"This account of the providential deliverance of the Protestants in Ireland from the Marian persecution is attested in the memorials of Richard, Earl of Cork, by the Lord Primate Usher; and in Sir James Ware's MSS.; who also writes that Queen Elizabeth, being informed of the truth thereof by the lord deputy Fitz-Walters, her Majesty was so delighted, that she sent for the good woman, named Elizabeth Edmonds, but by her husband (whom she afterwards married) named Mathershead, and gave her a pension of forty pounds during life, for having saved her Protestant subjects of Ireland."
Having now laid before the reader a store of facts and speculations on the origin and history of cards, a sketch of the progress of card-playing in different countries in Europe, and a collection of the opinions of several eminent men on the lawfulness of the game theologically and morally considered, together with sundry other matters either naturally, or artificially, associated with cards,—I shall conclude the work by a brief recapitulation of a few of the leading facts and circumstances relating to the origin of cards and the time of their first introduction into Europe.
In Hindostan, the tradition is, that cards were known in that country at a remote period,—upwards of a thousand years ago; but I have not been able to learn that they are mentioned in any Hindostanee work of an early date, and I am informed, on the authority of the Sanscrit professor at Oxford, that there is no Sanscrit word for playing cards. This last fact is, however, of but little weight as negative evidence of cards being unknown in Hindostan a thousand years ago; for long before that time Sanscrit had become obsolete as a vernacular language. In China, if any credit can be attached to the two dictionaries, or rather cyclopædias, of the greatest authority in that country, "Dotted Cards" were invented in 1120, in the reign of Seun-ho, and began to be common in the reign of Kaou-tsung, who ascended the throne in 1131. Cards—Carte—are mentioned in an Italian work, said to have been composed by Sandro di Pipozzo in 1299; but as the MS. is not of an earlier date than 1400, there is good reason for concluding the word to be an interpolation, seeing that in several works of the earlier part of the fourteenth century, which had been cited to prove that cards were then known in Europe, it has been discovered that the term cards was an interpolation introduced at a later period by a transcriber. The author of the 'Güldin Spil,' a work written about the middle of the fifteenth century, and printed at Augsburg, in 1472, says that he had read that the game of cards was first brought into Germany in 1300. No fact, however, confirmatory of the correctness of this account has been discovered; and the omission of all notice of cards by European authors of the earlier half of the fourteenth century, even when expressly treating of the games in vogue at the period, may be received as good negative evidence of their not being then known as a popular game in Europe: "De non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio." Admitting cards to be of Eastern invention—a fact which appears to be sufficiently established by the evidence adduced in the first chapter,—it would seem that they first became known in Europe as a popular game between 1360 and 1390. Covelluzzo, an Italian chronicler of the fifteenth century, says, that the game was first brought into Viterbo in 1379; in 1393, three packs of cards were painted by Jacquemin Gringonneur for the amusement of Charles VI of France; [355] in 1397, the working people of Paris were forbid to play at cards on working days; and in the same year card-playing was prohibited by the magistrates of Ulm. Such are the principal facts relative to the introduction of cards into Europe. The game appears to have rapidly spread amongst all classes of people. The manufacture of cards was a regular business in Germany and Italy prior to 1425; the importation of foreign cards into England was prohibited by act of parliament in 1463; and about 1484, cards, as at present, was a common Christmas game. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the more prominent incidents which mark the progress of card-playing; it may be sufficient to observe, that no other game was ever so generally played, with people of both sexes,—young and old, rich and poor. Even the "red man" of America, the "Stoic of the Woods," has acquired a knowledge of cards, from his neighbours of European descent, and ceases to be apathetic when engaged in the game. It is, perhaps, as extensively diffused as the use of tobacco; and is certainly indulged in by a greater variety of persons.
FOOTNOTES:
[314] The author does not seem to have been successful in his ministry at Newcastle. Colonel Fenwick says that the town was famous for mocking and misusing Christ's ministers; and after naming Knox and Udal, he thus reproaches the town for its treatment of Balmford: "Witness reverend Balmford, whom in a like manner thou expulsed; though thou couldst not touch his life, thou pricked his sides (as well as Christ's) in his hearers, with the reproach of Balmfordian faction and schism."—Christ in the midst of his Enemies, by Lieut.-Col. John Fenwick, 1643. Reprinted by M. A. Richardson, Newcastle, 1846.
[315] The opinions of Luther, Calvin, Peter Martyr, Lambert Daneau, and others upon this question are to be found in the 'Collectanea variorum authorum de Sortibus et Ludo Aleæ,' appended to the Alea of Pascasius Justus, by Joannes a Munster, 4to, 1617.