Books: Playful Poems
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Henry Morley >> Playful Poems
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{85a} Darrain, decide. To "arraign" was to summon ad rationes to
the pleadings. To darraign was derationare, to bring them to a
decision.
{86b} Defy, digest. As in the Vision of Piers Plowman
"wyn of Ossye
Of Ruyn and of Rochel, the rost to defye."
Latin, defio = deficio, to make one's self to be removed from
something, or something to be removed from one's self. To defy in
the sense of challenging is a word of different origin, diffidere,
to separate from fides, faith, trust, allegiance to another.
{91d} Degest, orderly. To "digest" is to separate and arrange in an
orderly manner.
{150e} Dirl, vibrate, echo.
{147b} Drouthy, droughty, thirsty.
{151a} Duddies, clothes.
{152e} Eldritch, also elrische, alrische, alry, having relation to
elves or evil spirits, supernatural, hideous, frightful.
{152f} Ettle, endeavour, aim. Icelandic, aetla, to mean anything,
design, have aim, is the Scottish ettle.
{108d} Fire-drake, dragon breathing out fire.
{91b} Flicht and wary, fluctuate and change.
{92b} Frawfull fary, froward tumult.
{152c} Fyke, fuss.
{30} Fytte, a song, canto. First English, fit, a song.
When Wisdom "thas fitte asungen haefde" had sung this song. King
Alfred's Boethius.
{150g} Gab, mouth.
{148b} Gars, makes; "gars me greet," makes me weep.
{147h} Gate, road. Icelandic, gata.
{35} Habergeon, small hauberk, armour for the neck. Old High
German, hals, the neck; bergan, to protect.
{94d} Harlock, This plant-name occurs only here and in Shakespeare's
Lear, Act iv. sc. 4, where Lear is said to be crowned "with
harlocks, hemlocks, nettles, cuckoo-flowers." Probably it is
charlock, Sinapis arvensis, the mustard-plant.
{98} Hays, The hay was a French dance, with many turnings and
windings.
{100} Hient Hill, Ben Hiand, in Ardnamurchan, Argyleshire.
{152a} Hotched, hitched.
{147g} Ilka, each one, every.
{85c} Infere, together.
{148c} Ingle, fire. Gaelic, aingeal, allied to Latin ignis.
{95b} Keep, "take thou no keep"--heed, "never mind."
{148f} Kirkton, familiar term for the village in which the country
people had their church.
{94k} Ladysmock, Cardamine pratensis.
{93b} Leir, lore, doctrine.
{94g} Learned his sheep, taught his sheep.
{94a} Lemster, Leominster.
{95a} Lingell, a shoemaker's thong. Latin lingula.
{151h} Linkit, tripped, moved briskly.
{108c} Lubrican, the Irish leprechaun, a fairy in shape of an old
man, discovered by the moan he makes. He brings wealth, and is
fixed only as long as the finder keeps his eye upon him.
{108b} Mandrake, the root of mandragora, rudely shaped like the
forked animal man, and said to groan or shriek when pulled out of
the earth.
{93c} Marchpine, sweet biscuit of sugar and almonds. Marchpane
paste was used by comfit-makers for shaping into letters, true-love
knots, birds, beasts, etc.
{130} Megrim, pain on one side of the head, headache. French
migraine, from Gr. eemikrania.
{147i} Melder, milling. The quantity of meal ground at once.
{148a} Mirk, dark.
{108a} Molewarp, mole. First English, moldwearp.
{148e} Nappy, nap, strong beer.
{126} Pam, Knave of Clubs, the highest card in the game of Loo,
derived from "palm," as "trump" from "triumph."
{137} Partridge, a maker of prophetic almanacs, who was ridiculed by
Swift as type of his bad craft.
{94b} Peakish hull, hill by the Peak of Derbyshire.
{19} Pose, catarrh. First English, geposu.
"By the pose in thy nose,
And the gout in thy toes."
--Beaumont and Fletcher.
{88b} Prow, profit. Old French, prou, preu--"Oil voir, sire, pour
vostre preu i viens."--Garin le Loharain.
{91a} Qu, Scottish = W. Quhair, where; quhois, whose; quheill,
wheel; quha, quho, who; quhat, what.
{82a} Ray, striped cloth.
{151d} Rigwoodie, tough. Rigwiddie is the rope crossing the back of
a horse yoked in a cart; rig, back, and withy, a twig. Applied to
anything strong-backed.
{82c} Rise, "cherries in the rise," cherries on the twig. First
English, hris, a twig, or thin branch. The old practice of selling
cherries upon shoots cut from the tree ended in their sale by
pennyworths with their stalks tied to a little stick of wood. So
they were sold in London when I was a boy.
