"From the excellency of this planet it is not surprising that the ancients called a happy throw at dice Venus,—not Jove, though considered of greater fortune. Thus Propertius:
"Venus I hoped with lucky dice to cast,
But every time the luckless Dogs turned up."
"An unlucky cast was called the Dog—"Canis"—and also the Little Dog—"Canicula"—with reference to the Stars. Thus Persius:
"Far as the luckless little Dog-star's range."
"What kind of stars the Great and Little Dog were, has been already shown. Some persons, indeed, might laugh at the invention of such kind of games being ascribed to the learned, were it not plain from reason that the game of cards was also devised by wise men. To say nothing about the Kings, Queens, Knights, and Footmen,—for every one knows the distinction between dignity and military service,—is it not evident, when we consider the significance of swords, spears, cups, and country loaves, that the inventor of the game was a man of shrewd wit? When there is need of strength, as indicated by the Swords and Spears, many are better than few; in matters of meat and drink, however, as indicated by the Loaves and Cups, a little is better than a great deal, for it is certain that abstemious persons are of more lively wit than gluttons and drunkards, and much superior in the management of business. What I call country loaves, from their form and colour,—Pliny speaks of bread of a yellow colour—are the marks which are ignorantly supposed to signify pieces of money. The Cups are goblets, for wine." [111]
The remainder of the passage cannot be literally translated into English, as it relates chiefly to the pronunciation of the word "Hastas"—Spears. The substance of it, however, is as follows: "The common people say 'Hastas,' as the aspiration H, and the letter V are interchangeable, and so are B and V, both in Greek and Latin. As Bastoni [clubs] are vulgarly called Hastoni, so have they sometimes the form of spears [Hastarum], but mostly that of bills, for both are military weapons." The original passage is extremely perplexing; and the only thing in it that appears plain to me is the writer's desire to convert Bastoni—Clubs—into "Hastas," Spears. The Bastoni, which he says are called Hastoni, or the Hastoni which are called Bastoni,—for there is here an ambiguity, as in the celebrated oracular response, "Aio te, Æacida, Romanos vincere posse"—can only relate to the figures of the things as seen on cards, and not to the things themselves; for the author says that they have sometimes the shape of spears, but more frequently that of bills. The real meaning of this I take to be, that the Bastoni—Clubs—on cards were more like bills than spears, notwithstanding that H and V, and V and B, were interchangeable letters. From the account of Galeottus, it is evident that the usual marks of the suits of Italian cards were in his time, Coppe, Spadi, Danari, and Bastoni,—Cups, Swords, Money, and Clubs.
In 1463 it would appear that cards were well known in England; for, by an act of parliament passed in that year, which was the third of Edward IV, the importation of playing cards was expressly prohibited. This act, according to Anderson, was passed in consequence of the manufacturers and tradesmen of London, and other parts of England, having made heavy complaints against the importation of foreign manufactured wares which greatly obstructed their own employment. [112] If we suppose that cards were included in the prohibition for the above reason, it would follow that card-making was then a regular business in England.
Whether cards were home-manufactured or obtained from abroad, they appear about 1484 to have been, as they are at present, a common Christmas game. Margery Paston thus writes to her husband, John Paston, in a letter dated Friday, 24th Dec., 1484: "Right worshipful husband, I recommend me unto you. Please it you to weet that I sent your eldest son John to my Lady Morley, to have knowledge of what sports were used in her house in the Christmas next following after the decease of my lord her husband; and she said that there were none disguisings, nor harpings, nor luting, nor singing, nor none loud disports; but playing at the tables, and chess, and cards; such disports she gave her folks leave to play, and none other. Your son did his errand right well, as ye shall hear after this. I sent your younger son to the Lady Stapleton; and she said according to my Lady Morley's saying in that, and as she had seen used in places of worship thereas [where] she hath been." [113] It may not be improper here to caution the reader against confounding "places of worship," with "houses of prayer," and hence inferring that cards were then a common game in churches, with gentlemen's servants, at Christmas time. By "places of worship" are meant the dwelling-places of worshipful persons, such as lords, knights, and justices of the peace: in those days there were no stipendiary police-magistrates, and every Shallow on the bench was "a gentleman born."
Whether Richard III, in whose reign the letter above quoted was written, added dicing and card-playing to his other vices, we have no account either in public history which deals, or ought to deal, wholesale, in "great facts," or in private memoirs, which are more especially devoted to the retailing of little facts. His successor, however, Henry VII, was a card player; for Barrington observes that in his privy-purse expenses there are three several entries of money issued for his majesty's losses at cards. Of his winnings there is no entry; though his money-grubbing majesty kept his accounts so exactly as to enter even a six-and-eightpenny bribe, given to propitiate his mercy in favour of a poor criminal,—thus turning a penny by trafficking with his prerogative of pardoning: