Chapter II: Part 2

Mr. Chatto describes several packs of Hindostanee cards, among others some owned by the Royal Asiatic Society and preserved in their Museum. One of these packs consists of ten and others of eight suits. “In each suit, when complete, the number of cards is twelve; that is, two coat cards, or honours, and ten others whose numerical value is expressed by the number of marks upon them. The cards of all the packs are circular; the diameter of the largest is two and three quarter inches, and of the smallest about two and an eighth inches.” The material of which they are formed is supposed to be canvas, and indeed it is expressly stated in a memorandum that accompanies them that such is the case, but they appear to be made of thin veneers of wood. One of these packs formerly belonged to Capt. D. Cromline Smith, to whom they were presented about 1815 by a high-caste Brahmin, who considered them a great curiosity, and supposed that they were a thousand years old. These cards resemble a pack now owned by Mr. de Forest that he bought in Cashmere within a few years, and that have been reproduced for this work. The Brahmin’s pack, says Mr. Chatto, “consists of eight suits, each suit containing two honours and ten common cards,—in all ninety-six cards. In all the suits the King is mounted on an elephant, and in six the Vizir, or second honour, is on horseback; but in the blue suit, the emblem or mark of which is a red spot with a yellow centre, he rides a tiger; and in the white suit, the mark of which appears like a grotesque or fiendish head, he is mounted on a bull. The backs of all the cards are green. The following are the colours of the _ground_ on which the figures are painted in the several suits, together with the different marks by which the suits and the respective value of the common cards were also distinguished:—

COLOURS. MARKS.

1. FAWN. Something like a pineapple in a shallow cup.

2. BLACK. A red spot with a white centre.

3. BROWN. A “tulwar,” or sword.

4. WHITE. A grotesque kind of head.

5. GREEN. Something like a parasol without a handle, and
with two broken ribs sticking through the top.

6. BLUE. A red spot with a yellow centre.

7. RED. A parallelogram with dots on it as if to represent
writing.

8. YELLOW. An oval.”

Mr. Chatto mentions other packs with red backs, one of them containing ten suits, and all seemingly distinguished more by the coloured background than the emblem of the suit, which is sometimes entirely omitted, particularly in the court cards. The games to be played are complicated and difficult to understand, although one of them is said to resemble l’Ombre, the favourite game in Spain. The tradition regarding the origin of Hindostanee cards, as given by Mr. Chatto, is “that they were invented by a favourite Sultana or Queen to wean her husband from a bad habit he had acquired of pulling or eradicating his beard.” The game of cards is not mentioned in the Arabian Nights, remarks Mr. Chatto, “and from this silence it may be concluded that at the time when those tales were compiled card-playing was not a popular pastime in Arabia. The compilation of these tales, it is believed, is not earlier than about the end of the fifteenth century, although some of them are of a much higher antiquity.”

CASHMERE.

The cards from Cashmere, which belong to Mr. de Forest and are reproduced for this work, differ but slightly from those described by Mr. Chatto. The Cashmere cards are circular in shape, as well as the Hindostanee, and are of about the same size, being two inches in diameter. The emblems on the Cashmere cards differ considerably from those described by Mr. Chatto, and only the court or figure cards bear a general resemblance to those that formerly belonged to Capt. D. Cromline Smith.

The Cashmere cards seem to be made of thin slices of wood, overlaid with a composition of some sort, and so thickly covered with paint and varnish that the original material is entirely concealed. This pack contains thirty-six cards of three suits; namely, ten pip and two court cards in each suit. A large purple flower on a red ground, placed within circles of yellow, ornaments the backs, which are probably intended to be precisely the same; but to an experienced gamester there would be no difficulty in distinguishing one card from another, even with the face of it concealed, as the design, though uniform, differs slightly on each card.

The three suits are not only marked by the emblems of pips, but, like the Hindostanee cards, the backgrounds are vividly painted in some uniform colour upon which the design is displayed, and this colour marks the suits distinctly even when the emblem is omitted, which in some cases is done either by design or accident. The white suit is headed by a King mounted on an elephant, and a Vizir on a bull. There are no emblems on these two cards by which to distinguish the suit. The ten pip cards show tiny figures of men clothed in loosely fitting red garments and wearing red turbans on their heads. These figures are represented kneeling, with their hands clasped in the attitude of prayer. They are dotted over the surface of the cards and grouped as the corresponding pips are in the other suits, and generally face each other, except in number eight, in which all the figures look the same way and to the left side. Another suit is distinguished by a dark-blue ground, on which small yellow disks, surrounded by circles of red, are painted. This suit may correspond with a “moon” suit mentioned by Mr. Chatto among the Hindostanee cards, and it is also noticeable as it closely resembles the “money” used as an emblem on Italian and Spanish cards. The court cards of this suit show a man mounted on a tiger and bearing the distinctive emblem uplifted in his right hand. The position of this man is closely copied on the Spanish cards, although in them he is represented on horseback. The second honour shows two tigers seated on a cross-legged bench gazing over their shoulders at two attendants, who wave what appear to be staves or fans. Between these tigers is a large “moon-face,” which seems to mark the suit. If this be the case, it would point to the origin of the money emblem. The pips on the rest of the suit are carelessly executed circles, and the features, which would show it to be intended for the moon, are omitted. The outline of this mark may have been followed on the cards that were first introduced into Europe, and may readily have become changed during the lapse of years. The “moon” mark on the Hindostanee cards has gradually extended both East and West, one that closely resembles it being found on the Chinese cards, and partly followed on the wooden cubes of the Alaska Indians.

