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

 2

NOTES AND QUERIKS. [us. VIL J AS. 4, im

Primera, Ronfa, Scaltara,* Sequential, Se- quentiuni, Tarochi, Trapola, Trimnfeti, and Triumphi. Singer, in one of the appendices to his own work above mentioned, sets out the text of Cardan's book, so far as it relates to cards. A portion of it deals with Primero. but the text is so corrupt or imperfect that it is difficult to translate exactly what Cardan intended to say. The following principal details are embraced therein, viz. :

' ; Primera [.9iV]f 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 -f our. 1 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

Eoints (the Seven, Six, and Ace of the same suit), eats 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

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, froni its name, seems to have embraced the feature of discarding. These ladies were also players of Britano and Imperiale.
 * Could this game in any way be akin to

f This is the Spanish form, not the Italian. '

I The three highest cards of a suit Seven, Six,

and Ace make fifty-five, but that combination

is allocated to a class by itself.

whether at the Rest, or from the complete hand, or at both times. His account is also obscure about the staking and vying. He gives some examples of discarding, which, if one thoroughly understood Car- dan's game, would no doubt be instructive, as he was a mathematician of no mean order, and a clever man in other ways. His repute as a physician was worldwide. He visited Scotland in 1552 to attend John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, for asthma, whom he cured. He also at- tended Edward VI., whose horoscope he made out, and afterwards published in one of his works.

Rabelais, in 1532, places the game second in the list of the Gargantuan Games. An- other French writer, in the ' Cabinet du Roy de France ' (1581), mentions it as being played by the French clergy. In 1584 Amurathlll., 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 Due d'Angouleme, son of Charles IX. (France) and Marie Touchet, tells the following tale about 1 and 2 Aug., 1589 :

" The King [Henry III.] ordered us to retire md 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 Benty 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."

Primero is not described in any of the Academies, but the game of Ambigu, which first appears in the Paris Academie 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,