tion of soldiers, schollers, marchants, and husbandmen. The popular character of cards was the inducement to certain publishers to make them a vehicle of instruction in history and other topics; and we have from the time of James II. nearly to our own packs illustrated in a variety of ways, shewing historical episodes, leading points in geography, and even the outlines of grammar. Card-tricks began at a very early date to be a deviation from the original and legitimate application of the objects, and Reginald Scot, in his Discovery, 1584, dedicates a section to the exposure of the frauds of sharpers of various types, among whom he tells us that there were some who affected, for the purpose of cosenage, to be drunk. In A Notable Discovery of Cosenage, 1592. Dequoy, Mumchance, Catchdolt, or Irish One-andThirty, Non est possible, Dutch Noddy, are quoted as the names of cheating games of cards then in vogue. In the margin of the text a note describes them as "the names of such games as Conycatchers vse." King (James IV.) for three thousand crowns of gold in one night, at cartis and dice." They (cards) are also mentioned in an old anonymous Scotish poem of Covetice. Dalrymple, Anc. Scot. Poems, 168. Lyndsay, in his Satire of the Three Estates (1535) makes the parson say that at various amusements, including cartis, he may above all others bear the prize. Cards were, from numerous references, in great vogue both in Scotland and on the Borders, even among the lower classes, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The stakes in the case of the humbler players were placks or hardheads, two coins of very small value in the old Scotish currency. Hall, of Cambridge, says: "For cardes, the philologie of them is not for an essay. A man's fancy would be sum'd up in cribbidge; gleeke requires a vigilant memory and a long purse; maw, a pregnant agility; pichet, a various invention; primero, a dextrous kinde of rashnesse, &c. Hora Vaciva, 1646, p. 150. Lord Worcester includes in his "Century of Inventions," 1663, two which may be thought to have been as well omitted. They refer to cheating tricks with cards and dice. Since Brand and Ellis wrote, several im"White silk," says his lordship, "knotted portant works on this subject have apin the fingers of a pair of white gloves, and peared, particularly Singer's Researches, so contrived without suspicion, that play- 1816, and Chatto's still more valuable ing at primero at cards, one may without work in 1848. See also P. Boiteau D'Amclogging his memory keep reckoning of all bly, Cartes a Jouer et la Cartomancie, 1854, sixes, sevens and aces, which he hath dis- and the late Lady Charlotte Schreicarded." Again, the writer says: "Aber's monumental illustrated work. Copimost dexterous dicing box, with holes transparent, after the usual fashion, with a device so dexterous, that with a knock of it against the table the four good dice are fastened, and it looseneth four false dice made fit for his purpose." Urquhart of Cromarty observes Verily, I think they make use of Kings, as we do of CardKings in playing at the Hundred; any one whereof, if there be appearance of a better game without him, (and that the exchange of him for another incoming card is like to conduce more for drawing of the stake), is by good gamesters without any ceremony discarded." Discovery, 1657, p. 237. Mr. W. H. Allnutt, of Oxford, found in a MS. diary of 1629 the following list: "Games at Chartes.-Ruffe, trumpe, slam'e, gleeke, Newcut, swigg, loadam, putt, primifisty, post and pair, bone-ace, anakin, seven cardes one and thirty, my SOW has pig'd." : The earliest English example of an attempt to treat cards as an apologue appears to have been in the lost comedy of the Play of Cards, mentioned by Sir John Harington in his Apologie of Poetrie, accompanying his English Ariosto, 1591, in which, he tells us, is showed in Four Parasitical Knaves Four Principal Vocations of the Realme, videl. The voca ous notices of the different games will be found under their several heads and in the authorities there cited. In the 15th c. Italy had, besides chess, tables or backgammon, and triumphs or tarocchi, cards, running in suits like ours. These were usually Cups, Swords, Coins, and Clubs. Of these the Tarrochi were the most modern, and were composed of a series of 22 painted or engraved figures. The gambling tables were universally frequented, and reckless speculation on the part of both sexes prevailed. At Venice dice were introduced at a very remote date-perhaps the twelfth century-and chess was a favourite game among the higher classes. Hazlitt's Venetian Republic, 1900, i., 560, 758; ii., 456. Care-Cloth. Among the AngloSaxons the nuptial benediction was performed under a veil or square piece of cloth, held at each corner by a tall man, over the bridegroom and bride, to conceal her virgin blushes: but if the bride was a widow, the veil was esteemed useless. Strutt's Manners and Customs, i., 76. The most rational explanation of the meaning of Care here is that suggested in the last edition of Nares, 1859, making it equivalent to the Fr. carré. But I am afraid that Palsgrave, 1530, is wrong, as he and the author of the "Promptorium" (ed. Way, in voce) intend an altogether differ- | Careing Fair. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1785, p. 779, an advertisement, or printed paper, for the regulation of Newark Fair, is copied, which mentions that: "Careing Fair will be held on Friday before Careing Sunday"; and Mr. Nichols remarks on this passage, that he has heard an old Nottinghamshire couplet in the following words: "Care Sunday, Care away, Palm Sunday, and Easter-day." Carling, Carle or Care Sunday. See Passion Sunday. Carlings. The vulgar, in the North of England, and also in the Midland Counties, give the following names to the Sundays of Lent, the first of which is anony mous: vocavit; the second, Reminiscere; the 66 "Ther'll be all the lads and the lasses That are both sodden and ra." Sybows are onions; and risarts radishes. The practice was a very ancient one; it is mentioned by Skelton in his Colin Clout (about 1520): "Men call you therfor prophanes, To a pygge or to a gose.' Carol (Christmas).-Dr. Furnivall thinks that the word Carol is derived from Corolla or Chorolla. Bishop Taylor observes that the "Gloria in Excelsis," the well-known hymn sung by the angels to the shepherds at our Lord's Nativity, was the earliest Christmas Carol. Bourne cites Durandus, to prove that in the earlier ages of the churches the bishops were accustomed on Christmas Day to sing carols among their clergy. This species of pious song is undoubtedly of most ancient date. Compare Hagmena. In 1521 was printed a set of Christmas Carols. These, remarks Warton, were festal chansons for enlivening the merriments of the Christmas celebrity; and not such religious songs as are current at this day with the common people, under the same title, and which were substituted by those enemies of innocent and youthful mirth, the Puritans, The boar's head soused was anciently the first dish on Christmas Day, and was carried up to the principal table in the hall with great state and solemnity. For this indispensable ceremony there was a carol. "This carol," Warton adds, "yet with many innovations, is retained at Queen's College in Oxford," nor has it been discontinued since Warton's day. At present, it is usual for two atendants to bear aloft into the hall on Christmas Day the boar's head, on a large platter, preceded by a fellow of the College in surplice; but the head is fictitious, being merely a painted counterfeit with a brawn enclosed. Compare Boar's Head. William Cornish received at Christmas, 1502, the sum of 13s. 4d. "for setting of a carralle upon Christmas Day, in reward." In the "Paradyce of Daynty Devises," 1578, are hymns by Jasper Heywood and Francis Kinwelmersh for Christmas Day, Whitsunday, and Easter Day; and in the Christmas Prince, 1607, occurs the carol sung by him who brought into the hall the boar's head at the celebration in St. John's College, Oxford, in 1607. It is a species of burlesque. The Christmas Prince, ed. 1816, p. 24. These older pious chansons were sometimes borrowed from the early Christian poets, and the early Scotish writers did not scruple to set their quid and godly ballates to secular tunes. In the Churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, London, 1537, is the tantalizing entry :"To Sr. Mark for carolls for Christmas and for 5 square Books. iijs. iiijd." Here is a specimen from the first known impression of the Dundee Psalms, 1578 : "ANE SANG OF THE BIRTH OF [To be sung with the tune of Balulalow.] He is your richt saluatioun, Ye sall him find but mark or wying, Let us reioyce and be blyith, My saull and lyfe, stand vp and se At the end of Wither's "Fair Virtue," 1622, is a "Christmas Carroll," in which the customs of that season are not overlooked. Among Herrick's "Noble Numbers," is a Christmas Carol sung to the King in the presence at White Hall." The musical part composed by Mr. Henry Lawes. Nativity, 1648, observes: Warmstrey, in his "Vindication of Christ's "Christmasse Kariles, if they be such as are fit for the time, and of holy and sober composures, and used with Christian sobriety and piety, they are not unlawfull, and may be profitable, if they be sung with grace in the heart. New Yeares Gifts, if performed without superstition, may be harmless provocations to Christian love and mutuall testimonies thereof to good purpose, and never the worse because the heathens have them at the like times." In "Batt upon Batt," a poem attributed to John Speed, of St. John's College, Oxford, 1694, p. 4. speaking of Batt's carving knives, &c., the Husbandry," Aylet's "Wife not Ready author tells us: Made but Bespoken," 1653, Herrick's Hesperides, 1648, Furnivall's Babees Book, 1863, &c. "Without their help, who can good Christmas keep? Our teeth would chatter, and our eyes would weep. Batt is the cunning engineer, whose skill Makes fools to carve the goose and shape the quill: Fancy and wit unto our meals supplies: Carols, and not minc'd-meat, makes Christmas pies. 'Tis mirth, not dishes, sets a table off; Brutes and phanaticks eat, and never laugh." Carpet Knights, or Trencher Knights. See Nares, Glossary, ed. 1859, in v. There is a scarce poetical volume, called Pendragon, or the Carpet Knight, his Calendar, 1698. Carps (Ludus Carparum).—In a letter from Hearne to Dr. Richard Rawlinson, 1733, the former observes: "I am inquiring what sort of a game Ludus Carparum was. It is prohibited in some statutes, and is joined with cards, and reckoned as a kind of alea. 