Ludus Chartarum

"Ludus Chartarum" (The Game of Cards) - Ludovico Vives 1545
( Excerpt translated from Latin)

Five young gentlemen whiling away a winter afternoon in the city of Bruges decide to play a game of cards. They are :
Castellus
Manricus
Lupianus
Tamayus
Valdaura

M - I will take no part in this affair, but will be an onlooker.
T - Why so?
M - Because I am most unlucky. I always leave a game stripped and beaten.
T- Do you know what dicers say as their motto ? "Look for your cloak where you lost it !"
M - Indeed, but the danger is that while I seek the cloak I lost, I may lose my shirt and vest as well.
T - It often happens, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
M - That is the counsel of a speculator.
T - Aye , and of the money-changers of Antwerp too.
V - You are right. But only four people can play, and there are five of us. Shall we draw lots to see who sits out to watch the others ?
M - I will do so without a draw.
V - By no means, let us not be unfair to anyone. It shall not be determined by anyone's humour, but by chance. The first person to be dealt a King shall sit out to overlook the game at leisure, and be the judge of any quarrel that may arise.
L- Here before you are two decks of cards, one Spanish, one French.
V - The Spanish deck appears to be incomplete.
L- How so ?
V - The tens are missing.
L - They don't usually include them, unlike the French. Whether cards be French or Spanish they are divided into four types or suits. The Spaniards have gold coins, cups, staves, and swords: The French have hearts, diamonds, trefoils, and plough-shares. In each suit there is a King, Queen, a knight, ace, two, three, four, five , six , seven, eight, nine. The French have the tens as well. In the Spanish deck the higher points of coins and cups are weaker, and the opposite in swords and staves. For the French the higher points are always better.
C- Which game shall we play ?
V - Spanish Triumph, and the dealer shall keep the turn-up card for himself if it be an ace or a coat.
M - Let us see who will sit out from the game.
T - Well said. I will deal the cards so ..yours....yours.. yours... Lupianus you shall be our umpire.
V - I prefer to have you as a spectator rather than as an opponent.
L- A compliment ? Why do you wish it so ?
V - Because you are crafty and untrustworthy at the card table. They say you know the art of stacking the deck to aid your play.
L - My play has no deceit about it. This sounds to me a like a huff to hide your own lack of skill that borders on complete ignorance. Beside, who wants Castellus ? He will desert his fellow gamesters the moment he wins the smallest sum of money.
T - Sooner Gone than Game !
V - It is a trifling flaw, for if he starts losing, he will be more firmly fixed to the game than a nail in a beam.
T - If we are to play in pairs, two against two, how shall we be matched ?
V - As I know little about this game, I shall cleave to you Castellus. I hear you are the sharpest at it .
T- The greatest sharper you mean !
C - It is not a matter of personal choice. All must be settled by chance. Those who are dealt the highest cards shall play against those who draw the lowest.
V - So be it. Deal out single cards.
M - Just as I hoped. Castellus and I are partners. Valdaura and Tamayus defend the opposing positions.
V - Let us seat ourselves as we should be, cross-wise: give me that reclining chair so that I may loose in greater comfort.
T - Have the foot-stool too. Let us now lift to see which side is eldest hand.
V - We are. Deal the cards Castellus.
C- In what manner ? From left to right in the Belgian fashion, or the opposite Spanish way from right to left ?
V - The latter since we play at a Spanish game. Did you lay out the tens ?
C - Yes. How many cards do I give to each player ?
V - Nine. But what shall our wager be ?
M - Three dollars on each hand with doubling of the stakes.
C - My dear Manricus I feel that you are over rash. It is not a game, but a madness when so much money is at stake. How can you enjoy yourself in such a frenzy? Lest too much money be lost, a single dollar will suffice, and any raise of the wager shall be half that, five shillings.
V - Good advice. Thus we neither play for nothing, which is folly, nor for that which is injurious and painful.
C - Has everyone got nine cards? Then hearts is trumps and this queen is mine.
V - I wonder how happy an omen this might be. It is most apt that the hearts of women should hold dominion over all of us.
C - Give over thy conceits and reply to this. I raise the stake.
V - I have a weak and unharmonius hand . I yield it to you.
T - Me too . Deal the cards Manricus.
V- What are you doing ? Why don't you turn over the trump card ?
M -I wish to count my cards first in case I have received too many or too few.
V- You have one card too many.
M - I will discard it.
V- That is not the law of the game. You loose your turn at dealing which passes to the next player. Hand over the cards.
M - I refuse to do so as I haven't yet turned over the trump.
V - By God you shall !
C - Go to ! What are you thinking of my dear Valdaura? You mingle such oaths with the lightest of matters as could scarcely be applied to the gravest.
M - What does our umpire say ?
L - Truly I do not know what the rule is in this situation.
M - What a referee we have appointed over us, one without an opinion. Talk about the blind leading the blind !
V - What do we do now ?
M - What indeed? Unless we send for Lutetia. She can quote chapter and verse on the laws of the game for us.
C - Shuffle them all together and deal again.
T - Oh what a hand I must now throw away . I won't see another one like it today !
C - Shuffle those cards thoroughly and deal them singly with greater care.
V - Once again I will raise the stake.
T - Did I not prophesy that I would not hold another hand like it today ! I am the unluckiest player ever! I don't know why I even bother to look at this hand .
C - Truly this is not playing, but distressing yourself. How can it be a refreshment or a diversion of one's spirits to become so heated ? A game should be a game , not a source of wrath.
M - Hold up a while and do not throw aside your cards, it is Spades.
V - Answer me, do you wish to hold it ?
M - I hold and raise again.
V- Do you hope to put me to flight with your fierce words ? I will not yield.
M- Say but once and promptly, will you let it go ?
V - Yes and most freely. My intelligence prompts me to compete for an even greater prize with a hand like this one, but this will suffice amongst friends.
T - Do you not count me amongst the living ? There has been no mention of me so far.
C - And what have you to say for yourself scarecrow ?
T- Indeed I will raise the stake for my side.
M - Castellus what say you ?
C - Now you ask me ! After your exertions have created an immense pool. I dare not hold this raise on my hand.
V- Give a definite answer
C - I have not the means to answer other than very ambiguously, doubtfully hesitantly, timidly and diffidently . Is that clearly enough expressed ?
M - God Almighty what superfluity ! The recent hail did not fall so thick. Let us take a risk, just this once I beseech you.
C - When we put it to the test please do not expect any great help from me.
M - You will render such assistance as you are capable of.
C- You have no need to remind me so .
M - We are surely beaten.
T - We win four dollars. Shuffle and deal.
V - I raise five shillings.
C - I don't know whether to yield , I will surely loose.
T - Raise another five
C - What say you to this challenge ?
M - What can i say ? I flee !
C - You lost the last deal. Allow me to lose this one in my own way. I know that I am weaker, but I must stay in as long as i have strength left.
V - What are you saying ? Do you decline ?
C - No, I accept.
T - O Valduara do you not know this Castellus ? He has a better hand than you, and it is his custom to trap an unwary challenger with his net in this way. Have a care and do not proceed rashly for you are ensnared.
V - God's faith ! How could you have known that my last remaining card was of that suit ?
C - I knew all the cards.
V - That is not beyond belief.
C - I knew each from its face.
V - And from its back as well perhaps ?
C - You are too suspicious.
V - You make me so, by your good leave.
T - Let us discover whether any of these cards be pricked on their reverse sides with marks whereby they could be recognised ?
V - I pray you shall we make an end of playing. This game vexes me, to have lost so unluckily.
C - Whenever you wish, but perhaps the fault lies not with the game but in your own artlessness. You do not know how to play skillfully and adapt yourself to victory, but throw down your cards without a plan as chance takes you, thinking it to be of no consequence which you play first or last, or which shall be thrown on what occasion.
T -There is a surfeit of everything, even pleasure. I am fatigued of sitting, let us rise.
L - Take up your lute and give us a song.
T - About what ?
L - Something about the game ?
T -The song of Virgil ?
L - The same, or if you prefer, how about the one our friend Vives was singing the other day as he strolled along the city walls of Bruges ?
V - And honking like a goose !
(translation by E.M.M)