{151b} Sark, shirt or shift. First English, syrc.
{94c} Setiwall, garden valerian.
{147e} Skellum, a worthless fellow. German, schelm.
{149a} Skelpit, beat the ground with strong pulsation; rode quickly;
pounded along.
{150d} Skirl, sound shrill.
{147d} Slaps, breaks in walls or hedges; also narrow passes.
{149b} Smoored, smothered.
{151j} Spean, wean.
{32} Spear-hawk, sparrow-hawk. From the root spar, to quiver or
flutter, comes the name of "sparrow" and a part of the name
"sparrow-hawk."
{94e} Summerhall, Stubbs, in the "Anatomy of Abuses," speaking of
the maypole, tells how villagers, when they have reared it up, "with
handkerchiefs and flags streaming on the top, they strew the ground
about, bind green boughs about it, set up summerhalls, bowers, and
arbours hard by it, and then fall they to banquet and feast, and
leap and dance about it."
{148d} Swats, new ale, wort. First English, swate.
{88c} Teen, vexation, grief.
{152b} Tint, lost.
{150c} Towsie tyke, a large rough cur.
{92a} Tynsall, loss.
{147c} Unco', uncouth, more than was known usually.
{151i} Wally, walie thriving. First English, waelig.
{91c} Warsill, wrestle.
{150b} Winnock-bunker, the window seat.
{93d} Woned, dwelt.
{17} Wottest, knowest.
{88a} Woxen, grown.
{93a} Yconned, taught.
{81} Yode, went. First English, eode, past of gan, to go.
NOTES.
{21} This old French and Anglo-Norman word, answering to the Italian
gentilezza, and signifying the possession of every species of
refinement, has been retained as supplying a want which there is no
modern word to fill up.--Leigh Hunt.
{26} The sententious sermon which here follows might have had a
purely serious intention in Chaucer's time, when books were rare,
and moralities not such commonplaces as they are now; yet it is
difficult to believe that the poet did not intend something of a
covert satire upon at least the sermoniser's own pretensions,
especially as the latter had declared himself against text-spinning.
The Host, it is to be observed, had already charged him with
forgetting his own faults, while preaching against those of others.
The refashioner of the original lines has accordingly endeavoured to
retain the kind of tabernacle, or old woman's tone, into which he
conceives the Manciple to have fallen, compared with that of his
narrative style.--Leigh Hunt.
{42} "We possess," says Satan in Paradise Lost, "the quarters of
the north." The old legend that Milton followed placed Satan in the
north parts of heaven, following the passage in Isaiah concerning
Babylon on which that legend was constructed (Isa. xiv. 12-15),
"Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation IN THE SIDES OF THE NORTH."
{49} Alluding to the "Millers Tale," which has rather offended the
Reve, by reason that it ridiculed a worthy carpenter.--R. H. H.
{50} Or thus:-
For when our climbing's done our speech aspires;
E'EN IN OUR ASHES LIVE THEIR WONTED FIRES.
The original lines are:-
"For whanne we may not don than wol we speken,
Yet in our ashen olde is fyre yreken."
The coincidence of the last line with the one quoted from Gray's
Elegy will be remarked. Mr. Tyrwhit says he should certainly have
considered the latter as an "imitation" (of Chaucer), "if Mr. Gray
himself had not referred us to the 169 Sonnet of Petrarch as his
original:-
Ch' i' veggio nel pensier, dolce mio foco,
Fredda una lingua, e duo begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner dopo noi pien' di faville.
The sentiment is different in all three; but the form of expression
here adopted by Gray closely resembles that of the Father of English
Poetry, although in Gray's time it was no doubt far more elegant to
quote Petrarch than Chaucer.--R. H. Horne.
{125} THE GAME OF OMBRE
was invented by the Spaniards, and called by them El Hombre, or THE
MAN, El Hombre being he (or she) who undertakes the game against the
other players.
There were variations in the way of playing, and there were
sometimes four or even five players; but usually there were three
players, as described by Pope in the third canto of The Rape of the
Lock, where Belinda played as Ombre against the Baron and another,
and the course of the game is faithfully described. It is the
purpose of this note to enable any reader of The Rape of the Lock to
learn the game of Ombre, play it, and be able to follow Pope's
description of a game.
The game of Ombre is played with a pack of cards from which the
eights, nines, and tens of each of the four suits have been thrown
out. The Ombre pack consists, therefore, of forty cards.
The values of cards when they are not trumps are not arranged in the
same order for each colour.
