(_c_) This game is evidently a dramatic representation of wooing, and probably the action of the game has never been quite completed in the nursery. The verses are given as nursery rhymes by Halliwell, Nos. cccclxxxiii. and ccccxciv. The tune is from Rimbault s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 70. The words given by him are the same as the Earls Heaton version. Currants and Raisins Currants and raisins a penny a pound, Three days holiday. This is a game played running under a handkerchief; something like Oranges and Lemons. --Lincoln (Miss M.
, are the same as in Bézique, but the declarations and their values are quite different. _=Brisques.=_ There are twelve brisque cards, the Seven of each suit being added to the usual Aces and Tens. The brisques are not scored as taken in, except in the last six tricks. At the end of the hand all the brisques are counted, whether already scored in the last six tricks or not, and the player having more than six counts ten points for each above six. If each has six, neither scores. By this method, a player may make and score several brisques in the last six tricks, all of which he will reckon over again in the total count at the end. _=Declarations.=_ The winner of any trick, previous to the exhaustion of the stock, may announce and lay upon the table any one of ten different combinations, which are divided into three classes. These are as follows, with the number of points he is entitled to score for each: CLASS A.
Green Grow the Leaves (1). Green Grow the Leaves (2). Gully. HAIRRY my Bossie. Half-Hammer. Han -and-Hail. Hand in and Hand out. Handy-Croopen. Handy Dandy. Hap the Beds.
He also has the option of demanding a fresh deal by the same dealer, or of letting the deal stand. If the error is simply an irregularity in the manner of dealing, or an exposed card, the pone must decide without looking at his cards. If either player has too many or too few cards, the pone may look at the hand dealt him before deciding whether or not to have a fresh deal; but if it is the pone himself that has too many or too few cards, he must discover and announce the error before lifting his cards from the table, or he will not be entitled to the option of letting the deal stand. If the pone has too many cards he may return the surplus to the top of the pack, without showing or naming them. If the dealer has too many, the pone may draw from his hand face downward, returning the surplus to the top of the pack; but the pone may not look at the cards so drawn unless the dealer has seen them. If there are too few cards, and the pone elects to have the deal stand, the deficiency must be supplied from the top of the pack. _=THE CRIB.=_ The cards dealt, each player takes up his six cards and examines them with a view to laying out two cards, face downward, for the crib; leaving himself four cards with which to play. The four cards which form the crib, two from each hand, always belong to the dealer, and it is usual for each player, in discarding for the crib, to slip his two cards under the end of the cribbage board opposite to that occupied by the remainder of the pack. Cards once laid out for the crib, and the hand removed from them, cannot be taken up again.
A person wishing to bet on both sides at once places his money _=à cheval=_; that is, across the line. If one side wins and the other loses, a bet placed in this manner is a stand-off; if both sides lose, the bet is lost, and if both win the bet is won. A common form of dishonesty at Baccara, and one for which a distinguished Englishman was recently tried, is to place a stake very close to the line, and if it is seen that the side on which it is placed has probably lost, to push the stake onto the line, so that it may be saved if the other side wins. The Englishman in question worked this little game on the Prince of Wales for some time before he was detected. When the banker loses, he pays the players in their order, right and left alternately, beginning with those who hold cards, until his capital is exhausted. Any further bets are disregarded. If any player bets on the opposite side of the table to that on which he is seated, his bet is not paid until all five of the players on that side have been settled with, because such a bet is regarded as that of an outsider, not belonging to that side of the table. If the player actually holding cards is not the one nearest the banker, he is still the first one to be paid, and then those beyond him in order. For instance: The third player holds cards; after him the fourth and fifth are paid, and then the first and second, each alternately with a player on the other side of the table. _=Banco.
If a player is lawfully called upon to play the highest or lowest of a suit, or to trump or not to trump a trick, or to lead a suit, and unnecessarily fails to comply, he is liable to the same penalty as if he had revoked. 39. In all cases where a penalty has been incurred, the offender must await the decision of the adversaries. If either of them, with or without his partner’s consent, demands a penalty to which they are entitled, such decision is final. If the wrong adversary demands a penalty, or a wrong penalty is demanded, none can be enforced. * * * * * The following rules belong to the established code of Whist Etiquette. They are formulated with a view to discourage and repress certain improprieties of conduct, therein pointed out, which are not reached by the laws. The courtesy which marks the intercourse of gentlemen will regulate other more obvious cases. 1. No conversation should be indulged in during the play, except such as is allowed by the laws of the game.
