100. Ancient-Chess-play.
This engraving· is from a drawing in a beautifully illuminated MS. preserved in the British Museum among the Harleian Collection. [937] This MS. was written at the close of the fourteenth century, and bears every mark of being the very copy presented to Isabel of Bavaria, the queen of Charles VI. of France. Her portrait, very neatly finished, occurs twice, and that of the king her husband once. The author of this MS. makes Ulysses to be the inventor of chess; and the painting is intended to represent that chieftain engaged with some other Grecian hero who is come to visit and play the game with him, the two bystanders, I presume, are the umpires to decide the matter in case of any dispute.
The Cotton Library contains a MS. of the thirteenth century with the following:
101. Chess-board.—XIV. Century.
In this representation is exhibited the manner of placing the pieces, which are thus called in Latin verse:
Miles et Alphinus, rex, roc, regina pedinus.
The same MS. supplies a perfect singularity: