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other, resting the halberd on the shoulder. * Notwithstanding these official characters, however, the peace of the city was frequently more effectually preserved by the interference of the apprentices, than by that of the appointed guardians of public order; for it appears, from Shakspeare's dramas, that the cry of Clubs! was a signal for the apprentices to arm themselves with these weapons, and quell the disturbance. Thus in King Henry the Eighth, act v. sc. 3., the Porter's man says:-" I hit that woman who cried out, clubs! when I might see from far some forty truncheoneers draw to her succour, which were the hope of the Strand †;" and in Henry the Sixth, Part the First, even the Mayor of London is represented, on occasion of a quarrel between the partizans of the Duke of Gloucester and the Cardinal of Winchester, as threatening to call in similar assistance:

"I'll call for clubs, if you will not away." +

We cannot wonder that the inferior officers of the Police should be slack in the performance of their duty, when we recollect, that the Justices of the Peace, in these days, especially those resident in the metropolis, were so open to bribery, that many of them obtained the appellation of Basket Justices; nor did a member of the House of Commons hesitate, during the reign of Elizabeth, to describe a justice of the peace as "an animal who for half a dozen of chickens would readily dispense with a dozen penal laws.” §

Many customs of a miscellaneous nature might with ease be extracted from the dramas of our poet; but to give them any relative bearing or concatenation would be nearly impossible, and a totally insulated detail of minute circumstances, would prove tedious to the

* The costume of the Watchman is thus represented in the title-page to Decker's "O per se O," &c. 4to. 1612, and is copied in Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 97. + Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 205. Ibid. vol. xiii. p. 36.

§ D'Ewes's Journals of Parliament, in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, p. 661. 664.

most persevering reader. Enough, we trust, has been collected to throw no feeble light on the general manners and modes of living, of the period under consideration, especially if it be recollected that the full picture is to be formed from a combination of this with the similar chapter, in a former part of the work, on the costume of rural life.

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE DIVERSIONS OF THE METROPOLIS, AND THE COURT THE STAGE; ITS USAGES,

AND ECONOMY.

Or the diversions of the metropolis and court, some were peculiar, and some were shared in common with the country. "The countrey hath his recreations," observes Burton, "the city his several Gymnicks and exercises, feasts and merry meetings."—" What so pleasant as to see some Pageant or sight go by, as at Coronations, Weddings, and such like solemnities, to see an Embassadour or a Prince met, received, entertained, with Masks, Shews, Fireworks, &c.*; and an old dramatic poet of 1590, gives us a still more copious list of town amusements:—

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Let nothing that's magnifical,

Or that may tend to London's graceful state,
Be unperform'd, as showes and solemne feastes,
Watches in armour, triumphes cresset, lights,
Bonefires, belles, and peales of ordinaunce

And pleasure. See that plaies be published,
Mai-games and maskes, with mirth and minstrelsie,

Pageants and school-feastes, beares and puppet-plaies. †

Every palace," continues Burton, "every city almost, hath his peculiar walks, cloysters, terraces, groves, theatres, pageants, games, and several recreations ;" and we purpose, in this chapter, giving some account of the leading articles thus enumerated, but more particularly of the stage, as being peculiarly connected with the design and texture of our work.

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, fol., 8th edit., p. 171. col. i.

↑ "The Pleasant and Stately Morall of the Three Lordes and Three Ladies of London,” &c., London. Printed by Jhones, at the Rose and Crowne, neere Holburne Bridge, 1590. Vide Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, Introduct., p. xxviii.; and Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vol. i. p. 350, 351.

Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 172. col. i.

As the principal object, therefore, of the present discussion, will be the amusements usually appropriated to the capital; those which it has in common with the country shall be first enumerated, though in a more superficial way.

Of these, card-playing seems to have been as universal in the days of Elizabeth, as in modern times, and carried on, too, with the same ruinous consequences to property and morals; for though Stowe tells us, when commemorating the customs of London, that " from AllHallows eve to the day following Candlemas-day, there was, among other sports, playing at cards for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gain," yet we learn from contemporary satirists, from Gosson, Stubbes, and Northbrooke*, that all ranks, and especially the upper classes, were incurably addicted to gaming in the pursuit of this amusement, which they considered equally as seductive and pernicious as dice.

The games at cards peculiar to this period, and now obsolete, are, 1. Primero, supposed to be the most ancient game of cards in England. It was very fashionable in the age of Shakspeare, who represents Henry the Eighth playing “at primero with the duke of Suffolk † ;” and Falstaff exclaiming in the Merry Wives of Windsor, “I never prospered since I foreswore myself at primero.” ‡

The mode of playing this curious game is thus described by Mr. Strutt, from Mr. Barrington's papers upon card-playing, in the eighth volume of the Archæologia: "Each player had four cards dealt to him one by one, the seven was the highest card in point of number that he could avail himself of, which counted for twenty-one, the six counted for sixteen, the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same, but the two, the three, and the four, for their respective points only. The knave of hearts was commonly fixed upon for the quinola, which the

* "Schoole of Abuse," "Anatomie of Abuscs,” and “Treatise againt Diceing, Cardplaying," &c.

+ Reed's Shakspeare, vol. v. p. 170. Act v. sc. 1.

Ibid. vol. v. p. 186, 187. Act iv. sc. 5.

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player might make what card or suit he thought proper; if the cards were of different suits, the highest number won the primero, if they were all of one colour he that held them won the flush.” *

2. Trump, nearly coeval in point of antiquity with primero, and introduced in Gammer Gurton's Needle, a comedy, first acted in 1561, where Dame Chat, addressing Diccon, says,

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"We be fast set at trump, man, hard by the fyre;"†

and we learn from Decker that, in 1612, it was much in vogue: "To speake,” he remarks, " of all the sleights used by card-players in all sorts of games would but weary you that are to read, and bee but a thanklesse and unpleasing labour for me to set them down. Omitting, therefore the deceipts practised (even in the fayrest and most civill companies) at Primero, Saint Maw, Trump, and such like games, I will, &c." ‡

3. Gleek. This game is alluded to twice by Shakspeare §; and from a passage in Cook's Green's Tu Quoque, appears to have been held in much esteem:

"Scat. Come, gentlemen, what is your game?
Staines. Why, gleek; that's your only game;" ||

it is then proposed to play either at twelve-penny gleek, or crown gleek. ¶

To these may be added, Gresco, Mount Saint, New Cut, Knave Out of Doors, and Ruff, all of which are mentioned in old plays, and were favourites among our ancestors. '

Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 4to. 1810, p. 291, 292.

† Ancient British Drama, vol. i. p. 111. col. 1.

Belman of London, sig. F 2.

§ Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 1. Reed's Shakspeare, vol. iv. p. 401. Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 5. Reed's Shakspeare vol. xx. p. 221.

Ancient British Drama, vol. ii. p. 551. col. 1.

¶ In the Compleat Gamester, 2nd edit. 1676, p. 90., may be found the mode of playing this game.

> The first of these games is mentioned in Eastward Hoe, printed in 1605, and written. by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston; the second in the Dumb Knight,

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