nobility than here at home, yet, for my part, I thank God, I have no cause to complain either, because of their gentleness; no usher keeps the door between me and them when I come to visit them, or that the greatest princes refuse not sometimes to hallow my poor table and house with their person; which (be it spoken without boast, or embraiding) doth sometime cost me twenty pounds a-day. I am sure that some of this company do remember what a brave company of lords supped with me the last term, and I think how ye have heard how some of them gat an hundred pounds or two by their coming." With this and that like talk, consumed was our dinner. And, after the table was removed, in came one of the waiters with a fair silver bowl, full of dice and cards. "Now, masters" quoth the goodman, "who is so disposed to fall to: here is my twenty pounds; win it, and wear it." Then each man chose his game: some kept the goodman company at the hazard, some matched themselves at a new game called primero....

They egged me to have made one at dice, and told me it was a shame for a gentleman not to keep gentlemen company for his twenty or forty crowns: nevertheless, because I alleged ignorance, the gentlewoman said I should not sit idle, all the rest being occupied, and so we two fell to saunt, five games a crown....I passed not for the loss of twenty or forty shillings for acquaintance, and so much I think it cost me, and then I left off. Marry the dice-players stuck well by it and made very fresh play, saving one or two, that were clean shriven, and had no more money to lose. In the end, when I should take my leave to depart, I could not by any means be suffered so to break company, unless I would deliver the gentlewoman a ring for a gage of my return to supper, and so I did; and, to tell you all in few words, I have haunted none other since I got that acquaintance: my meat, and drink and lodging is every way so delicate, that I make no haste to change it.

Cheating and False Dice (a cheater speaks)

Ye know that this outrageous swearing and quarrelling that some use in play, giveth occasion to many to forbear that else would adventure much money at it; for this we have a device

2

amongst us, that rather we relent and give place to a wrong, than we would cause the play, by strife, to cause any company to break; neither have we any oaths in use but lightly these: "of honesty," "of truth," "by salt," "Martin !" which, when we use them affirmatively, we mean always directly the contrary. As for example, if haply I say unto you when the dice cometh to your hands, "Of honesty cast at all," my meaning is that ye shall cast at the board or else at very little. If, when a thing is offered in gage, I swear, "By Saint Martin I think it fine gold," then mean I the contrary, that it is but copper. And like as it is a gentle and old proverb: let losers have their words; so by the way take forth this lesson, ever to shew gentleness to the silly fools, and creep if ye can into their very bosoms. For harder it is to hold them when ye have them, than for the first time to take them up; for these young wits be so light and so wavering, that it requireth great travail to make them always dance after one pipe. But to follow that we have in hand, be they young, be they old that falleth into our laps, and be ignorant of our art, we call them all by the name of a "cousin"; as men that we make as much of as if they were of our kin. Indeed, the greatest wisdom of our faculty resteth in this point; diligently to foresee to make the "cousin" sweat, that is to have a will to keep play and company, and always to beware that we cause him not smoke, lest that, having any feel or savour of guile intended against him, he slip the collar as it were a hound, and shake us off for ever. And whensoever ye take up a "cousin," be sure, as near as ye can, to know aforehand what store of bit he hath in his bag, that is, what money he hath in his purse, and whether it be in great coggs or in small, that is, gold or silver; and at what game he will soonest stoop, that we may feed him with his own humour, and have cauls ready for him; for thousands there be that will not play a groat at novem, and yet will lose a hundred pound at the hazard; and he that will not stoop a dodkin at the dice, perchance at cards will spend God's cope; therefore they must be provided for every way. Generally your fine cheats, though they be good made both in the King's Bench and in the Marshalsea, yet Bird in Holborn is the finest workman; acquaint yourself with him, and let him make you a bale or two of quarters [?caters] of sundry

sizes, some less, some more, to throw into the first play, till ye perceive what your company is. Then have in a readiness, to be foisted in when time shall be, your fine cheats of all sorts; be sure to have in store of such as these be:-a bale of barred cinque-deuces and flat cinque-deuces, a bale of barred six-aces and flat six-aces, a bale of barred cater-treys and flat cater-treys*, the advantage whereof is all on the one side and consisteth in the forging. Provide also a bale or two of fullams, for they have great use at the hazard: and though they be square outward, yet, being within at the corner with lead or other ponderous matter stopped, minister as great an advantage as any of the rest; ye must also be furnished with high men and low men for a mumchance and for passage. Yea, and a long die for even and odd is good to strike a small stroke withal, for a crown or two, or the price of a dinner. As for gourds and bristle dice, they be now too gross a practice to be put in use; light graviers there be, demies, contraries, and of all sorts, forged clean against the apparent vantage, which have special and sundry uses. But it is enough at this time to put you in a remembrance what tools ye must prepare to make you a workman.