For the two black suits, Spades and Clubs, the values, from highest
to lowest, follow the natural order--King, Queen, Knave, seven, six,
five, four, three, two. But the two black aces always rank as
trumps, and are not reckoned as parts of the black suit. The Ace of
Spades is named Spadille, the Ace of Clubs is Basto.
For the two red suits, Hearts and Diamonds, only the King, Queen,
and Knave keep their values in natural order; the other cards have
their order of values reversed. The value from highest to lowest
for each red suit is, therefore, King, Queen, Knave, ace, two,
three, four, five, six, seven.
The values of trump cards are thus arranged:-
The first and best trump is the Ace of Spades, Spadille.
The second best trump is the lowest card of the trump suit, the two
of trumps in a black suit, or the seven of trumps if the trump suit
be red. This second trump is called Manille.
The third trump is the Ace of Clubs, Basto.
When the trump suit is red, its Ace becomes the fourth trump. Thus
if Diamonds be trumps the Ace of Diamonds can take the King of
Diamonds; the Ace of Hearts can take the King of Hearts if Hearts be
trumps, not otherwise. There is no addition to the value of the Ace
of Diamonds when Hearts are trumps. The Ace of a red suit of
trumps, having become in this way the fourth trump in order of
value, is called Punto.
In order of their value, counted from the highest to the lowest, I
now place in parallel columns the trumps in black suits and the
trumps in red:-
Black. Red.
Spadille, Ace of Spades. Spadille, Ace of Spades.
Manille, the Two of the Manille, the Seven of the trump suit.
Trump suit.
Basto, Ace of Clubs. Basto, Ace of Clubs.
King. Punto, Ace of the trump suit.
Queen. King
Knave. Queen.
Seven. Knave.
Six. Two.
Five. Three.
Four. Four.
Three. Five.
Six.
The three chief trumps, Spadille, Manille, and Basto, are called
Matadores, and have powers which, together with their name, are
passed to the trumps following them, so far as they are found in
sequence in the Ombre's hand. Thus, although Spadille, Manille, and
Basto are strictly speaking the only Matadores, if the Ombre can
show also in his hand, say, in the red suit, Punto, King, Queen,
Knave, he takes for seven Matadores; and if there should be joined
to these the two and three, his trumps would be all in sequence,
every card would be a Matadore, and he would be paid for nine, which
is the whole number of cards in a hand.
Counters having been distributed, among which a fish is worth ten
round counters, each player lays down a fish before the deal. The
cards having been shuffled by the dealer, and cut by the player who
sits on the left hand of the dealer, are dealt three at a time, and
first to the player who sits on the dealer's right hand, which is
contrary to the usual course. The cards are dealt three times
round. Each of the three players then has nine, and the remaining
thirteen cards are laid down at the right hand of the dealer. No
card is turned up to determine trumps.
Each player then looks at his hand. The eldest hand is that to the
dealer's right. He speaks first. If his cards are bad, and he will
not venture to be Ombre, he says "Pass," and lays a counter down at
his left. If all three players say "Pass," each laying a counter
down, the cards are dealt again. When a player thinks his cards may
win, and is willing to be Ombre, unless he be the third to speak,
and the two other hands have passed, he says "Do you give me leave?"
or "Do you play without taking in?" If the other players say
"Pass," each depositing his counter at his own left hand, the Ombre
begins by discarding from his hand two, three, or more cards that he
thinks unserviceable. He lays them down at his left hand. Then
before he deals to himself from the pack of thirteen left
undistributed the same number of cards that he has thrown out, he
must name the trump suit. In doing this he chooses for himself,
according to his hand, spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds, whichever
suit he thinks will best help him to win. If he has a two of a
black suit, or a seven of a red, he can secure to himself Manille by
making that suit trumps, or there may be reason why another suit
should be preferred.
If the player who proposes to be Ombre has a safe game in his hand--
five Matadores, for example--he names the trump and elects to play
Sans-prendre, that is to say, without discarding. Whoever plays
Sans-prendre, if he win, receives three counters from each of the
other players, and pays three counters to each if he should lose the
game.
When the Ombre plays Sans-Prendre, his opponents have more cards
from which to draw, and the first who discards is even free to
change all his nine cards; but he usually limits his discard to six
or seven, and avoids encroachment on the share of the next player.
The two who play against the Ombre are only half in the position of
partners at whist, because one of them, when his hand is strong
enough, can be the only winner.
The hands having been thus settled, the game begins, from the hand
on the right of the dealer. After a trick has been taken, the lead,
as at other games, is with the winner of the trick, the order of
play being still from left to right.
As at whist, a suit led must be followed, and a player who cannot
follow suit is not obliged to play a trump unless he please.
