Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing CardsChatto, William Andrew
History
Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards
Chatto, William Andrew
Playing cards -- History
"Having now," says he, "bestowed some waste money among you, I will
set you to cards; by which kind of witchcraft a great number of people
have juggled away not only their money, but also their lands, their
health, their time, and their honesty. I dare not (as I could) show the
lewd juggling that cheaters practice, lest it minister some offence to
the well-disposed, to the simple hurt and losses, and to the wicked
occasion of evil doing. But I would wish all gamesters to beware, not
only with what cards and dice they play, but especially with whom, and
where they exercise gaming. And to let dice pass, (as whereby a man may
be inevitably cousened,) one that is skilful to make and use Bumcards
may undo a hundred wealthy men, that are not given to gaming; but if he
have a confederate present, either of the players or standers-by, the
mischief cannot be avoided. If you play among strangers, beware of him
that seems simple or drunken; for under their habit the most special
couseners are presented; and while you think by their simplicity and
imperfections to beguile them, (and thereof, perchance, are persuaded
by their confederates, your very friends as you think,) you yourself
will be most of all over-taken. Beware also of the betters by and
lookers on, and namely of them that bet on your side; for whilst they
look on your game without suspicion, they discover it by signs to your
adversaries, with whom they bet and yet are their confederates."
Among the tricks with cards which he notices, are the following: "How
to deliver out four Aces and to convert them into four Knaves. How
to tell one what card he seeth in the bottom, when the same card is
shuffled into the stock. To tell one, without confederacy, what card
he thinketh. How to tell what card any man thinketh, how to convey the
same into a nut-shell, cherry-stone, &c., and the same again into one's
pocket. How to make one draw the same, or any card you list, and all
under one devise." The two verses which he quotes in the margin should
be inscribed as a motto on the dial-plate of every gamester's watch.
"Of dice play, and the like unthrifty games, mark these two old verses,
and remember them:
Ludens taxillis, bene respice quid sit in illis:
Mors tua, sors tua, res tua, spes tua, pendet in illis."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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