Card-sharping

Is there as much craft at cards as ye have rehearsed at the dice?

Altogether, I would not give a point to choose; they have such a sleight in sorting and shuffling of the cards, that play at what game ye will, all is lost aforehand. If two be confederated to beguile the third, the thing is compassed with the more ease than if one be but alone, yet are there many ways to deceive. Primero, now as it hath most use in court, so is there most deceit in it some play upon the prick; some pinch the cards privily with their nails; some turn up the corners; some mark them with fine spots of ink. One fine trick brought in a Spaniard a finer than this invented an Italian, and won much money with it by our doctors, and yet, at the last, they were both overreached by new sleights devised here at home. At trump, saint, and such other like, cutting at the neck is a great vantage, so is cutting by a bum card (finely) under and over,

* See glossary under "False Dice."

stealing the stock of the decarded cards, if there be broad laws beforced aforehand. At decoy, they draw easily twenty hands together, and play all upon assurance when to win or lose. Other helps I have heard of besides; as, to set the "cousin" upon the bench with a great looking-glass behind him on the wall, wherein the cheater might always see what cards were in his hand. Sometimes they work by signs made by some of the lookers-on. Wherefore methinks this, among the rest, proceeded of a fine invention. A gamester, after he had been oftentimes bitten among cheaters, and after much loss, grew very suspicious in his play, that he could not suffer any of the sitters by to be privy to his game; for this the cheaters devised a new shift. A woman should sit sewing besides him; and by the shift, or slow drawing her needle, give a token to the cheater what was the "cousin's" game. So that from a few examples instead of infinite that might be rehearsed, this one universal conclusion may be gathered, that give you to play, and yield yourself to loss. GILBERT WALKER? A Manifest detection of Dice-play 1532

Falstaff. Boy!

Page. Sir!

D. Debt and Usury

Falstaff. What money is in my purse?

Page. Seven groats and twopence.

Falstaff. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. 2 Henry IV., 1. ii. 264-270

First, here's young Master Rash; he's in for a commodity of brown paper, and old ginger, nine-score and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks, ready money....Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of peachcoloured satin, which now peaches him a beggar.

Measure for Measure, IV. iii. 4—21

A Portrait of a Usurer

The first of them is Usury (a devil of good credit in the city) who having privily stolen a sufficient stock from the old miser his father, hath lately set up for himself, and hath four of his brothers his apprentices. The first of them is Hardness-of

Heart, who bringing into his bank contempt-of-the-poor, is set by him to beat beggars from his door, and arrest his debtors by latitats. The second is, Unmeasurable-Care-and-Trouble-ofMind, who hath brought this portion to be employed: destruction-of-the-mind, neglect-of-God's-service, want-of-faith, jealousy-of-loss: he keeps the cash, and suffers not a mouse to enter, but he scores him. The third is Violence, and for him he hath bought a sergeant's office, who hath so many eyes like Argus to watch that no poor creditor can escape him: his stock is a bunch of writs, and a hanger, and ordinarily he wears his mace at his back instead of a dagger. The fourth is Rapine, and he jets about the streets to steal for him: he is a passing good hooker and picklock; and for a short knife and a horn thimble, turn him loose to all the fraternity: his stock is false keys, engines, and sword-and-buckler: him he employs to rob from them he hath lent money to, to the end they may be the fitter to commit a forfeiture.

This Usury is jump of the complexion of the baboon his father; he is haired like a great ape, and swart like a tawny Indian, his horns are sometimes hidden in a button cap (as Th. Nashe described him), but now he is fallen to his flat cap, because he is chief warden of his company: he is narrow-browed, and squirrel-eyed, and the chiefest ornament of his face is, that his nose sticks in the midst like an embossment in terrace work, here and there embellished and decked with veruca for want of purging with agaric; some authors have compared it to a rutter's cod-piece, but I like not the allusion so well, by reason the tyings have no correspondence. His mouth is always mumbling, as if he were at his matins: and his beard is bristled here and there like a sow that had the lousy. Doublechinned he is, and over his throat hangs a bunch of skin like a money-bag. Band wears he none, but a welt of coarse holland, and if you see it stitched with blue thread, it is no workaday wearing. His truss is the piece of an old packcloth, the mark washed out; and if you spy a pair of Bridges' satin sleeves to it, you may be assured it is a holiday. His points are the edging of some cast packsaddle, cut out sparingly (I warrant you) to serve him and his household for trussing leather. His jacket forsooth is faced with moth-eaten budge, and it is no less than Lisle grogram of the worst. It is bound to his body with a