If the first player who follows the Ombre's lead with a better card,
and has in his hand so good a game that he desires, by winning the
trick, to obtain the lead, he declares that aloud by saying Gano,
that is, "I win." His partner then lets him win, if he can. Thus,
Ombre has played a spade, which the next player wins with the Queen,
saying Gano when he does so. If the third player has the King in
his hand he refrains from playing it, unless he have no spade in his
hand of smaller value, in which case he is obliged to follow suit
and win the trick against his partner. Where the lead is urgently
desired, not for a personal gain of more tricks than the Ombre,
which is called Codille, but to defend the stake, and the third
player is seen to hesitate, Gano may be pressed for, three times,
"Gano, if possible." When Ombre was played by gambling courtiers
under Queen Anne and George I., all such words spoken in the game
had to be given strictly in the Spanish form, which was, in this
case, Yo Gano, si se puede.
Ombre, to win the stake, must make five tricks; but he can win with
four if the other five are so divided between his antagonists that
one has only three of them, the other only two. If one of the two
defenders of the stakes, playing against Ombre, does not feel almost
sure that he can win at least three tricks, with a chance of the
fourth, he should win one, and try to avoid winning more, but help
whatever chance his partner seems to have of winning four, because
Ombre wins with four when each of the other players has won less
than four.
If Ombre lose he is said to be Beasted. Whoever loses is said to be
Beasted. Whoever is Beasted has to pay to the board counters of the
value of what the Ombre takes up if he wins. When players were
beasted for revokes and other oversights in play, the fines were
heavy upon carelessness.
At the end of the game tricks are counted. When Ombre wins he takes
the stakes; when he loses the two opponents will divide the stakes
between them, unless one of them should have taken more tricks than
the Ombre, in which case that one is said to have won Codille.
Whoever wins Codille takes all the stake the Ombre played for. For
this reason it was not thought creditable for any one to call Gano
who had four tricks in his hand, as by so doing he would only be
inducing the other player against Ombre to give up to him his half
of the winnings. Each player against the Ombre aims at Codille when
he thinks it within reach, but in that case it used to be held very
bad manners to win by calling Gano. When one of the players against
the Ombre must either give Codille to the other or let the Ombre
win, he gives the Codille. For if the Ombre be beasted he has to
replace the stakes. But if the Ombre wins, both of the players
against him have to stake again. If any one wins all the nine
tricks he is said to have won the Vole, and clears all stakes upon
the table.
Belinda, in the Rape of the Lock, having looked at her hand, named
trumps -
"'Let spades be trumps,' she said, and trumps they were."
She chose that suit because she had not only the King but also the
two of Spades, and two of trumps, called Manille, is the second best
trump after Spadille. Her hand contained also the Ace of Spades,
"unconquerable lord" Spadille, and the third trump, Basto, Ace of
Clubs. By making spades trumps she secured the addition of Manille.
The three best trumps secured her the three best tricks. Spadille
and Manille fetched small trumps out of the hands of her
antagonists. Basto brought a trump out of the Baron's suit, that
also held the Knave and Queen of trumps, and a small card from the
other hand, which showed that it was out of trumps. Then came
Belinda's King of trumps, to win her fourth sure trick, and the
Baron, who still had his best trumps in his hand, the Knave and
Queen, lost the Knave to it.
After this the Baron's Queen of trumps was the best card, and
Belinda, with no more trumps in her hand, or possibly the other
player, sacrificed the King of Clubs to it.
Trumps being exhausted, and the Baron having won a trick and the
lead, it is his turn now to win three tricks in succession with the
King, Queen, and Knave of Diamonds. At the third round of the
Diamonds Belinda has left in her hand only the King and Queen of
Hearts. She gives up the Queen.
Each has now four tricks. It is the Baron's lead. If his card be
best he has more tricks than the Ombre, and will win Codille. If
his card be a club or a diamond--spades are played out--Belinda's
King of Hearts will be unable to follow suit. He will be taken.
Thus is she "between the jaws of ruin and codille." But should his
last card be a heart--she has the best heart -
"An Ace of Hearts steps forth: the King unseen
Lurked in her hand, and mourned his captive Queen.
He springs to vengeance with an eager pace,
And falls like thunder on the prostrate Ace.
The nymph exulting, fills with shouts the sky,
The walls, the woods, the long canals reply."
In addition to the stakes she won, Belinda was entitled also to the
value of four counters from each of her antagonists for her sequence
of four Matadores, Spadille, Manille, Basto, and the King of Spades.
Furthermore, if she had been playing Sans-prendre, each of her
opponents would have three counters to pay her.
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