The early history of Whist is involved in obscurity. All games of high character become perfected by degrees; and Whist, following this rule, has been formed by gradual development. As early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, a card game called triumph or trump was commonly played in England. This game in its chief feature, viz., the predominance of one particular suit, and in its general construction, was so similar to Whist, that no one can doubt it to have been the game from which Whist grew.
There were two distinct games called trump. Triomphe or French ruff was very like écarté, only there was no score for the king; Trump or English ruff-and-honours closely resembled Whist.
Berni ("Capitolo del Gioco della Primera," Rome, 1526), enumerates several games at cards; among them are trionfi, played by the peasants; and ronfa, the invention of which is attributed to King Ferdinand.
Triumphus Hispanicus is the subject of a "Dialogue" written in Latin and French by Vives, a Spaniard (d. 1541).
La triomphe and la ronfle are included by Rabelais (first half of sixteenth century) in the long list of some two hundred and thirty games played by Gargantua.
In "A Worlde of Wordes or Most copious and exact Dictionarie in Italian and English collected by John Florio, 1598," ronfa is defined as "a game at cardes called ruffe or trumpe;" and under trionfo we find "triumph. * * * Also a trump at cards, or the play called trump or ruff."
There is no evidence to show whether the above were the foreign or native form of trump. Douce, in his "Illustrations of Shakespeare," concludes, from finding la triomphe in Rabelais' list, that we derived the game of trump from a French source. But it seems more probable, from the non-appearance of English ruff-and-honours in the Académie des Jeux, and from the distinction drawn in Cotton's "Compleat Gamester" between "English ruff-and-honours" and "French ruff" (la triomphe of the Académie), that the game referred to by Berni, Vives, Rabelais, and Florio, was not the same game as English ruff-and-honours, for which a purely English origin (as the name implies) may be claimed.
How and when trump or English ruff-and-honours originated cannot now be ascertained. It was played at least as early as the time of Henry VIII., for it was taken by Latimer to illustrate his text, in the first of two sermons "Of the Card," preached by him at Cambridge, in Advent, about the year 1529. He mentions the game under its original and corrupted appellations, and clearly alludes to its characteristic feature, as the following extract will show.
"And where you are wont to celebrate Christmass in playing at Cards, I intend, with God's grace, to deal unto you Christ's Cards, wherein you shall perceive Christ's Rule. The game that we play at shall be the Triumph, which, if it be well played at, he that dealeth shall win; the Players shall likewise win, and the standers and lookers upon shall do the same. * * * You must mark also, that the Triumph must apply to fetch home unto him all the other Cards, whatsoever suit they be of. * * * Then further we must say to ourselves, 'What requireth Christ of a Christian man?' Now turn up your Trump, your Heart (Hearts is Trump, as I said before) and cast your Trump, your Heart, on this card."