Another obfervation to be made upon this entry is, that the year 1392 cannot be justly fixed upon as the date of this invention, for though Charles the Sixth loft his fenfes at that time, yet he lived thirty years afterward, fo it will not be fair to fuppofe thefe cards were made the firft year of his phrenfy, but to take the middle year of thefe thirty, which would bring it to 1407. At that time, indeed, this amufement feems to have become more general, as in 1426* no perfon was permit ted to have in their house "tabliers, efchiquiers, quartes," &c. which laft word I conclude to be the fame with cartes or cards +.

It seems moreover to afford a ftrong prefumption against Mr. Anftis's explanation of the game ad quatuor reges (known to our Edward the First), that cards are not alluded to by fuch an article in the wardrobe rolls, because we hear nothing about them, either in Rymer's Fodera, or our ftatute book, till towards the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII 1.

This fort of amufement, however, was not unknown to the court at least of Henry VII. for in the year 1502, when the daughter of

€

that king was married to James the Fourth of Scotland, fhe played at cards foon after her arrival at Edinburgh ||.

Cards had alfo found their way into Spain about the fame time; for Herrera mentions §, that upon the conqueft of Mexico (which happened in 1519), Montezuma took great pleasure in feeing the Spaniards thus amufing themselves.

And here it may not be improper to obferve, that if the Spaniards were not the first inventors of cards (which at least I conceive them to have been), we owe to them undoubtedly the game of ombre (with its imitations of quadrille, &c.), which obtained fo long throughout Europe till the introduction of whisk **.

The very name of this game is Spanish, as ombre fignifies a man ; and when we now fay I am the omber, the meaning is, that I am the man who defy the other players, and will win the ftake. The terms for the principal cards are also Spanish, viz. Spadill, Manill, Bafto, Punto, Matadors, &c++."

"The four fuits are named from what is chiefly reprefented upon them, viz. Spades, from efpado, a

9

fword;

f

'effion of Mexico, which fhews that this amufement must have for fome time previous been rather common in Old Spain *. Now Charles the Fifth fucceeded to the crown of that kingdom in 1518, as well as to the new conquests and treafures of the Western India, whilft his other moft extenfive dominions made his monarchy nearly univerfal. France. at the fame time was at the loweft ebb, their king having been taken prifoner at the battle of Pavia in 1524. It is not therefore extraordinary, that the country in which fo great riches and fuch extenfive territories were united, fhould have produced the greatest number of games and gamefters.

It should feem that England hath no pretence to enter the lifts with Spain or France for the invention of cards, unlefs Edward the First having played ad quatuor reges fhould be fo confidered; and I have already fuggefted, that the finding nothing further relative to this paffime till 1502 † affords a ftrong prefumption that the quatuor reges were not playing cards ‡.

During the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. this amufement feems not to have been very common in England, as fcarcely

any mention of it occurs either in Rymer's Foedera or the statutebook ||. It is not improbable, however, that Philip the Second, with his fuite, coming from the court of Charles the Fifth, made the use of cards much more general than it had been, of which fome prefumptive proofs are not wanting.

We name two of the fuits clubs and Spades, when neither of those fuits in the common cards answer at all fuch appellation. If the Spanish cards, however, are examined (which I have the honour of presenting to the fociety), it will be found that each card hath a real club in the fir of thefe fuits, and a real fword, efpada (rendered by us Spade), in the second.

There feems to be little doubt, therefore, but that the cards used during the reign of Philip and Mary, and probably the more early part of queen Elizabeth, were Spanifh §, though they were afterwards. changed for the French, being of a more fimple figure, and more eafily imported. It appears indeed by a proclamation of this queen, as also of her fucceffor ¶, that we did not then make many cards in England, though the amusement had become fo general in the reign of

See however ante, p. 112, note †.

P. 5; and vol. IV. p. 31.

king James, that the audience at the play-houses used thus to divert themselves before the play began *.