Footnote:
Ludovico Vives (1492 -1540) was a renowned Spanish humanist scholar from Valencia who was invited to the English court by Henry VIII in 1522. Six years later Vives was imprisoned and expelled from England for speaking out against the annullment of the King's marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Vives spent the rest of his life in Bruges. The 'Ludus Chartarum' is one of a series of witty Latin dialogues on everyday topics which Vives apparently wrote as compositional examples for his students.

The original Latin text can be found online at http://www.grexlat.com/biblio/vives/21_Ludus.html

The game described here as "Spanish Triumph" was the predecessor of Ombre which was orginally a four-handed game. It mutated into a three-handed variant known as "Renegado Ombre" (Rengado means "Traitor") which was reimported into England after the Restoration in 1660 and became highly fashionable . By this time "Renegado Ombre" had acquired the peculiar trump structure of Matadors described by Alexander Pope in "The Rape of the Lock" (1714) which did not exist in the earliest forms of the game.

Wittes Pilgrimage

"Mortall Life compared to Post, and Pare". (John Davies of Hereford 1610)

(1)
When well I weigh the state of mortall Life,           
Mee seemes it seemes but too like Post, and Pare:
Where eache Man seekes to winn, by ciuill strife;
While most make show of more then what they are.

(2)
One, vies it, beeing but a Knaue, perchance,           
Against a King, or Queene, or Paires of both,
Our-brauing Cowardize, and Ignorance:
And, others part Stakes, that to lose are loth.

(3)
Some, Nothing seeme, to gett Some-thinge by it,    
These some, passe all, to goe beyond the rest:
These, better their Good-fortunes by good Witt,
Who crouch, as being worst, till they are best.

