Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/7

 n s. vii JAN. 4, 1913] NOTES AND QUERIES.

1

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY A, 1913.

CONTENTS. No. 158.

NOTES : Primero, 1 Christmas Bibliography, 3 Hugh Peters, 4 Queen Elizabeth and Richard IT. The i Leek fs Welsh NaMonal Emblem Marlborough in Dublin, fi Mechanical 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 Bint on Brisbane of Barnhill Salehurst.. Sussex -A Ballad of the Revenge- Kennedy Family The First Folio Shakespeare. Earliest Reference, 8 "Tamson's mare " Words on P. Sampler Cardigan 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 R ic ' Parish Registers of Surrey The 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 Place- Names "Dander," 15 The Stones of London "Jag" Irish Families : Taylor of Ballyhaise Variants in the Text of ' Ken il worth,' 16 Milton's ' Lycidas 'Wrestling Match in Fiction The Curfew Bell -Secret Service Harveys of Whittington, Staffordshire. 17 Lord Grim- thorpe'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: Whi taker'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.

PRIMERO.

THIS old game of cards was called Prime in France, Primera in Spain, and Primiera in Italy all derived from the Latin pri- marius (first). In English literature, besides the occasional use of the foreign names, the game is designated Primero (and also Prima- vista, 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 par- ticulars of the game, and is believed to be the earliest work extant describing a card- game. The book is very rare, but a number of references and extracts from it is to be found in Samuel Weller Singer's * Re- searches into the History of Playing Cards '

(1816). Throughout his work Berni men- tions the following eleven games of cards : Bassetta, Cricca, Flusso, Noviera, Primiera, Quintiera, Ronfa,* Sestiera, Trentuno, Tri- onfi, and Trionfi-Piccoli. He says in refer- ence 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 nil its varieties. At Florence it is the custom to 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 played at Florence, was with twenty-eight cards (Aces to Sevens), and at Rome with 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 (150176), wrote a work in Latin entitled ' Liber de Ludo Aleae,' being an amplification 'of an original tract by him on games of chance. It contains about 10,000 words, and is divided into thirty- two chapters, each with a heading. In it the following twelve games of cards are mentioned : Baseta, Centum, Cricones,

King Ferdinand evidently referring to the husband of Queen Isabella, and King of Naples, Sicily, and Spain.
 * TBerni attributes the invention of Ronfa to

f This is a mistake in the original or translation. He means the Eights, Nines, and Tens.