But I have been furnished by our worthy and learned member (Mr. Aftle) with a ftill more decifive proof that cards were originally made in Spain, which I fend herewith for the inspection of the fociety.

[This was an impression from a block of wood, and undoubtedly the cover of a pack of cards. The infcription upon it is as follows:]

"Cartas finnas faictes par Je (fuppofed contraction for Jean or John) Hauvola y (Edward Warman) the last name having been inferted in a new piece of wood, laid into the original block."

The first words of this infcription, viz. cartas finnas (fuperfine cards) are Spanish, which are followed by two of French, (viz. faictes par, or made by) Jean Hauvola, y (y is generally ufed in Spanish for the conjunction and), and the two laft words, viz. Edward Warman, were not in the block of wood, when firft cut into.

The whole of this infcription, being rendered into English, runs thus:

66

Superfine cards made by John Hauvola, and (Edward Warman)," the last name being an addition in the room of John Hauvola's firft partner.

Now I conceive that this advertisement was used by a card-maker refident in France, who notified the wares he had to fell in the Spanish terms of cartas finnas, or fuperfine cards, because those which had been

made in Spain at that time were in the greatest vogue.

The two words which follow are French, (faites par, or made by), which were probably in that language, that the French reader might more readily understand the advertifement, than if the whole was in Spanish. Thus a London fhopkeeper would write on his fhop in English that he fold vermicelli, though he retains the Italian term of vermicelli (or little worms) for the ware he wants to difpofe of.

But this is not the whole that may be inferred from this curious cover, for at each corner are the figures from which the four fuits of cards are denominated in Spain, viz. cups, fwords, clubs, and pieces of money, whilft at the top are the arms of Caftille and Leon.

It seems fairly therefore to be inferred from the fuperfcription on this cover, that cards could not be then difpofed of to advantage in France, unless there was fome appearance of their having been originally brought from Spain, where being firft invented they were probably made in greater perfection.

I begin to be fenfible, that what I have thus ventured to lay before the fociety on the firft invention of cards is rather become of an unreafonable length; from their wonted goodness to me, however, I will trefpafs a little longer upon their time, by adding fome few obfervations, which have occurred with regard to fome of the games which formerly had obtained the greatest vogue.

Primerot (undoubtedly a Spanifh game) feems to have been

chiefly played by our gentry till perhaps as late as the Reftoration. Many other games however are mentioned in Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, as "Gleek, Crimp, Mount-Saint, Noddy, Knave out of Doors, Saint Lodam, Post and Pair, Wide Ruff, and Game of Trumps."

To Primero the game of Ombre fucceeded, and was probably introduced by Catharine of Portugal, the queen of Charles the Second, as Waller hath a poem

“On a card torn at Ombre by the queen." It likewife continued to be in vogue for fome time in the present century, for it is Belinda's game in the Rape of the Lock, where every incident in the whole deal is fo defcribed, that when ombre is forgotten (and it is almoft fo already) it may be revived with pofterity from that most admirable poem *.

I remember moreover to have feen three-cornered tables in houses which had old furniture, and which were made purposely for this game, the number of players being only three.

Quadrille (a fpecies of ombre) obtained a vogue upon the difufe of the latter, which it maintained till

Whisk was introduced, which now prevails not only in England, but in most of the civilized parts of Europe.

If it may not be poffibly fuppofed that the game of trumps (which I have before taken notice of, as alluded to in one of the old plays contained in Dodfley'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 prefent century. called fwabbers, which were pofIt was then played with what were fibly fo termed, because they, who had certain cards in their hand, were entitled to take up a fhare of the stake, independent of the general event of the game ||. The fortunate, therefore, clearing the board of this extraordinary ftake, might be compared by feamen to the fwabbers (or cleaners of the deck) in which fenfe the term is ftill used.

Be this as it may, whisk seems never to have been played upon principles till about fifty years ago, when it was much ftudied by a fet of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-houfe in BedfordRow §: before that time it was

chiefly