CARDS. All that we know of C., for certain, is, that they are of ancient and eastern origin. What is asserted by count de Gebelin and the earliest writers upon the subject, that in their primary stage they constituted some sort of symbolic and even moral game, is not so well established. The Hindu and Chinese C. are, however, emblematic in a very high degree—the former illustrating the ten avatars, or incarnations of the deity Vishnu; and the so-called paper-tickets of the Chinese typifying the stars, the human virtues, and, indeed, almost anything you please. The learned sir William Jones expresses himself convinced that the game of chaturaji—the four rajahs or kings —a species of highly, complicated chess, was the first germ of that parti-colored paste board which has been the ruin of so many modern fortunes. In the wardrobe accounts of Edward I., there is an item of money paid for the use of that monarch for playing at the four kings—" ad opus regis ad ludendum quatuor reges, viii.s. v.d." —which is supposed to have been a game at C.; but how and when painted C. took the place of carved figures, is still but matter of conjecture.
A pack of Hindustani C., in the possession of the royal Asiatic society, and presented to rapt. Cromline Smith in 1815 by a high-caste Brahman, was declared by the donor to be actually 1000 years old. " Nor," quoth the Brahman " can any of us now play at them, for they are not like our modern cards at all." Neither, indeed, do they bear any remarkable resemblance to our own—the pack consisting of no less than eight suits of divers colors, the kings being mounted upon elephants, and the viziers, or second honors, upon horses, tigers, and bulls. Moreover, there are other marks by which the respective value of the common C. may be distinguished, which would puzzle our club quidnuncs not a little- such as " a pine-apple in a shallow cup," and "a something like a parasol without a handle, and with two broken ribs sticking through the top." In the Chinese dictionary, called Ching-tsze-tung, it is asserted that dotted C. were invented in the reign of Scun-ho (1120 A.D.), and devised for the amusement of his numerous wives; there are 30 C. in each of these packs, 3 snits of 9 C. each, and 3 single C. superior to all the others. The name of one of the suits is Ifew-ko-wan—that is to say, the nine ten-thousands of kwan strings of beads, shells, or money; and the titles of the other two suits are equally cm, cise and significant. The Chinese C. have, however, a decided advantage over those of Hindustan in beiug oblong instead of circular.
C. do not appear to have been known in Europe until towards the end of the 14th century. " In the year 1379," writes Carelluyzo, " was brought into Viterbo the game at cards, which comes from the country of the Saracens, and is with their called nail)." " Whence afterwards," says Mr. W. Chatto (Origin and History of Playing Cards, Lond.,
1848), "perhaps Jackanapes, Jack of cards. This entry occurs in the accounts of the treasurer of Charles VI. of France, in 1393: "Given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and colored, and variously ornamented. for the amuse ment of the king, 50 sols of Paris." Front the date of this year being immediately subsequent to that in which the king lost his reason, the story goes that 0, were invented to divert his royal melancholy; but they were certainly of earlier use in France. The French clergy took greatly to 0. about this time; we are afraid, too, it was to the ungenteel game of all-fours, since we find them specially forbidden that amusement by the synod of Langres, in 1404.
Card-making became a regular trade in Germany 14 years after this, and it, as well as card-painting, seems to have been carried on for some time exclusively by females; the wood-engraving of C., however, did not begin until some time afterwards. The pips were then very prettily imagined, the suits consisting of hearts, bells, acorns, and leaves. The place of her majesty- the queen was filled by a knight in those days; and it is to Italy, and not to Germany or France, that the glory of giving place aux dames must be conceded. There was also no ace whatever! By 1420, gambling by means of C. had grown to such a pitch as to provoke St. Bernardin to preach against it at Bologna: and that so eloquently as to cause his hearers to make a fire in the public place and throw all the C. in their possession into it—a proceeding which must have been hailed with joy by the Messrs. De la Rue of that period. The signs upon Italian C., which seem to have been the first imported into England, were cups, swords, money, and clubs; but in the third year of Edward IV., their further importation was forbidden, and the home-trade of card-making protected. C. were played by that time, we read, " in all places of worship" in this country, by which it was meant, not in the churches, but in the houses of all the gentry. Henry VII. was a card-player; and there are not a few entries in that mean monarch's privy-purse account of his majesty's little losings. His daughter _Margaret, at the age of 14, was found by James IV. of Scot land—the first time he ever saw her—in the act of playing cards; and it was most prob ably ecarti, for he at once " proposed" to her, and she " accepted" him. There was a sum regularly allotted to the princess, afterwards queen, Mary, as pocket-money for this especial purpose; the sums given her at a time for immediate disbursement ranging from 90s. to 40s., but one entry being so disgracefully low (for a princess) as " two and tuppence." James I. likewise played a good deal, but so sleepily that he required some body to hold his C. for him.