The green suit bears emblems which recall the _carreaux_ of the French cards, and are even more like one of the marks used by the Apache tribe of North American Indians by which to distinguish one of their suits. The diamond-shaped pip on the Cashmere cards is painted red and ornamented with stripes and dots of pink. The court cards show a Vizir on a white horse, bearing the pip in his right hand, and a Sultan attended by two slaves, who also carries the emblem of the suit.

These cards show little marks of use, and their surface is slightly sticky, so that they could not be conveniently either shuffled or dealt. It is probable that the pack is not complete, and that there should be more than the three suits that now compose it.

PERSIA.

Six tablets brought from Persia by a recent traveller form an interesting addition to the cards used by different nations. These tiny cards appear to be the three honours of two different packs. They are made of layers of pasteboard, some of them as thick as two ordinary playing-cards. The others are nearly double that thickness; and although they are all of the same size (namely, an inch and an eighth wide by two inches long), there are many marks on them to show that they never all belonged to the same pack. Although made of pasteboard, they are covered so thickly with paint and varnish that they might easily be supposed to have been cut out of wood. The backs of these cards are all alike, and are painted black. They are remarkable for the female figure that they bear as a court card, as in this respect they are not only unlike all other Eastern cards, but in it differ from those of every Western nation, with the exception of the French and those other countries where the French cards have been adopted. This female figure is by some called a Courtesan, but it could as well be named a Queen. She is seated on a chair of state, that is ornamented with a design which closely resembles one of the emblems used on a Hindostanee pack of cards, and which is called a crown by Mr. Chatto. This may, however, be a purely accidental resemblance. A young child is placed in the lap of this Queen, but she bears no particularly distinctive emblems either on her dress or on any part of the card which might serve to mark the suit. The background of one of these Queens is yellow, and that of the other one is red, and there are two Queens in this pack of six cards. There are two cards which appear to belong to the “Yellow Queen.” One of them shows a Hunter on a golden background drawing his knife across the throat of some animal; and the other card bears a Cavalier mounted on a white horse, on the back of which is perched a tiger. This card has a black background. A sun placed at the top may be intended for the distinguishing emblem. These three cards undoubtedly belong to the same pack, and are considerably thicker than the others, which are much more highly ornamented and better finished than those already described. The Queen is handsomely dressed; her hair is covered, and she wears large ear-rings, from which depend a necklace. The child is dressed in a loosely fitting garment, and its head is covered with a jewelled cap. The background of this card is a beautiful red, and the corners are ornamented with fine arabesques of flowers and fruit. The King which belongs to this set is accompanied by a female figure, and they are placed on a yellow background, but they bear no emblem by which they might be distinguished. The third card has a very richly ornamented golden background, and shows two figures, one of them carrying what appears to be a drum. All these cards have beautifully ornamented corners, and are painted like a miniature.

ITALY.

The first European document known that mentions cards is the manuscript already referred to, written by Nicolas de Covellezzo, about the end of the thirteenth century, is preserved among the archives of Viterbo, and contains the earliest written account yet discovered of cards, not only among the Italians but also in Europe, if we except the much disputed passage in the Wardrobe Rolls of Edward the First, King of England, which will hereafter be mentioned. This document refers to cards by the name of _Carte_, as well as by that of _Naïbi_.

Mr. Singer says that “the first game played in Italy was without question Trappola. This had been introduced from Arabia, and is mentioned by many early Italian authors, one of whom writing in 1393 calls cards _Naïbi_, and speaks contemptuously of them as a childish game. Another writer, Tenanza, declares that in 1441 the Venetian Maître-cartiers, who formed a large guild, remonstrated with the Senate of that city on the injury done to their trade by the importation of large quantities of playing-cards with printed as well as painted figures within their gates, which had been manufactured elsewhere; and this remonstrance shows that the card-makers of the day were already numerous, and seems to point to the fact that the use of cards was well established, and that considerable numbers were called for and manufactured.”

Lorenzo de’ Medici mentions the games of La Bassetta and Il Frusso in some of his “Canzoni,” printed before 1492; and there are Italian writers who point to him as the inventor of some games of cards.