(4)
Some, some-what giue, to fetch some others in,
That so, at last, they may bee furthest out:
These, little giue, by small guifts, much to winne,
Yet oft so loose they all, to winne a Flout.

(5)
Some, beeing Pa-riall, dare to do, what not?
Vy, and re-uy and weene they all shall winn:
When some One other better Cards hath gott,
That they are furthest out, when furthest in!

(6)
Some Elders, for re-uies, passe Pare, and Post,
When lo, the Yonger shares, or Doubles it:
Then fretts the VVinner, for his wynning, lost,
Sith foolish Fortune Conny-catched VVitt.

(7)
Some, vy, and reuy faceing, so, to foile; 
That haue no Games, but game some seem, with griefe:
The while the rest haue game to see their spoile,
Who yet, out-brau'd, do blush, sith they were chiefe.

(8)
Some, being Cock, like Crauens giue it ore 
To them that haue the worst Cards in the Stock:
For, if the one be ritch, the other poore
The Cock proues Crauen, and the Crauen, Cock!

(9)
Some, hauing lost the double Pare and Post, 
on in direct helpes
Make their aduantage on the Purrs they haue:
Whereby the Winners winnings all are Lost,
Although at best, the other's but a Knaue.

(10)
Pur Ceit deceaues the expectation 
Of him, perhaps, that tooke the Stakes away;
Then, to put Tant hee's in subiection:
For, Winners on the Losers oft do play.

(11)
Flush is ore-borne oft by a better Flush: 
And Kings do conquer Kings but by the hand:
As Stronger do the weaker euer crush:
And still win of them Glory Goods, and Land.

(12)
Some, look awry to see if they can spie 
Anothers Cards, thereby to make their game,
Then on a Nineten times, perhaps they vy
Knowing the other's blind, though they are lame.

(13)
Some Pack, and others Cut, to breake the Pack: 
Some, shuffle cunningly, and shift thereby:
Some, take a Card, and some a Card put back
More then they should, to back their vice, and Vie.

(14)
Some, haue Confedrates of the Lookers on: 
Who look as friends they were to all alike:
Then with a signe of least suspition
They note the Conny which they meane to strike.

(15)
And if the Gamsters do play ouer-long, 
All, drawne, by all, the Butlers Box doth drawe:
As Lawiers gett all bee it right, or wronge
That's wonne, and lost, if Men bee long in Lawe:

(16)
Thus properlie we may this Life compare, 
Vnto the bragging game of Post, and Pare.


(17)
My Corollarie. 
Wealth , like a Pegasus, doth runne, or Flee,
(As swift as Thought) especially from those
That nere are gladd, but when at game they bee,

(18)
Though all their Wealth thereby, in Post, they loose: 
And so when Wealth thereby, in Post, they loose:
And so when Wealth away is posted quite
They runne away, or else play least in sight.

A game at Post and Pair

Four players -Alfred, Benjamin, Christopher and Daniel sit down.

The players stake for the Post and Pair Pools, and the first two cards are dealt.

Alfred           - Ace Spades, Ace Clubs
Benjamin      - Queen Hearts, Queen Diamonds
Christopher   - 7 Hearts, 2 Diamonds
Daniel           - King & 6 Spades

Christopher promptly abandons his stakes and throws in his worthless hand. The other three players stake for the Seat and all receive a third card. The hands are now :

Alfred           - Ace Spades, Ace Clubs, 4 Diamonds
Benjamin      - Queen Hearts, Queen & 9 Diamonds
Christopher   - 7 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 4 Clubs (folded)
Daniel           - King 6 & 2 Spades

Alfred exercises his option as eldest hand of checking by saying "pass". Benjamin decides to vye on his Queen pair and his two card flush of 19 in Diamonds. Daniel with a 3 card flush of 18 in Spades matches the bet.
Alfred now uses his privilege as eldest hand to re-enter the betting even though he previously passed, and re-vyes, i.e he matches and raises the bet. After some thought Benjamin and Daniel both match Alfred's bet without re-raising.

Settlement:
Benjamin now optimistically suggests that perhaps they should all "part stakes", i.e divide the money evenly among themselves without showing down their cards. Alfred and Daniel both refuse and insist on "showing best card for it".

Benjamin puts down his Queen pair, but loses the Pair stake to Alfred's pair of Aces.

Benjamin now puts down his 2 card flush of 19 points in Diamonds for the Post, but it loses to Daniel's three card flush of 18 in Spades ( a three card flush is intrinsically superior).

A pip count of all the cards originally dealt by suit (including Christopher's folded hand) gives:
Spades        -  A.K.6.2  =  29
Diamonds   -  Q.9.4.2   =  25
Hearts         -  Q.7        = 17
Clubs           - A.4         = 15

Spades is now established as the Triumph suit, unfortunately for Daniel he doesn't hold the highest trump in show. Daniel's King of Spades is beaten by the Ace of Spades in Alfred's hand which is the "best card" for Seat and Vyes.

Alfred wins the Pair Pool, Seat and Vyes
Daniel wins the Post Pool
Benjamin wins nothing.