Playful Poems Part 23

{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 pa.s.ses.

{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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d; 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...o...b..e 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 pa.s.sed 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 "Pa.s.s," and lays a counter down at his left. If all three players say "Pa.s.s," 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 pa.s.sed, he says "Do you give me leave?"