Huck
Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners: With Dissertations on ...
By Francis Douce (1807)
The article contains some sources, in which the game triumph appear, which are not all familiary to me.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ra...s&as_brr=1&ei=7dEwR7u7LpP-7gKDhbXYCQ#PPA95,M1
(the text tries to explain Shakespeare passages)
"SHAKESPEARE: Antonius and Cleopatra
Antonius: My good KNAVE, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body : here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my KNAVE.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,—
Whoso heart, I thought, I had, for she had mine; •
she, Eros, has
Pack'd CARDS with Caesar, and false play'd my glory
Unto an enemy's TRIUMPH.
One should really suppose that Shakspeare had written this speech just after having lost a game at cards, and before the manner in which it had been played was out of his mind. Dr. Warburton's explanation is too superficial to merit the commendation which Dr. Johnson has bestowed on it. That of Mr. Malone is much more judicious and satisfactory; but it has not been perceived that a marked and particular allusion is intended. This is to the old card game of trump, which bore a very strong resemblance to our modem whist. It was played by two against two, and sometimes by three against three. It is thus mentioned in "Gammer Gurton's needle",
Act ii. Sc. 2. " We be fast set at trump man, hard by the fire ;" and likewise in Dekkar's "Belman of London", among other card games. In Eliot's "Fruits for the French", 1593, p. 53, it is called " a verie common alehouse game in England;" and Rice, in his "Invective against vices", 12mo, b. l. n. d. but printed before 160O, speaking of sharpers' tricks at cards, mentions "renouncyng the trompe and comming in againe." The Italians call it triomphetto ; see Florio's dictionary. In Capitolo's poem on Primero, another
card game, 1526, 8vo, it is called trionfi, and consigned to the peasants. Minsheu, in his "Spanish dialogues", p. 25, makes it a game for old men. We, in all probability, received it from the French triomphe, which occurs in Rabelais as one of Gargantua's games. The term indicates a winning or triumphant card; and therefore there can be no pretence for deriving it from tromper, whatever Ben Jonson might have thought to the contrary, who, in reality, seems only to indulge in a pun upon the word."
For instance: Capitolo's poem on Primero .... is this known? Seems to be an error about the author and is from Francesco Berni 1526, but did he write, that trionfi were a game for peasants? Or what means "consigned to the peasants"?
By Francis Douce (1807)
The article contains some sources, in which the game triumph appear, which are not all familiary to me.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ra...s&as_brr=1&ei=7dEwR7u7LpP-7gKDhbXYCQ#PPA95,M1
(the text tries to explain Shakespeare passages)
"SHAKESPEARE: Antonius and Cleopatra
Antonius: My good KNAVE, Eros, now thy captain is
Even such a body : here I am Antony;
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my KNAVE.
I made these wars for Egypt; and the queen,—
Whoso heart, I thought, I had, for she had mine; •
she, Eros, has
Pack'd CARDS with Caesar, and false play'd my glory
Unto an enemy's TRIUMPH.
One should really suppose that Shakspeare had written this speech just after having lost a game at cards, and before the manner in which it had been played was out of his mind. Dr. Warburton's explanation is too superficial to merit the commendation which Dr. Johnson has bestowed on it. That of Mr. Malone is much more judicious and satisfactory; but it has not been perceived that a marked and particular allusion is intended. This is to the old card game of trump, which bore a very strong resemblance to our modem whist. It was played by two against two, and sometimes by three against three. It is thus mentioned in "Gammer Gurton's needle",
Act ii. Sc. 2. " We be fast set at trump man, hard by the fire ;" and likewise in Dekkar's "Belman of London", among other card games. In Eliot's "Fruits for the French", 1593, p. 53, it is called " a verie common alehouse game in England;" and Rice, in his "Invective against vices", 12mo, b. l. n. d. but printed before 160O, speaking of sharpers' tricks at cards, mentions "renouncyng the trompe and comming in againe." The Italians call it triomphetto ; see Florio's dictionary. In Capitolo's poem on Primero, another
card game, 1526, 8vo, it is called trionfi, and consigned to the peasants. Minsheu, in his "Spanish dialogues", p. 25, makes it a game for old men. We, in all probability, received it from the French triomphe, which occurs in Rabelais as one of Gargantua's games. The term indicates a winning or triumphant card; and therefore there can be no pretence for deriving it from tromper, whatever Ben Jonson might have thought to the contrary, who, in reality, seems only to indulge in a pun upon the word."
For instance: Capitolo's poem on Primero .... is this known? Seems to be an error about the author and is from Francesco Berni 1526, but did he write, that trionfi were a game for peasants? Or what means "consigned to the peasants"?