In Italy the suits were called _Coppe_ (Cups), _Spadi_ (Swords), _Denari_ (Money), _Bastoni_ (Maces). These continued to be the commonly used marks on the Italian cards from the sixteenth century to a much later period; and the same suits and pips have been used in Spain from the time of their first history to the present day. An Italian writer claims that a native of Bologna invented Tarots or Tarocchino before the year 1419, and says that “there is preserved in the Fibbia family, which was one of the most illustrious and ancient of that city, a portrait of Francis Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, who sought refuge at Bologna about the commencement of the fifteenth century, in which he is represented holding in his right hand a parcel of cards, while others appear lying at his feet. Among the latter are seen the Queen of _Batons_ and the Queen of _Denari_; the one bearing the arms of the Bentivoglio family, and the other the arms of the Fibbia. An inscription at the bottom of the picture states that Francis Fibbia, who died in 1419, had obtained as the inventor of Tarocchino, from the _Reformers_ of the city, the privilege of placing his own arms on the Queen of _Batons_, and that of his wife, who was one of the Bentivoglio family, on the Queen of _Denari_.” Writers disagree as to whether Fibbia invented the emblems of the cards or joined two packs of cards which already had their appropriate emblems into one, or whether he invented a new game to be played with the already well known Tarocchino cards.

Notice should be taken of the fact that printed as well as painted cards are mentioned in the petition of the card-makers of Venice, as it was from this date that each village in Italy manufactured its own cards. After the invention of wood-engraving, Germany and Holland exported cards in large quantities, and this may have called for the protective decree. There was also a difference, which was mentioned in the documents of the period, between the primitive _Naïbi_ and cards proper. As these documents do not define the difference between the packs, we can form no idea of what it was.

GERMANY.

In a German book printed at Augsburg in 1472, called “Gülden Spiel,” or “The Golden Game,” written by a Dominican friar of the name of Ingold, it is stated that cards had been known in Germany since 1300. As this is by no means contemporaneous testimony, it is probable that the German vanity which claims the honor of inventing the art of printing wishes, with no more reason on its side, to appropriate to itself the invention of playing-cards, which in plain words is laying claim to the invention of wood-engraving, as many of the early German packs are engraved and not stencilled or painted. This rather suspicious assertion may therefore well be ignored, and we may only credit the one made by the Italian author of Viterbo, which is apparently more authentic. Unfortunately, the latter gives no details about the kind of cards which he mentions. He only states that cards made their appearance in 1379 in Europe, and came from Arabia under their original name.

In the “Livre d’Or” of Ulm, which is a manuscript preserved in that city, there is an ordinance, dated 1397, forbidding all card-playing.

These are the only authentic witnesses that can be brought forward by which the approximate time of the introduction of playing-cards into Europe may be fixed.

A German author by the name of Heniken claims for his country the birthplace of cards, and brings forward many ingenious but hardly satisfactory deductions in support of his pretensions. He says that _Briefe_, which is the name that cards bear in his country, means “letters,” and that the common people do not say, “Give me a pack of cards,” but “Give me a _Spiel-briefe_” (a pack of letters), and they do not say, “I want a _card_,” but “I want a _Brief_” (letter). “We should at least have preserved the name _carte_,” he says, “if they had come to us from France; for the common people always preserve the names of all games that come to them from other countries.”

Unfortunately for this argument, it has been discovered that cards were called _Karten_ in Germany before they were called _Briefe_. It may be claimed that cards were carried into Germany by the Crusaders, who had learned their use during the wars with the Saracens. They might also have made an ingenious use of the cards during their long absences in the East, and diverted them from their original purposes, writing letters to mothers, wives, or sweethearts on them, or chosen them to send to the young folk at home to serve for their amusement, as the pictures of the Kings, Knights, etc., rude though they probably were, would have undoubtedly proved both novel and entertaining; and from this fact the name of _Briefe_ may have been given to the _Naïbi_ of the Orient. The Eastern origin of the cards is plainly pointed to, as there are no Queens in ancient packs of German cards.

In many parts of Germany the court and pip cards which are usually used resemble most closely those which are represented in the packs of the early part of the fifteenth century. The cards which are at the present time (1890) manufactured at Frankfort in Germany are copies of the French packs of the fifteenth century, with the modifications which have crept in during the lapse of over three hundred years; and they display the modern Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades, and these cards are generally used in the German Empire. But the same factory turns out cards which are suited to the more conservative portions of the country, where the ancient _Schellen_ (Bells), _Hertzen_ (Hearts), _Grün_ (Green), and _Eicheln_ (Acorns) are still preferred.

In the modern German cards each Ace bears the attributes of the wine-cellar or the _biergarten_. In the ancient cards the Ace was always draped with a flag. The modern _Hearts_ are surrounded with champagne bottles. _Acorns_ carry a loving-cup; _Bells_, a steaming punch-bowl; and _Leaves_, beer-glasses and goblets. There are no Queens in this pack, their place being taken by Knights on horseback dressed in beautiful uniforms; and beside their heads is the word _Ober_, signifying the position they hold over the Knaves, which are represented as working-men. There are only five pip cards in this pack, numbered from five to ten; and the emblems are arranged in a symmetrical and fanciful way, quite unlike the cards which were adapted by the French from the original Tarots and adopted by all English-speaking nations. The backs of these cards bear a plaid or checkered pattern, recalling to mind those of the original Tarots.