Then Z allows B to discard his high diamonds on the clubs. SCOTCH WHIST, OR CATCH THE TEN. _=CARDS.=_ Scotch Whist is played with a pack of 36 cards, which rank in plain suits, A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6; the Ace being highest both in play and in cutting. In the trump suit the Jack is the best card, the order being, J A K Q 10 9 8 7 6. _=MARKERS.=_ There are no suitable counters for Scotch Whist, and the score is usually kept on a sheet of paper. _=PLAYERS.=_ Any number from two to eight may play. When there are five or seven players, the spade 6 must be removed from the pack.
A player holding two small trumps and the Ten of a plain suit, may trump both the ace and King of that suit instead of giving up his Ten. But if on the third round the Queen is led, and he cannot trump it, he must play his Ten if he has no other card of the suit. The only points affected by the revoke are Jack and Game. _=If the Jack is not in play=_, there is only one point that can be affected by the revoke, the score for Game; and the revoke penalty is one point, which the adversary may add to his own score, or deduct from the score of the revoking player. The adversary may also score the point for Game if he makes it; but it cannot be scored by the revoking player; who may mark only High or Low if he holds either or both of those points. _=If the Jack is in play=_, two points may be affected by a revoke. The player in fault cannot score either Jack or Game, and the penalty for the revoke is two points; in addition to which the adversary of the revoking player may score either or both Jack and Game if he makes them. The revoking player cannot win the game that hand, no matter what he scores, but must stop at six. A revoke is established as soon as the trick in which it occurs has been turned and quitted, or a card has been led or played to the next trick. _=Exposed Cards.
VIII. Pray, mother, pray, May I go out to play? No, daughter, no, daughter, Not every fine day. Why, mother, why? I shan t be gone long. Make a fine curtsey And glad git you gone.-- Wait for your sister. --Hurstmonceux, Sussex (Miss Chase). IX. Please, mother, please, mother, may I go out to play? No, child, no, child, tis such a cold day. Why, mother, why, mother, I won t stay long. Make three pretty curtseys and off you run.
=_ The best thing for the third hand, or pone, to do, when he does not return his partner’s suit, and has no very strong suit of his own, is to lead up to Dummy’s weak suits, and to lead a card that Dummy cannot beat, if possible. The general principle of leading up to weakness suggests that we should know what weakness is. Dummy may be considered weak in suits of which he holds three or four small cards, none higher than an 8; Ace and one or two small cards; or King and one or two small cards. In leading up to such suits, your object should be to give your partner a finesse, if possible; and in calculating the probabilities of success it must be remembered that there are only two unknown hands, so that it is an equal chance that he holds either of two unknown cards. It is 3 to 1 against his holding both, or against his holding neither. Of three unknown cards, it is 7 to 1 against his holding all three, or none of them; or about an equal chance that he holds two of the three; or one only. If Dummy holds any of the weak suits just given, you holding nothing higher than the Ten, you should lead it. Suppose you have 10 9 6; Dummy having A 3 2. The K Q J may be distributed in eight different ways, in any of which your partner will pass your Ten if second hand does not cover. In four cases, second hand would cover with the King, and in one with the Queen and Jack.
It is mentioned by Jonson, _Tale of a Tub_, iii. 2:-- Young Justice Bramble has kept _level-coyl_ Here in our quarters, stole away our daughter. Gifford says that, in our old dramatists, it implies riot and disturbance. The same sport is mentioned by Sylvester, _Dubartas_, IV. iv. 2, under the name of _level-sice_:-- By tragick death s device Ambitious hearts do play at _level-sice_. In the margin we have this explanation: A kinde of Christmas play, wherein each hunteth the other from his seat. The name seems derived from the French _levez sus_, in English, arise up. Halliwell s _Dictionary_ says that Skelton, ii. 31, spells it _levell suse_.
| -- | -- | -- | |16.| -- | -- | -- | |17.| -- | -- | -- | |18.|Sweetheart is dead. |True love is dead. | -- | |19.| -- | -- |Except ---- she s not | | | | |to be seen. | |20.| -- | -- | -- | |21.| -- | -- | -- | |22.
