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
The mention of a comedy shown before the Queen at Windsor by the
children of her Majesty's Chapel, naturally suggests the recollection
of John Lyly's Court Comedies, which were wont to be shown by the
same children, as well as by the "children of Poules;" and as in one
of those comedies,--Alexander and Campaspe,--Lyly has committed an
anachronism with respect to cards,[148] an opportunity is thus afforded
of here introducing the pleasantly conceited song that contains the
error,--a song, which Elia would have encored, and which even Mrs.
Battle herself would have allowed to be sung at the card table during
the intermission of the game at the end of a rubber, when cutting in
for new partners.[149]
"Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses; Cupid paid:
He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
Loses them too: then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose
Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);
With these the chrystal on his brow,
And then the dimple of his chin:
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes:
She won, and Cupid blind doth rise.
O Love, has she done this to thee?
What shall, alas, become of me!"
Before taking leave of the reign of Elizabeth, it seems proper to
insert here what Philip Stubbes says about Cards, Dice, Tables,
Tennis, and other games, in his 'Anatomie of Abuses.'[150] "As for
Cardes, Dice, Tables, Boules, Tennisse, and such like," says the moral
dissector, speaking in the person of Philoponus, "thei are _Furta
officiosa_, a certaine kind of smothe, deceiptfull, and sleightie
thefte, whereby many a one is spoiled of all that ever he hath,
sometimes of his life withall, yea, of bodie and soule for ever: and
yet (more is the pitie) these be the only exercises used in every mans
house, al the yere through. But especially in Christmas time there is
nothyng els used but Cardes, Dice, Tables, Maskyng, Mummyng, Bowling,
and such like fooleries. And the reason is, thei think thei have a
commission and prerogative that tyme to doe what thei list, and to
followe what vanitie they will. But (alas) doe thei thinke that thei
are privileged at that time to doe evill? the holier the time is (if
one time were holier then another, as it is not) the holier ought their
exercises to bee."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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