To a German is due the adaptation of cards to the instruction of children; and this idea, which was promulgated soon after the first introduction of these packs into Germany, has been developed steadily through successive years, until now it is possible to study history, geography, and other sciences by these means, and babies still in the nursery learn to spell and to read after a fashion by playing the various games which are strewn before their unappreciative eyes. The name of this ingenious inventor was Thomas Murer, a Franciscan friar, who in 1507 arranged a game in which various branches of education were taught. Each card was covered with so many symbols that M. la Croix declares that “their description alone resembles the most gloomy rebus;” but the German universities, undaunted by difficulties, enjoyed the study of logic and other sciences under the guise of amusement, and Murer’s game was imitated and continues to be so to the present time.

SPAIN.

The Spaniards base their claim of having been the first to use, if they were not the inventors of, playing-cards to the fact that _Naïbi_, the name by which cards were known among the Italians about the year 1393, is very nearly similar to the name by which they are known in Spain to-day. As it was about that time that Italy was invaded by the Spaniards, they declare that they, as the conquerors, imposed cards upon that country and taught their use, under the name they bore in their own homes.

The Spanish word _Naïpes_, as we have already mentioned, seems to be derived from one which means “flat” or “even;” but an ancient Spanish dictionary states that it comes from the initial letters of the name of the Spanish inventor of cards, N. P., Nicolas Pepin. This etymology seems fanciful and as unsatisfactory as the claim to the invention of the cards; but the Spaniards can point to a statute made by John the First, King of Castile, in 1387, which prohibits “games of dice, of Naypes, and of Chess;” and this proves beyond dispute that at that date they were at least well known in that place.

A Flemish traveller named Eckeloo, who lived about 1540, describes the Spaniards of his time as “most passionately fond of gambling,” and says that he “travelled many leagues in Spain without being able to procure the necessaries of life, not even bread or wine, but that in every miserable village cards were to be bought.” Travellers of the present day describe the tradespeople, fishermen, and beggars of every wretched town playing even at the street-corners, and using blocks of stone or the steps of the churches on which to throw their cards.

It was the Spaniards without doubt who carried cards into Mexico, when they conquered that country in 1519; and history mentions that Montezuma took great pleasure in watching the Spanish soldiers at their games.

Mr. Singer says that the Spanish pack consists, like the German, of only forty-eight cards, as they contain no _tens_. Their four suits are named _Espadas_ (Spades), _Copas_ (Cups), _Oros_ (Money), and _Bastos_ (Maces). _Oros_ means literally “golden money;” and this suit is also called _Dineros_,—that is, “money in general.” Like the Italian and German packs, they have no Queen, her place being taken by the usual Knight, or Mounted horseman. The court cards are called _Il Rey_ (King), _Caballo_ (Knight), and _Sota_ (Knave). There are some packs in which a Queen is permitted, the suits then having four court cards instead of three.

FRANCE.

Among the archives preserved in the Chambre des Comptes in Paris there was at one time an account, dated 1392, which said, “Paid to Jacquemin Gringonneur, Painter, for three packs of cards of gold and different colours, ornamented with different devices for the King [Charles the Sixth], for his amusement, 50 sols parisis.”

The game, which was invented merely as an amusement for the deranged King, spread with such rapidity among the people that the Prevôt de Paris, in an ordinance dated Jan. 22, 1397, was obliged to “forbid working people from playing tennis, ball, _cards_, or ninepins, excepting only on holidays.” Especial notice should be taken of the fact that in a celebrated and oft-quoted ordinance made only twenty-eight years previously by Charles the Fifth, in which all games of hazard were enumerated, no allusion whatever was made to _cards_, while in the fifteenth century they are always carefully mentioned when games of chance are enumerated. By this we can place approximately the date of their invention or introduction into France.

Although packs of Tarots have survived since the fifteenth century, and one in particular will be described, there are no existing specimens of the original Tarots (Tarocchi, Tarocchini); but there is a pack which was engraved by a burin (or graving-tool), that probably was executed about the year 1460, which is known to be an exact copy of the first Tarots.

Rafael Maffie, who lived at the end of the fifteenth century, left in his “Commentaries” a description of Tarots, which were then, said he, “a new invention;” but he probably was speaking relatively of the origin of cards. From his description and the documents of others it is clear that the pack of Tarots was composed of four or five suits, each one of the ten cards being numbered in sequence, and displaying as their symbols the Denari, the Bastoni, the Coppe, and the Spade; and these suits were headed by the court cards of King, Knight, and Knave, to which was sometimes added a Queen. Besides these cards, which were _en suite_, there were others which bore fanciful figures, and which were named Atouts. The Tarots have been so fully described in another place that it is not necessary to repeat the description here.

A very slight knowledge of the history of playing-cards reveals the fact that Tarots were known in France long before the invention of the game of Piquet, which is undoubtedly of French origin; and besides this, the cards which are said to have belonged to Charles the Sixth are Tarots, and must be classed as such. They are preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, and they may be looked upon with respect as being the oldest in any collection, public or private. Although nearly five hundred years of age, they are well preserved.

