Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/9

 us. vii. JAN. 4, i9ia j NOTES AND QUERIES.

valued at fifteen. The Ace is equivalent to six- teen points, but the other cards, that is to say, the Two, Three, and Four, are only valued at the points marked on their faces. To all these cards there may be added, if desired, a Quinola, gene- rally the Knave of Diamonds, which can be regarded a?3 being any card in any suit as wished. After which, each of the players having shown his four cards, he having his cards in four suits wins the Prime ; and if they are of the same suit, he wins the Flush."

The Great Game, it will be observed, is not described beyond the statement that the pack in it embraces the court cards.

Simultaneously with Rabelais's work, or previously (for some writers question the publication of ' Gargantua ' in 1532, and assign a later date), Primero is mentioned in the i Privy Purse Expences of King Henry the Eighth ' as being played by the King on 6 Oct., 1532.* This is generally held to be the first allusion to a specific game of cards being played in England. It is certainly the first account that gives direct details of the players and the actual day of play ; but William Forrest in ' Second Gresyld ' (c. 1581) says that Queen Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) played Gleek as a girl, which would bring it to about 1501 when it was played in England. John Skelton (who died in 1529) evidently refers to Primero in the quotation which will be given at the end of these articles, and Elyot directly names it in 1533. Gilbert Walker in * Manifest Detection of the Most Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play' (1552) refers to Primero as being a new game, and played at Court. Among other writers of the sixteenth century who refer to the game, there are Turbervile (1575), Carew (1594), Greene (1599), and Rowlands (1600). In the ' Sydney Papers,' ii. 83, in 1598, there is another specific account of Primero being played by Am- brose Willoughby, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Mr. Parker, out of which a quarrel arose ; and Sir Henry Percy, ninth Earl of North- umberland (1564-1632), relates in his 'Let- ters ' that Joscelin Percy played Primero at Essex House on a Sunday., at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. Shakespeare men- tions the game twice : in ' The Merry Wives of Windsor ' (1600) and ' King Henry VIII.' (1613). The principal writers of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries who allude to the game are : Ben Jonson (1605 and 1610), Dekker (1608-9), Harrington (1615), Taylor

h Imperial holds a very close place to Primero, as the King is mentioned as playing it on the next day (7 Oct.) with Master Weston!

(1621), Randolph (1634), D'Avenant (1636), Hall (1646), Worcester (1663), and Goldsmith (1762). And in the nineteenth century Scott mentions the game in ' The Fortunes of Nigel' (1822) : scene, London in 1604 ; and Stanley J. Weyman in ' A Gentleman of France ' (1893) : scene, France in 1588-9.

J. S. McTEAR. 6, Arthur Chambers, Belfast.

(To be continued.)

CHRISTMAS BIBLIOGRAPHY. (Continued from US. iv. 503.)

[We are glad to have received this communication- at least in time for Old Christmas Day.]

THE CHRISTMAS ISSUE of ' N. & Q.' seems strangely unfamiliar without the instalment of Christmas bibliography contributed to its columns for so many years by the late- REV. W. C. BOULTER, W. C. B.'s first list appeared in 1882 at 6 S. vi. 506, and from then until last year he contributed twenty- six lists, missing only in 1889, 1891, and 1892. In 1891-2 lists were prepared by MR. J. C. WELCH. Having made a slip- index of the whole of the lists, I find there are nearly 500 titles mentioned, about one- fifth of them being sixteenth- and seven- teenth-century literature.

The following list has been prepared with a view to continuing the Bibliography* One of the titles has appeared in pre- vious lists, a more precise reference being given.

1879. Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders. By William Henderson. Christmas and New Year's Day, pp. 64-77. Folk-lore Society, 1879.

1880. Christmas Mummers in Dorsetshire. Bv J. S. Udal. Folk-lore Kecord, iii. 87-116.

1881. Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland. By the Rev. W. Gregor. Christmas and New Year's Day, &c., pp. 156-64. Folk- lore Society, 1881.

1884. Sussex " Tinteerers' " Play. Folk-lore Journal, ii. 1-8. This is performed on Boxing Day.

1886. Notes on some old-fashioned English Cus- toms : the Mummers. By G. A. RowelL Folk-lore Journal, iv. 97-101.

1887. [Christmas] Yorkshire Custom. Folk-lore Journal, v. 74-5.

1889. Beliefs and Religious Ceremonies of the Mordvins [at Christmas]. By John Abercromby. Folk-lore Journal, vii. 116-28. Dorsetshire Chil- dren's Games : [Christmas Mummers]. By J. S. Udal. Id., 246-7.

1889. The Folk-Tales of the Magyars : [Christ- mas and New Year Customs], pp. li-liv. Folk- lore Society, 1889.

1891. Christmas Crackers. Strand Magazine*. ii. 616-22.