'Twas, without doubt, call'd carps in English, and perhaps might be a sort of backgammon. The play was used in Oxford much; but being not mentioned in the New College statutes, I take it to have been brought up here since the foundation of that College." Nares and Halliwell render us no help here, nor Ducange. cards, supposed to have been brought by Cartomancy. The divination by the gypsies into Europe, and to have been familiar in the fifteenth century. See P. Boiteau D'Ambly, Les Cartes à Jouer et la Cartomancie, 1854. early and stone X was out of the window, I beheld six young women, and four men, welcoming with sweet music the blessed morn." In "Doctour Doubble Ale," a satire on the irregularities of the clergy in the time of Henry VIII., there is an anecdote of a parson who had a Christmas carol sung at a funeral. In a satirical tract, which printed in 1642, the author, among other proposals made for the consideration of the Parliament, suggested that, “instead of carols, which farmers sonnes, and servants sing on Christ's Birth-day before they may eate or drink, you take order, that by some of your best City-Poets (who will write certainly to their capacity) there be some songs made of the great deeds that his Excelencie did at Worcester and Edgehill." Antiq. Repert., 1807, iii., 32. Several collections of old Christmas carols have been made since Mr. Brand's time. Among them may be mentioned the volume edited by Mr. Wright for the Percy Society, Mr. Sandys's book, and a little quarto volume edited by Dr. Rimbault, in which the carols are accompanied by the tunes. For a notice of all the early printed collections known to exist see my Handbook of E. E. Lit." and Bibl. Coll. Art. Christmas. There are carols in many other books of usual occurrence, such as Tusser's "Points of Casting of Stones.-This is a Welsh custom, practised as they throw the land. There is a similar game in the north of England called Long Bullets. The prize is to him that throws the ball furthest in the fewest throws. Compare Quoits. Castor and Pollux.-Gregory observes: "Sailors have learned by experience that in great storms very frequently flames are seen upon the sails of ships, flashing hither and thither; these, if they appear double, portend the approach of a calm: if otherwise, sure and imminent shipwreck." He adds that through the superstition of ancient sailors the signs of Castor and Pollux were placed on the prows of ships. "Hoc certum satis, cum ejusmodi faculæ ardentes olim insidissent super capita Castoris & Pollucis ad Expeditionem Argonauticam, exinde Dioscuri in Deos indigites relati, et tanquam solida & sola Maris numina ab omnibus Navigantibus summa in veneratione habiti, cumque procellis suborientibus Tempestas immineat, astraque illa ab olim omínosa Antennis incubent, Castorem et Pollucem in auxilium adesse nemo dubitat." Pliny, in the second book of his Natural History, calls these appearances stars; and tells us that they settled not only upon the masts and other parts of ships, but also upon men's heads. Two of these lights forbode good weather and a prosperous voyage; and drive away the single one, which wears a threatening aspect. This the sailors call Helen, but the two they call Castor and, us: by the impetuous motion of the air and kindled by much agitation. Sometimes there are several of these seen in the same tempest, wandering about in various motions, as other ignes fatui do, tho' sometimes they appear to rest upon the sails or masts of the ship; but for the most part they leap upwards or downwards without any intermission, making a flame like the faint burning of a candle. If five of them are seen near together, they are called by the Portugese cora de nostra Senhora, and are looked upon as a sure sion that the storm is almost over. Burton, in his "Anatomy," 1621, says that the "spirits or fire in form of fire-drakes and blazing-stars, sit on ship_masts,' &c. Hence the passage in the 67 Tempest": "On the top masts, The yards, and bowsprits, would I flame distinctly." Fryer, in his "Travels," quoted by Southey, observes. "I think I am not too positive in stating them to be a meteor-like substance, exhaled in the day, and at night (for except then they shew not themselves) kindled by the violent motion of the air, fixing themselves to those parts of the ship that are most attractive; for I can witness they usually spent themselves at the spindles of the top-mast-heads or about the iron loops of the yard-arms, and if any went towards them they shifted always to some part of the like nature." So, in an account of "Fiery Impressions that appear mostly at Sea, called by mariners Castor and Pollux":"When thin clammy vapours, arising from the salt water and ugly slime, hover over the sea, they, by the motion in the winds and hot blasts, are often fired; these impressions will oftentimes cleave to the masts and ropes of ships by reason of their clamminess and glutinous substance and the mariners by experience find that when but one flame appears it is the forerunner of a storm; but when two are seen near together, they betoken fair weather and good lucke in a voyage. The naturall cause why these may foretell fair or foul weather, is, that one flame alone may forewarn a tempest, forasmuch as the matter being joyn'd and not dissolved, so it is like that the matter of the tempest, which never wanteth, as winds and clouds, is still together, and not dissipate, so it is likely a storm is engendering; but two flames appearing together, denote that the exhalation is divided, which is very thick, and so the thick matter of the tempest is dissolved and scattered abroad by the same cause that the flame is divided: therefore no violent storm can ensue, but rather a calme is promised." History of Stormes, 1704. p. 22. |