Besides the Tarot pack, which is supposed to have been one of the three packs that were painted by Gringonneur, there are preserved in the same museum parts of another old pack which show distinctly that they are of a later date. These cards are essentially French, and are not to be classed among the Tarots. There are a King, Queen, and Knave in each suit. Their Saracenic origin may still be traced, as they bear the crescent of the Mussulman instead of the carreau (diamond) of the Frenchman; and the Club is shaped after the Arabic or Moorish fashion, which had four equal branches, like a four-leaved clover, instead of the three leaves that were afterward adopted as the distinctive symbol of the suit.

Another noticeable peculiarity is that the King of Hearts is represented as a monkey covered with hair or skins, and he leans on a knobby staff. The Queen of his suit is dressed in skins like her consort, and in one hand she carries a torch. It would seem natural that the Knave of Hearts should be dressed to correspond with the royal personages belonging to his suit; but instead it is the Knave of Clubs who is represented as covered with hair or dressed in skins, and he carries a knotty stick over one shoulder. A part of another card has been found among those that the book-binder’s knife has separated from the proper body (for these cards, like so many of their kind, once formed part of the binding of a book); and this one shows the legs only of a fourth hairy person. The upper part has unfortunately never been found.

With the exception of these savages, all the other figures of the pack are dressed after the fashion of the court of Charles the Seventh of France. The costume of the Queen of Diamonds resembles that of Marie d’Anjou, his consort. The figures of the Kings, with the exception of the hairy one, are dressed precisely like the pictures of Charles the Seventh or the lords of his court. They wear a velvet hat surmounted by a crown formed of fleurs-de-lis, with a coat opened in front and bordered with ermine. The doublet is tight-fitting, and the boots extremely high. The dresses of the Knaves are copies of those worn by the pages and the sergent-d’armes of the period. One of them wears a plumed cap and a long coat with flowing sleeves. The other Knave is in court dress, and is the complete opposite of his fellow, as he wears a closely fitting doublet. The latter carries a banner on which is displayed the name of the manufacturer, F. Clerc. It seems therefore safe to conclude that these cards are of French origin. And now occurs an interesting question, which is, how it is possible to explain the presence of the savage King, Queen, and Knave among the other court cards, which are all dressed in the height of the fashion of the period of Charles the Seventh; but if the history of the preceding reign is referred to, the probable solution of this enigma will be found.

On the 29th of February, 1392, a grand fête was held in the palace of Queen Blanche, given in honour of the marriage of the Chevalier Vermandois to one of her Majesty’s maids of honour. The King, Charles the Sixth, who had been for some time in a melancholy state of mind which sometimes amounted to madness, was for the time being enjoying a lucid interval, and was induced to enter into a frolic which was proposed by one of his favourite courtiers by the name of Hugonin de Janzay. It was arranged that in this masquerade the King and five of his lords should take part. “It was,” says Juvenal des Ursins, “a _momerie_ of savage men, heavily chained and dressed in _justes au corps_ made of linen which had been greased and covered with hairs, and which was made to fit close to the body.” Froissart, who was an eyewitness of this fête, says that “the six actors in the dance rushed into the ball-room howling and shaking their clattering chains.” As no one was able to recognize the hairy monsters, so well were they disguised, the Duc d’Orleans, the King’s brother, seized a lighted torch from the hands of an attendant, and pressed it so closely against one of these strange people that the light set fire to the linen coat, which blazed up immediately. By great good fortune the King had become separated from his companions, all of whom with only one exception were roasted alive. This lucky chevalier rushed from the room, and flung himself head first into a vat full of water and thus saved his life. Charles indeed escaped; but the horrors of the situation, combined with the terror, fatigue, and grief to which it gave rise, so impressed his already enfeebled mind that he became hopelessly insane.

The Ballet des Ardents left such a vivid impression on the public mind that sixty years later a German engraver made it the subject of a print, so that it is not hazarding an inadmissible guess to fancy that a card-maker of the day should seize upon it for a subject, particularly as the cards of the period were sometimes decorated like the horrible Dance of Death, as if they were intended to awaken in the mind of the roystering player some thoughts which might lead him to dwell on more serious subjects, and by means of the cards to reach persons who might otherwise never be drawn to think of them.

There is another and very important fact which must not be overlooked when we are endeavoring to trace a resemblance between the savages depicted on the cards and the personages of the day. The Queen of Hearts is represented as a wild woman holding a torch; and it may be remembered that Isabella of Bavaria, the wife of Charles the Sixth, had agreed to this fatal masquerade, and had encouraged it by her presence, and that this frolic came very near relieving her of her insane consort. Her accomplice in this scheme was the Duc d’Orleans, her brother-in-law, who may have intentionally set fire to the inflammable clothes of these savages, among whom was the King. The gossip of the day certainly accused these two persons with having designed the masquerade with the hope of ridding themselves of the King, whose life interfered greatly with their infamous projects.

