NOTES AND QUERIES: A Medium of Intercommunication FOR LITERARY MEN, GENERAL READERS, ETC. "When found, make a note of."-CAPTAIN CUTTLE. ELEVENTH SERIES. VOLUME VII. JANUARY-JUNE, 1913. LONDON: PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. BY JOHN C. FRANCIS AND J. EDWARD FRANCIS. LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1913. The CONTENTS.-No. 158. NOTES:-Primero, 1- Christmas Bibliography, 3-Hugh Peters, 4-Queen Elizabeth and Richard II.-The Leek as Welsh National Emblem-Marlborough in Dublin, 6Mechanical Piano before 1868-"The sport of kings Scott: a Curiosity in Quotation Put up this, 'twill be thine another day"-Antiquity of the "Tied House," 7. QUERIES:-Sir John Greville of Binton Brisbane of Barnhill-Salehurst, Sussex-A Ballad of the RevengeKennedy Family--The First Folio Shakespeare. Earliest Reference, 8- "Tamson's mare"-Words on a SamplerCardigan Manuscript-Monuments at Warwick--Polhill Family-Payment for Good Friday Sermon-Records of Navigation in India. 9-H.M.S. Beagle-A Spur to a Celestial Rice' Parish Registers of Surrey. Inquisition in Fiction and Drama-"Of sorts -French Pronunciation of "Law"-Reference Wanted, 10. REPLIES:-Thomas Chippendale, Upholsterer, 10-Dr. Peter du Moulin and North Wales-Capt. Pitman. 12— W. Carter-Apparent Death, 13-Thomas Pretty, Vicar of Hursley-Long "S," Date of Disappearance-Novels in Northanger Abbey,' 14-"Prock"-Yelver in PlaceNames-" Dander," 15-The Stones of London-"Jag" --Irish Families: Taylor of Ballyhaise- Variants in the Text of Kenilworth,' 16-Milton's Lycidas-Wrestling Match in Fiction-The Curfew Bell-Secret ServiceHarveys of Whittington, Staffordshire. 17-Lord Grimthorpe's List of Churches-Gammer Gurton-Seals of Thomas, First Marquis of Dorset - Hogarth's Rake's Progress': The Black Joke'-Price of Tobacco in the Seventeenth Century, 18. NOTES ON BOOKS: Whitaker's Almanack, Peerage, and The International Whitaker'-'Who's Who' Englishwoman's Year Book'-'Writers' and Artists' Year Book'-'Whitman's Print-Collector's Handbook' Varro on Farming'-Reviews and Magazines. Notices to Correspondents. Notes. PRIMERO. THIS old game of cards was called Prime in France, Primera in Spain, and Primiera in Italy-all derived from the Latin primarius (first). In English literature, besides the occasional use of the foreign names, the game is designated Primero (and also PrimaVista, which is probably a variant), with the usual corruptions in spelling of the early days. Primero is actually a Spanish word, meaning "first" or "chief." The earliest writer mentioning the game is an Italian named Francesco Berni (or Bernia), who was born about 1496, and died in 1536. His work is entitled 'Capitolo del Gioco della Primiera,' &c., a poem published in Rome in 1526. It contains some particulars of the game, and is believed to be the earliest work extant describing a cardgame. The book is very rare, but a number of references and extracts from it is to be found in Samuel Weller Singer's 'Researches into the History of Playing Cards' (1816). Throughout his work Berni mentions the following eleven games of cards : Bassetta, Cricca, Flusso, Noviera, Primiera, Quintiera, Ronfa,* Sestiera, Trentuno, Trionfi, and Trionfi-Piccoli. He says in reference to Primero, as translated by Singer : "To describe what Primero is would be little less than useless, for there can scarcely be any one so ignorant as to be unacquainted with it.The game is played differently in different places, but it would occupy too much time to recount At Florence it is the custom to all its varieties. leave out the Sevens, Eights, and Nines,† keeping and vying only with the smaller cards; the Rest is made at the second card, and when the first player says Pass every one is obliged to discard, notwithstanding any one may have an Ace or a Six in his hand. At Venice, for example, the mode of playing may be different; in Lombardy, Naples, France, and Spain, so many countries so many customs. But of all the modes in the world, let them be what they may, none can be superior to that of the court at Rome.-In this glorious court, then, among other laudable customs, Primero principally flourishes; it has there its liberty, its reputation, its decorum, its full members and figures, and all its parts: there the Sevens, Eights, and Nines are not withdrawn ; there it is allowed to discard, but not to discard both cards, after Pass is once said; nor can this be done with the two cards of the Rest, as is usual in other places. The most essential operation of this game may be called its two principal heads, the Flush and the Primiera, and a third, derived from the first, which is called the Point; from these three are deduced all the varieties which daily occur at Primero, as the greater and lesser Flush, the great and little Prime, and more or less Points, which diversity gives rise to numerous controversies, and a thousand disputable points. -Another not less excellent operation in this game is, that four cards of one sort, as four Court cards, four Aces, &c., conquer both the Flush and Primiera." According to this account, the game, as cards (Aces to Sevens), and at Rome with played at Florence, was with twenty-eight the full pack; and from the references to the numerous methods of play it was in existence for some time previous to 1526. Another more celebrated Italian, Jerome Cardan (1501-76), wrote a work in Latin entitled Liber de Ludo Aleæ,' being an amplification of an original tract by him It contains about on games of chance. 