“So you may,” cried Mr. Twaddleton, “but you will not easily drive me from my position; supported as I am by Vossius and Salmasius, and an army of valiant combatants.”
“The learned Hyde has endeavoured to prove that chess was first invented in India, and passed from thence to Persia and Arabia.[(54)] Fabricius considered it a Persian game, and I must say that I am inclined to coincide with him. The terms in present use may evidently be traced to an Oriental source. Schach, in the Persian language, signifies king, and schachmat, whence our check-mate, the king is dead, the original words having been transformed by progressive changes; thus we have schach, echecs, chess; and by a whimsical concurrence of circumstances, have arisen the English words check, and exchequer.”
“I take your queen,” cried Mr. Seymour.
“Ay; and I take a bishop in return,” said the major.
“Well,” observed the vicar, “if an Oriental nation really gave origin to the game, it could not, at all events, have been China; since the policy of that people is to exclude females from every kind and degree of influence and power, whereas the queen at chess is a powerful and important piece.”
“You must not lay too much stress upon the names of the several pieces,” observed the major, “since they have varied in different ages and countries. The castle is sometimes called the rook, from the Italian word rocca, which signifies a fortress placed on a rock: the piece which we call the Bishop has been termed by English writers alphan, aufin, &c. from an Arabic word, signifying an elephant; sometimes it was named an archer; by the Germans, the hound or runner; by Russians and Swedes, the elephant; by Poles, the priest; and by the French, at a very early period, the fou or fool; the reason of this last appellation seems to be, that as this piece stands on the sides of the king and queen, some wag of the times styled it the fool, because anciently royal personages were commonly thus attended, from want of other means of amusing themselves.”
“You cannot thus account for our term bishop,” observed Mr. Seymour, “as our kings and queens have never had such attendants.”
“Nor is it very easy to ascertain the period at which it was introduced,” replied the major; “in Caxton’s time it was styled the elphyn. I should think it probable that the change of name took place after the Reformation.”
“It is probable that the pieces not only underwent changes in name, but changes in value or power,” observed Mr. Seymour, “as the game descended through different ages and countries.”
Mrs. Beacham, who had been for some time listening with much interest to the curious discourse we have just related, here ventured to ask a question.