Having described what is perhaps the oldest pack of cards which have been preserved, attention must be drawn to another—or rather a fragment of a pack—which is very little, if any, younger than the set already studied. These cards can be traced back to the same period as the first, and are identified by the costumes of the court. They bear great similarities to the modern cards, and are supposed to have been the Adams and Eves of the card world. These are absolutely the first specimens of the French suit cards; the marks of the pips, Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds are here displayed for the first time; and if not the pack rearranged by the French courtier, they must have been manufactured at the same time. In these the Kings, Queens, and Knaves bear attributes as well as symbols. The first-named carry spears, and the Queens flowers, and everything in the pictures reflects the fashions of the period; and in them can be discovered no violation of the laws of heraldry or the customs of chivalry.

Tradition points to this pack as that first used in Piquet. It dethroned the Italian Tarots and the cards of Charles the Sixth, and was the ancestor of the present cards. It is believed that they were the invention of Étienne Vignoles, or La Hire, one of the bravest and most active warriors of the day. M. la Croix declares that this tradition should receive respectful attention, because even a cursory examination of the game of Piquet shows that it could only have been the work of an accomplished knight, or have at least originated in a mind intimately acquainted with chivalrous manners and customs. But this charming French author points to another courtier, a contemporary and friend of Vignoles, who might have made the ingenious discovery or invention which resulted in the overthrow of the ancient Tarots; and this was Étienne Chevalier, secretary and treasurer to the King, and famous for his talent for designing, who was one of the cleverest draughtsmen of his day, and who was perfectly capable of rearranging the pack, introducing a Queen in place of the Vizir or Knight, and adopting symbolic colours and distinguishing devices to mark the suits.

The original cards may perhaps have been imported into France and introduced at court by one Jacques Cœur, whose commercial relations with the East were so extensive that he was even accused of supplying the Saracens with arms. In India the cards represented the game of the Vizir and of War, but under the hands of the royal secretary it became the game of the Knight and of Chivalry. He placed on the cards the unicorn which is often found in old packs; nor did he forget to do honour to Jacques Cœur in substituting _les cœurs_ for _les coupes_. He changed the _deniers_ (money) to diamonds (or arrow-heads), and spears to spades. He may have adapted his designs from those on the German cards, as they bear hearts like the French packs; and a few strokes of the pencil would convert the acorn of the former into the club of the latter. The affinity between the cards of the two countries is quite apparent, but to whom we owe the invention is undecided.

It was in December, 1581, or in the reign of Henry the Third, that the first laws which fix the standing of the _fesseurs de cartes_ are found. These statutes, which were confirmed by letters-patent in 1584 and 1613, remained in force until the Revolution. When the privileges of the Corporation were confirmed in 1613, a rule was made that the master card-makers should henceforth and forever put their names, surnames, seals, and devices on the _Valet de Trifle_ (Knave of Clubs) in each pack of cards,—a rule which only followed and confirmed an ancient custom, and one which is adopted to the present day.

The modern French cards differ slightly from those used in England and America, as they are smaller, and the edges are rounded and generally gilded. The cards, instead of being perfectly flat, are slightly curved; and this is in order to facilitate shuffling, which is not done in France in the way usually adopted among English-speaking nations, where the pack is divided and laid on a flat surface, and the edges of the cards are lifted and allowed to pass quickly one over the other, in this way distributing or shuffling them very rapidly. The French cards are divided, but held up, and the sides of the two parts pressed together, which shuffles them effectually, but which it is impossible to do if the cards are not curved.

ENGLAND.

Some of the most interesting collections of old playing-cards can be seen in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the South Kensington Museum, and the British Museum in London. The latter collection has a historian of its own; and the variety, number, and beauty of the packs in this place are minutely recorded, and form an interesting study by themselves. By their aid it is possible to note the various changes and modifications which have crept in among the costumes of the court, and the pips of the suit cards. The early packs seem to have been imported from Spain, as they bear the old symbols of _coin_, _maces_, _swords_, and _cups_. Other packs have been found which were stencilled with the _grelots_ (bells) commonly found on the early German cards; but finally the French card came into common use, and these were adopted and have been universally accepted in England, and by her introduced into her colonies, so that these marks of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades are found all over the globe.

The English and American card of the present day differs slightly from those in use in France. The latter have discarded obsolete costumes and fanciful devices when designing the figures of the court cards, and the dresses are modernized, the faces are shaded, and the whole figure looks more like a pretty picture than the cherished card dear to the heart of the Englishman, whose Kings are dressed somewhat after the fashion of Henry the Eighth, the Queens like his mother, Elizabeth of York, and the Knaves in the costume adopted by the lower classes in the days of Chaucer.

