CARD-PLAYING OVER 800 YEARS OLD

Radio Record, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 21 August 1939, Page 8

CARD-PLAYING OVER 800 YEARS OLD

Originated During The Twelfth Century By An Emperor Of China

THE lure of the card table has survived 800 years. Outdoors, [ance and sword have succumbed to bat and racquet, cock-fighting to greyhound racing, a day’s hawking to a day in the car. But our indoor recreations remain much fhe same as in the doys of our forebears. The origin of chess is lost im antiquity, but that of cards is not so obscure. Attempts have been made fo prove that playing-cards were known to the ancient Egyptians and have been used in India from time immemorial, but the generally-accepted view is that they were devised in the 12th century by a reigning Emperor of China for the amusement of his concubines,

WO centuries later they were introduced into Europe by the Crusaders (mostly inveterate gamblers), who had learned the art of eard-playing from the Saracens. The eraze goon spread, and some of the games then played can be recognised as: the forerunners of our modern ones, Poker was played as early as the fourteenth century and piquet was known to Rabelais. Most of the games were of Italian or French origin, England claiming credit only for cribbage and loo, both of which came into vogue during the sixteenth century. Curiously enough, faro, once the pet of Americuu gambling dens, was the fashionable craze in France during the reign of the "Grand Monarque." Possibly the first game known in England was whist, so named because silence was demanded during its play. Since 1893, when bridge was introduced, cardsters welcomed a game that, in one or other of its bewildering variations, looked like staying. By 1910 auction bridge became firmly established and the old game faded into obscurity.

Origin Of Suits —

E four suits of former centuries originally corresponded to the four estates of society, the religious, the military, the commercial, and the peasant classes, typified by cups (or chalices), swords, money, and batons. Our four suits may derive from this source in the order given, The suit "cups" were transformed into hearts through the similarity of the shape of the two emblems. The suit "spades" is derived from the Italian word for swords (spade). The suit "clubs" is more muddling, for the Italian term was retained, while a different emblem, the trefoil, was borrowed from the French to represent it. The -suit "diamonds" appears to have obvious affinity with the money suit in the Italian and spanish pack. The ancestry of the cardboard court is a jumble of mythology and = traldition. The King of Hearts derives from Charle-

magne, the Queen of Hearts from Judith (of the Apocrypha), the King of Spades from David, the Queen of Spades from Pallas Athene, the Knave of Spades from Ogier, the Dane, and the King of Diamonds from Julius Caesar. Most strange of all is the connection between the Knave’ of Hearts and the medieval Gascon adventurer, La Hire. La Hire was the French. Robin Hood and is one of the minor characters in Bernard Shaw’s play "Saint Joan." Not everybody gambles at cards, but everybody, gamblers and non-gamblers alike, will be interestcd in listening to 2YA on Friday, August 25, when Mr. Liewellyn Etherington gives a talk-"Luck and Probability at Cards."