10,000 words, and is divided into thirtytwo chapters, each with a heading. In it the following twelve games of cards are mentioned: Baseta, Centum, Cricones, * Berni attributes the invention of Ronfa to King Ferdinand-evidently referring to the husband of Queen Isabella, and King of Naples, Sicily, and Spain. This is a mistake in the original or translation. He means the Eights, Nines, and Tens. 259433 His Primera, Ronfa, Scaltara,* Sequentiæ, Se- whether at the Rest, or from the complete quentium, Tarochi, Trapola, Triumfeti, and hand, or at both times. His account is Triumphi. Singer, in one of the appendices also obscure about the staking and vying. to his own work above mentioned, sets out He gives some examples of discarding. the text of Cardan's book, so far as it which, if one thoroughly understood Carrelates to cards. A portion of it deals with dan's game, would no doubt be instructive, Primero, but the text is so corrupt or as he was a mathematician of no mean imperfect that it is difficult to translate order, and a clever man in other ways. exactly what Cardan intended to say. The repute as a physician was worldwide. following principal details are embraced visited Scotland in 1552 to attend John therein, viz. :— Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, for asthma, whom he cured. He also attended Edward VI., whose horoscope he made out, and afterwards published in one of his works. Primera [sic]t is the best of all games. The Eight, Nine, and Ten are rejected from the ordinary pack, and the King, Queen, and Knave count ten each. Ten points are added to the pips of the Two, Three, Four, and Five, which therefore count respectively twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. The pips of the Six and Seven are trebled, so that they count respectively eighteen and twenty-one. The Ace is value for sixteen. The hand is complete with four cards, and there are five different classes of hand, (1) Number, (2) Primera, (3) Highest, (4) Flush, and (5) Four of the same Rank. Number (or Point), the lowest class, consists of two or three cards of the same suit; and the lowest hand in it (two court cards) is value for twenty, and the highest (Seven, Six, and Five) for fifty-four. Primera is four cards of four different suits, and beats any Number hand; the lowest Primera is forty (four court cards), and the highest eighty-one (three Sevens and a Six). Highest, fifty-five points (the Seven, Six, and Ace of the same suit), beats both Primera and Number. Flush, four cards of the same suit, beats the other three classes, and the lowest hand in it is forty-two, the highest seventy. The remaining and best class is akin to Primera (four different suits), and is four cards of the same kind, such as four Sixes, or four Kings; the lowest hand in it is forty, and the highest eighty-four. Four Kings, four Queens, and four Knaves are equal in value. In each class a higher value beats a lower one, and when two or more hands of the same class are equal in value, the eldest holder of them conquers. Two cards to each player are dealt round singly, and afterwards two together. When the first two cards are dealt to each, a rest in the dealing takes place, and each player looks at his cards and makes the stake. Discarding is permitted, fresh cards to make up the proper number being taken into the hand and dealt from the pack." But it is not clear from Cardan's account where the discarding actually takes place Could this game in any way be akin to Scartino, a favourite of the D'Estes-Isabella (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua, and Beatrice (1475-97), Duchess of Milan. The former lady, writing to the latter (her sister) in 1493, said, "I often wished myself back in your room playing at Scartino." Scartino, from its name, seems to have embraced the feature of discarding. These ladies were also players of Britano and Imperiale. This is the Spanish form, not the Italian. The three highest cards of a suit-Seven, Six, and Ace-make fifty-five, but that combination is allocated to a class by itself. He Rabelais, in 1532, places the game second in the list of the Gargantuan Games. Another French writer, in the Cabinet du Roy de France' (1581), mentions it as being played by the French clergy. In 1584 Amurath III., Sultan of Turkey, sent a poem to Henry of Navarre (afterwards Henry IV. of France) commencing with the verse (old translation) :— The estate of ffraunce as now it stands Is like Primero at fowre hands Wher some doe vye, and some doe hould And best assured maye be too bould. The Duc d'Angoulême, son of Charles IX. (France) and Marie Touchet, tells following tale about 1 and 2 Aug., 1589 : the : The King [Henry III.] ordered us to retire and M. de Bellegarde, as first gentleman of the bedchamber, after drawing the royal curtains, accompanied me to my quarters, where I found Chemerault, Richelieu, Lanergue, and Renty playing at Primero, with whom I made a fifth. The game lasted till four in the morning, and it being sunrise, I threw myself on my bed, and was just settling off to repose, when one of my footmen arrived with the news of my utter ruin, crying out in tones of amazement, as the occasion warranted, that the King was stabbed." Académies, but the game of Ambigu, which Primero is not described in any of the first appears in the Paris Académie of 1659, is a later and enlarged version of it. This is confirmed by the Address to the Countess de V. prefixed to the description of Mesle, or Ambigu, in that edition, which purports to give the origin of the newer game, and admits that it is derived principally from Primero. Duchat in his edition of Rabelais' Works' (1732) describes Prime (Primero) as follows (translation) : "There is Great and Little Prime, and each is a game of cards for four persons. The Great is played with the Court cards, but in the Little, where each player is dealt four cards one by one, the highest card is the Seven, which is valued at twenty-one points; the next is the Six, which is valued at eighteen, and following it is the Five, |