It is perhaps to the overthrow of the court-card family during the French Revolution that this radical change in their costumes is due. When the monarchs of the suits were beheaded and their places taken by the sages, philosophers, etc., of the day, it was natural that the obsolete costumes should disappear with them, and that when the royalties of card-land returned to their thrones, the card-maker should adopt the costumes then in fashion in which to clothe the royal family. There having been no such disaster in England, the Kings of the cards have peacefully ruled for several hundred years, clad in the garments of their ancestors, which have only become quainter and more peculiar with the lapse of years, so that now they are often merely lines and dots, and are hardly to be recognized as ermine-trimmed garments which were originally covered with correct heraldic devices.

The first introduction of cards into England (for it has never been claimed that they were invented there) is a matter of dispute; but it is probable that they were known in that country soon after the Second Crusade, at the latter end of the thirteenth century. A passage has been found in the Wardrobe Rolls of Edward the First (1278) which is pointed to by some writers who wish to prove that cards were adopted in England before they were known in other countries; and they claim that this is the earliest mention of a game of cards in any authenticated register. In this account is recorded the following passage: “Waltero Sturton ad opus regis ad ludendum ad _Quatuor Reges_ viii. s. vd.” But it by no means follows that “Four Kings” meant cards; it might have been any game, and may have been intended for Chess played with four armies, each one headed by a king,—a game which is by no means obsolete, and which has already been described. Edward the First had served in Syria for five years before his accession to the throne of England, and some writers assert that he brought cards home with him; but Chaucer, who died in 1400, never mentions cards, although in enumerating the amusements of the day he says,—

“They dancen and they play at chess and tables.”

The year 1465 is the earliest date at which any positive mention is made of cards in England, and this was in a law which forbade their use except at certain specified times and seasons.

It is probable that cards first made their way into the country from Spain, as the oldest packs which have been found in England bear the symbols of _cups_, _money_, _maces_, _swords_; and the word _spade_ (the Spanish name for one of their suits) seems to have become attached to the French _pique_ after the cards of the latter nation became domiciled in the British Isles.

Mr. Singer, quoting from another author, says that “there is little doubt but that the cards used during the reign of Philip and Mary and probably the more early part of Elizabeth’s were Spanish, though they were afterwards changed for the French, being of a more simple figure and more easily imported.” The wars between England and France, during which the army of the former nation were in their sister country, may have led to the adoption of the French card; but it is strange that the costumes on the English cards should date from an earlier period than the reign of Mary or Elizabeth.

“Queen Elizabeth as well as her sister Mary,” says Mr. Chatto, “was a card-player,” and lost her temper over the game, in which she did not resemble Queen Anne of Austria, of whom one of her ladies-in-waiting, Madame de Motteville, says: “She played like a queen, without passion of greed or gain.” During Elizabeth’s reign, in 1582, the Master of the Revels was 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. In the comedy “Alexander and Campaspe,” which was shown by the same children at Windsor before the Queen, was the following pretty little song, quoted by Mr. Chatto:—

“Cupid and my Campaspe played
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.
Oh, Love, has she done this to thee?
What shall, alas! become of me?”

“It is probable that Primero was one of the earliest games of cards played in England,” says Mr. Singer; “and it continued to be the most fashionable one throughout the reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Mary, Elizabeth, and James.” Shakspeare makes Falstaff say,—

“I never prospered since I forswore myself at Primero;”

showing that it was a well known game at that period. “An alteration or improvement of this game became,” says the same author, “known as El Hombre (The man), or Ombre, which is the national game of Spain.” It was played generally by three persons, at small three-cornered tables; and these little card-tables are frequently found among collections of old furniture.

That Ombre, or its successor, Quadrille, was a fashionable game at no very ancient period, is proved by the inimitable description given in Cranford of the card-parties held in that mildewed little place. It says: “The drawing-rooms contained small tables, on which were displayed a kaleidoscope, conversation cards, puzzle cards (tied together to an interminable length with faded pink satin ribbon). The card-table was an animated scene to watch,—four old ladies’ heads, with niddle-noddling caps all nearly meeting over the middle of the table in their eagerness to whisper quick enough and loud enough, ‘Basto, madam, you have Spadille, I believe.’”

A game much in favour among the common folks at the latter end of the sixteenth century was, says Singer, “an old one called Trump, which was probably the Triumfo of the Spaniards and Italians.” In that amusing performance “Gammer Gurton’s Needle,” first acted in 1561, Dame Chat says to Diccon,—

“We sat at _trump_ man by the fire;”

and afterward to her maid she says,—

“There are five _trumps_ besides the Queen.”

Trump bore some resemblance to Whist or Ruff (another name for that game); and it is noticeable that these two words should still be used in playing Whist, and that both of them signify the same thing. We are told by Mr. Singer that Whist and Honours (alias Slam) were games commonly known in all parts of England, and that “every child of eight years old has competent knowledge in that recreation.”

