"Primero."
This game is noticed by Shakespeare, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor:"—
"I never prospered since I foreswore myself at primero."
And likewise in Henry VIII.:—
"And left him at primero, with the Duke of Suffolk."
In Beaumont and Fletcher also, mention is made of this celebrated and once fashionable game—in vol. ii. p. 185, in "The Scornful Lady," and likewise in "The nice Valour," in vol. iv. p. 273.
Primero too is noticed in Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," p. 291. There is a poem by the celebrated Sir John Harrington, the translator of Ariosto, which affords an admirable illustration of the game: it is entitled, "The Story of Marcus' Life at Primero." But as it amounts to upwards of forty lines, it is considered as too long for insertion here.
CHAPTER XII.—Vol. i., p. 287.