Chapter III: The Progress of Card-Playing (2)

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.

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]

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.

"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.

_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.

A pack of satirical cards, belonging to W. H. Diamond, Esq., Frith street, Soho square, appear to have been executed about the same time. Each subject has an explanatory couplet at the bottom, and the value of each in the game is indicated by a small card engraved at the top, to the left. As in the other pack, there is a red stamp on the Ace of Spades. All the subjects are coarsely engraved, though some of them display points of character very much in the style of Hogarth. In the Three of Spades there is a billiard-table, at which a gentleman is playing with a curved cue. The inscription is:

"Think not a losing gamester will be fair,
"Who at y^e best ne're playd upon the square."

In the Ten of Spades, a Moorfields quack is seen pointing to his sign, with the inscription:

"To famed Moorfields I dayly do repair;
Kill worms, cure itch, and make y^e ladies fair."

In the Ace of Diamonds, a lady is seen showing her palm to a fortune-teller, with the inscription:

"How can you hope this Gipsey drabb should know
The Fates decrees, and who was made for you."

In the Four of Diamonds, a lady is seen exchanging some of her clothes for china ware, with an itinerant dealer. The inscription is:

"Your pockets, madam, surely are wondrous bare,
To sell your very clothes for china ware."

In the Ten of Diamonds, the interior of a shop is shown, with articles of plate on the shelves. A woman is standing behind the counter, on which are a box and dice, and in front are a lady and gentleman who seem to have just thrown. The inscription is:

"At Epsom oft these rafflings I have seen,
But assignation's what they chiefly mean."

In England, books containing instructions for playing at cards appear to have been first published in the reign of Charles II, to the great benefit, most assuredly, of all adepts who had acquired their knowledge by practice; for in card-playing, as well as in chemistry, the experienced manipulators have a great advantage over the merely book-learned when matters are brought to the test. The real science of play is not to be acquired by the study of books, but by frequent encounters across the table, with men, whose keenness ensures attention to the rules of the game. But, even with the knowledge thus acquired, the proficient will gain but little, unless he also be skilled in the discrimination of flats and sharps.

In 1670, an edition of a book entitled 'Wits Interpreter,' was enlarged with directions for playing the "Courtly Games of L'Hombre, Piquit, Gleek, and Cribbage;" and in 1674 appeared Cotton's "Compleat Gamester; or, Instructions how to play at all manner of usual and most Gentile games, either on Cards, Dice, Billiards, Trucks, Bowls, or Chess." This book was several times reprinted; and in an edition published in 1709, the following are enumerated as the principal games at cards: Piquet; Gleek; l'Ombre, a Spanish game; Cribbage; All-Fours; English Ruff and Honours, alias Slam; Whist; French Ruff; Five Cards; a game called Costly Colours; Bone-Ace; Put, and the High Game; Wit and Reason, a game so called; a Pastime called the Art of Memory; a game called Plain-Dealing; a game called Queen Nazareen; Lanterloo; a game called Penneech; Bankafalet; Beast;[187] and Basset.[188]

The game of Whist, or Whisk, as it seems to have been usually called, is unquestionably of English origin, and appears to have been popular long before it became fashionable.

"Let India vaunt her children's vast address,
Who first contriv'd the warlike sport of Chess;
Let nice Piquette the boast of France remain,
And studious Ombre be the pride of Spain;
Invention's praise shall England yield to none,
While she can call delightful Whist her own.
But to what name we this distinction owe,
Is not so easy for us now to know:
The British annals all are silent here,
Nor deign one friendly hint our doubts to clear:
Ev'n HUME himself, whose philosophic mind
Could not but love a pastime so refin'd:
Ungrateful HUME, who, till his dying day,
Continued still his fav'rite game to play;[189]
Tho' many a curious fact his page supplies,
To this important point a place denies."[190]

Barrington's observations on the introduction of the game into respectable company, are as follows: "Quadrille (a species of Ombre) obtained a vogue upon the disuse of the latter, which it maintained till Whisk was introduced, which now [1787] prevails not only in England, but in most of the civilized parts of Europe.[191] If it may not possibly be supposed that the game of Trumps (which I have before taken notice of, as alluded to in one of the old plays contained in Dodsley's Collection) is Whisk, I rather conceive that the first mention of that game is to be found in Farquhar's 'Beaux Stratagem,' which was written in the very beginning of the present century.[192] It was then played with what were called _Swabbers_,[193] which were possibly so termed, because they who had certain cards in their hand were entitled to take up a share of the stake, independent of the general event of the game. The fortunate, therefore, clearing the board of this extraordinary stake, might be compared by seamen to the _Swabbers_ (or cleaners of the deck), in which sense the term is still used. Be this as it may, Whisk seems never to have been played on principles till about fifty years ago, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford row: before that time it was confined chiefly to the servants' hall with All-Fours and Put."

From Mr. Barrington's own references it would appear to have been a favorite game with country squires about 1707, the date of the Beaux Stratagem; and occasionally indulged in by clergymen about 1728, the date of Swift's Essay on the Fates of Clergymen. Their example, however, seems to have been unable to retrieve it from the character of vulgarity, until it was seriously taken up by "a set of gentlemen," who appear to have commenced their studies at the Crown coffee-house, in Bedford row, just about the time that the Treatise on Whist, by "Edmond Hoyle, Gent.," was first published by Thomas Osborne, at Gray's Inn. The studies of such gentlemen, and the celebrity of their scientific instructor, are thus commemorated in the prologue to the 'Humours of Whist,' a dramatic satire quoted in the preceding page.

"Who will believe that man could e'er exist
Who spent near half an age in studying Whist;
Grew grey with Calculation,--Labour hard!--
As if Life's business centred in a card?
That such there is, let me to those appeal,
Who with such liberal hands reward his zeal.
Lo! Whist he makes a science; and our Peers
Deign to turn school-boys in their riper years;
Kings too, and Viceroys, proud to play the game,
Devour his learned page in quest of Fame:
While lordly sharpers dupe away at WHITE's,
And scarce leave one poor cull for common bites."

Though Mr. Barrington has not assigned any grounds for supposing that Whist was the same game as that which was formerly called Trumps, or Trump, it is not unlikely that he was induced to suggest the possibility of their being the same from his having read, in 'The Compleat Gamester,' that Whist differed but little from the game called English Ruff and Honours, and in consequence of his having learnt, from Cotgrave's Dictionary, that Ruff and Trump were the same.[194] He says, in a note, that "In 1664, a book was published, entitled 'The Compleat Gamester,' which takes no notice of Whisk." Though it be true that "Whisk" is not named in the first edition of the book--printed in 1674, not 1664--yet the following passage, distinctly asserting that Whist was then a common game in all parts of England, appears in the second edition published in 1680.