In a book published in 1787, called “The Complete Gamester,” by Richard Seymour, Esq., we find the following sentence: “Whist, vulgarly called _Whisk_, is said to be a very ancient game among us, and the foundation of all English games upon the cards.” It was probably invented about the period of Charles the Second. Its original name was Whist, or the Silent game. It is believed that “it was not played upon principles until about 1736; before that time it was chiefly confined to servants’ halls. The rules laid down by the gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row were: ‘To play from a straight suit; to study your partner’s hand as much as your own; never to force your partner unnecessarily, and to attend to the score.’” At one time it was usual to deal four cards together. Horace Walpole, writing in 1767 from Paris, says: “The French have adopted the two dullest things the English have,—Whist and Richardson’s novels.”

The Whist-players of the last century would be astonished to see the developments a hundred years have made in this game. At the present time the books which have been written on it alone would fill a small book-case,—the one by “Cavendish,” who is the acknowledged authority on the game, having reached its seventeenth edition; and it has become so complicated that its rules require profound study, and so fashionable that teachers of its mysteries have sprung up in all directions. Several ladies have adopted the profession of Whist-teachers, and have found it a most profitable one. One person has reduced the system of teaching it to a science, and has also invented an arrangement by which “a singleton” can play a four-handed game of Whist. This is done by placing an ingenious combination of letters and figures on the backs of the ordinary playing-cards, which can be sorted according to these instead of being dealt in the usual way. The cards having been sorted are placed face downward on the table, and then turned up in regular order exactly as if played by four persons. As they have been arranged so as to illustrate certain styles of play or exemplify well known rules, the games they play are not only most amusing, but also instructive. The credit of this novel invention is due to Mr. Frederic Foster, a well known teacher of the noble game of Whist; and his pack is known as the “Self-playing Cards.”

The national games of the different countries are said to be: Italy, _Minchiate_; Germany, _Landsknechtspiel_, or Lansquenet; France, _Piquet_; Spain, _El Hombre_; America, _Poker_.

AMERICA.

The history of Playing-cards would be incomplete without some reference to their introduction into America, and a slight sketch of the games most in favour in that country. History tells us that Columbus carried cards with him in his ship on the voyage of discovery in 1492, and that his sailors employed every spare moment playing with them, until their superstitious fancies persuaded them that this impious practice was the cause of the long voyage and contrary winds which alarmed them so greatly. During the frenzy caused by this panic, they flung overboard their Jonahs (the cards). Their safe arrival at what they believed to be the Promised Land caused them to forget their fears, and they soon regretted the rashness with which they had sacrificed their beloved amusement; so with considerable ingenuity they made for themselves new packs from the leaves of the copas-tree. Tradition states that the sacrificed cards had been made of leather. The introduction of cards into America, their first makers, and the materials used, are therefore matters of history, and call for no research or speculation.

A few years after the discovery of America, another history relates that on the conquest of Mexico, and during the captivity of her unfortunate king, Montezuma, he was deeply interested in watching the games of cards played by the conquerors in his presence.

The Spanish marks of suits are now to be found on the cards used in Mexico; but the inhabitants of that country are gradually adopting the French marks used in their sister republic, the United States, and the old cards will soon be as obsolete as their forefathers, the Tarots.

In those parts of the United States that were first settled by religious fanatics it would be useless to search for any record of cards, as they were looked upon with horror by both the Puritans and the Quakers, and together with all games, such as Chess, Draughts, etc., were considered inventions of the Evil One, and their use was sternly forbidden; and it is more than probable that the famous “Mayflower,” which seems to have contained enough furniture (judging from the alleged specimens preserved) to have filled an ordinary-sized town, did not contain one card-table or pack of playing-cards. It was natural, however, that some amusement should be craved by the younger members of society, and that games which were considered more harmless than the “Devil’s books” (as cards were named by the Puritans) should have been sought for and discovered. Among these were the various kinds of instructive cards which had been invented so many years previously by the Franciscan friar, and which had met with so much favour in parts of Europe. These cards taught various branches of science to the player, and were very numerous; and packs of them by degrees forced their way into different places where the wicked French cards, with their royal dames and kings and their scampish knaves,—whose names alone were synonymous with wrongdoing, gambling, and thieving,—and the innocent-looking but bad little pips, were strictly forbidden.

One quaint pack of Educational Cards, which seems to have been made in America and probably in New York, has been carefully preserved for nearly one hundred years, and is most valuable as giving specimens of the cards used at that time. This pack is now owned by Dr. Richard Derby, a descendant of the Lloyd who was granted the manor of Lloyd’s Neck, which was one of the original manors (or grants of land) held under the English in the colony of New York; and these cards are preserved in the family mansion on Lloyd’s Neck, Long Island. Tied in a pack by a crumpled green ribbon,—which tradition declares was a garter,—on the back of the Knave of Diamonds is written in faded ink this inscription,—

To Angelina Lloyd, from her affectionate Uncle,
HENRY LLOYD.
February 13th, 1795.

The cards (which are wonderfully fresh) are printed on coarse, thick pasteboard, guiltless of enamelled surface or diapered back. The descriptive matter is printed with fine type on each card, which has either a distinguishing pip containing a number on each left-hand upper corner, or in a lozenge is a letter, K, Q, or J, which takes the place of the figure usually placed on the court cards of each suit.