalogue says: These
remarkable relics, the workmanship of royal artists 3,500
years ago, i.e., 200 years before the birth of Moses, are now
being exhibited for the first time, by the kind permission of
their owner, Jesse Haworth, Esq. Queen Hatasu was the favourite
daughter of Thotmes I, and the sister of Thotmes II and III,
Egyptian Kings of the XVIII dynasty. She reigned conjointly with
her eldest brother, then alone for 15 years, and for a short time
with her younger brother, Thotmes III. She was the Elizabeth of
Egyptian history: had a masculine genius and unbounded ambition.
A woman, she assumed male attire; was addressed as a king even in
the inscriptions upon her monument. Her edifices are said to be
"the most tasteful, most complete and brilliant creations which
ever left the hands of an Egyptian architect." The largest and
most beautifully executed obelisk; still standing at Karnak, bears
her name. On the walls of her unique and beautiful temple at Dayr
el Baharee, we see a naval expedition sent to explore the unknown
land of Punt, the Somali country on the East coast of Africa near
Cape Guardafui 600 years before the fleets of Solomon, and
returning laden with foreign woods, rare trees, gums, perfumes
and strange beasts. Here we have 1. Queen Hatasu's throne, made of
wood foreign to Egypt, the legs most elegantly carved in imitation
of the legs of an animal, covered with gold down to the hoof,
finishing with a silver band. Each leg has carved in relief two
Uroei, the sacred cobra serpent of Egypt, symbolic of a goddess.
These are plated with gold. Each arm is ornamented with a serpent
curving gracefully along from head to tail, the scales admirably
imitated by hundreds of inlaid silver rings. The only remaining
rail is plated with silver. The gold and silver are of the
purest quality.
2. A fragment of the Cartouche or oval bearing the royal name, and
once attached to the Throne; the hieroglyphics are very elegantly
carved in relief, with a scroll pattern round the edge, and around
one margin, and a palm frond pattern around the other. About one
fourth of the oval remains, by means of which our distinguished
Egyptologist, Miss Amelia B. Edwards, L.L.D., has been able to
complete the name and identify the throne. On one side is the
great Queen's throne name, Ru-ma-ka. On the other the family name,
Amen Knum Hat Shepsu, commonly read Hatasu. With all its
imperfections it is unique, being the only throne which has ever
been disinterred in Egypt.
3. A female face boldy, but exquisitely carved in dark wood, from
the lid of a coffin, the effigy strongly resembling the face of
the sitting statue of Hatasu in the Berlin Museum: the eyes and
double crown are lost.
4. The Signet: This is a Scarabaeus, in turquoise bearing the
Cartouche of Queen Hatasu, once worn as a ring.
5. The Draught Box and Draughtmen: The box is of dark wood,
divided on its upper side by strips of ivory into 30 squares, on
its under side into 20 squares, 12 being at one end and 8 down the
centre; some of these contained hieroglyphics inlaid, three of
which still remain, also a drawer for holding the draughts.
These draughts consist of about 20 pieces, carved with most
exquisite art and finish in the form of lions' heads--the
hieroglyphic sign for "Hat" in Hatasu. Also two little standing
figures of Egyptian men like pages or attendants, perfect, and
admirable specimens of the delicate Egyptian art. These may have
been markers, or perhaps the principle pieces. Two sides of
another draught box, of blue porcelain and ivory, with which are
two conical draughts of blue porcelain and ivory and three other
ivory pieces.
6. Also parts of two porcelain rings and porcelain rods, probably
for some unknown game.
7. With the above were found a kind of salvo or perfume spoon in
green slate, and a second in alabaster.
The coffin of Thotmes I and the bodies of Thotmes II and III, were
found at Dayr el Baharee in 1881, that of their sister, Queen
Hatasu, had disappeared but her cabinet was there, and is now in
the Boulack Museum, and I have no doubt whatever, says Miss
Edwards, "that this throne and these other relics are from
that tomb."