[302] Mons. Peignot, in his 'Analyse de Recherches sur les Cartes à Jouer,' 1826, after noticing Cotta's cards, thus speaks of the satirical cards above described: "C'est sans doute ce recueil qui a donné lieu à un jeu de cartes très-malin, publié à Paris il y a sept à huit ans, sous le titre de Cartes à rire; ce doit être, autant que je puis me le rappeler, sous le ministère de M.D.C.... On attribue ce jeu à M.A. ... C.A.D.C.D.D.O. Toutes les cartes, soit à personnages, soit numériques, présentent des dessins charmans, des figures ingénieusement groupées, des attitudes très-plaisantes. Mais l'esprit satyrique y est poussé à l'excès; et ce n'est point avec de pareilles caricatures qu'on parviendra à rétablir l'union parmi les Français." p.297.
[303] According to Père Daniel, the Ace or As is the Latin As,—a piece of money, coin, riches; while Bullet derives it from the Celtic, and says that it means origin, source, beginning, the first. A French writer of the sixteenth century, supposed to be Charles Stephens, in a work entitled 'Paradoxes,' printed at Paris in 1553, says that the Ace, or "Az ought to be called Nars, a word which, in German, signifies a fool." The German word which he alludes to is Narr, which is just as likely to have been the origin of Deuce as of Ace. It has also been supposed that the term Ace has been derived from the Greek word ὁνος, which, according to Julius Pollux, signified One in the Ionic dialect; but as the word ὁνος also signified an Ass, it has been conjectured that the Ace of cards and dice was so called, not as a designation of unity, but as signifying an Ass or a Fool. Those who entertained the latter opinion are said by Hyde to be Asses themselves: "Qui unitatem asinum dicunt errant, et ipsi sunt asini." (De Ludis Orient. lib. ii.)—Leber, Etudes Historiques, pp. 39, 86.
[304] Brockett's Glossary of North Country Words.
[305] Singer's Researches, p. 271.
[306] Dr. Houstoun's Memoirs of his own Lifetime, p. 92. Edit. 1747.
[307] A writer of the age of Queen Elizabeth would appear to have foreseen the great "Card Controversy," which within the last 150 years has occupied so many "learned pens:" "It shall be lawful for coney-catchers to fall together by the ears, about the four Knaves of Cards, which of them may claim superiority; and whether false dice or true be of the most antiquity."—The Pennyless Parliament of Thread-bare Poets.
[308] The French also call the Trump Atou,—"Coupez: Cœur est Atou." Cut: Hearts are Trumps.
[309] "Triomphe: the card-game called Ruff, or Trump; also, the Ruff, or Trump at it."—Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary.
[310] In 'The Toast,' a satirical poem written about 1730, by Dr. William King, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, Dr. Hort, Archbishop of Tuam, is called Lord Pam. He is also called Pam by Swift.