The most constant formulæ of this game-rhyme are shown by this analysis to be Nos. 1, 6, 7, 13, 15, 18, 23, and the variants, though important, are not sufficient to detract from the significance of the normal version. It is evidently a funeral game. The green gravel and the green grass indicate the locality of the scene; green, as applied to gravel, may mean freshly disturbed, just as green grave means a freshly made grave. The tenant of the new grave is the well-loved lady of a disconsolate lover, and probably the incidents of washing and dressing the corpse, and putting an inscription on the place where it is laid, are indicated by Nos. 13 and 15. The dirge, or singing to the dead, is indicated by Nos. 18, 23, and 26, and the beauty of the first line is in complete accord with the mournful music. That No. 26 occurs in only two variants, Derbyshire and the Isle of Man, is curious, as the pathos of this appeal is very apparent in the movement of the game.
For this reason it is very bad play to fatten with the Ace of a suit of which you have not the Ten, or to play an Ace third hand when there are only small cards in the trick, and the Ten of the suit has not been played and you do not hold it. If the player is void of a suit, continue leading it, no matter what you hold in it. This will either weaken his trumps, or, if he is between you, will give your partner discards. If the player leads a Wenzel, it is usually best to cover it if you can; but do not play the club Jack on the diamond Jack unless you want the lead very badly. When the single player does not lead trumps, but plays his Aces and Tens, the Germans call it “auf die Dörfer gehen;” that is, getting to the villages, or getting home; equivalent to our expression, “getting out of the woods,” or “getting in out of the rain.” When the single player runs for home in this way, it is usually best to lead trumps through him at the first opportunity. In playing against a Nullo, the great point is to give your partner discards. If you find that the player’s long suit is yours also, continue it until your partner has discarded an entire suit if possible. If you then have the small card of the discarded suit, you may defeat the Nullo at once. _=Fattening.
The object of the bidder, if successful in securing the privilege of playing, is to win or lose the proposed number of tricks, against the combined efforts of his adversaries. Having once made a bid, he must play it unless he is over-called. _=METHOD OF BIDDING.=_ The eldest hand has the first say, and after examining his hand, and deciding on the bid most appropriate to it, if any, he makes his announcement. If his proposal is to win a certain number of tricks with a certain suit for trumps, he must name the suit, saying, “Eight Spades,” or “Seven Diamonds,” as the case may be. If he proposes to play without any trump suit, he announces, “Seven Grand,” or whatever the number may be. Such a bid over-calls one of the same number in diamonds. If the eldest hand has no proposal to make, he says, “I pass,” and the others in turn have an opportunity to bid. The bids outrank one another according to their order in the foregoing table, and the rank of the suits in which they are made. The players bid against one another, until all but one declare to pass, he then becomes the single player against the three others.
At the conclusion of this verse she selects a girl from the ring and asks her her sweetheart s name, which is imparted in a whisper. Upon this the child in the centre sings the third verse, the ring dancing round as before. If the ring approves her choice, they sing the fourth verse as in the Biggar version, and if they disapprove, the fifth. Chambers does not say whether another child is selected, if this is the case; but it is probable, as he says, the marriage is finally concluded upon and effected by the ring singing the verses which follow. When singing the first line of the eighth verse all the ring unclasps hands for a moment, and each child performs a pirouette, clapping her hands above her head. (_c_) It seems very clear from both the versions given that this is a ceremonial dance, round or at a place sacred to such ceremonies as betrothal and marriage. The version given by Chambers suggests this the more strongly, as the child in the centre acts as mistress of the ceremonies, or go-between, the person who was the negotiator between the parents on either side in bringing a marriage about. The courtesying and bowing of those in the ring to her may show respect for this office. On the other hand, there is the more important office of priest or priestess of the stones suggested by the action of the game, and the reverence to the centre child may be a relic of this. The fact that she asks a girl to tell her her sweetheart s name, and then announces the name of the girl s choice for approval or disapproval by the ring in both versions, points to the time when consent by relations and friends on both sides was necessary before the marriage could be agreed upon--the inquiry regarding the qualifications of the proposed wife, the recital of her housewifely abilities, and the giving of the ring by the boy to the girl are also betrothal customs.
Many persons use the Albany lead to indicate a wish for trumps to be led through the caller. In response to such a signal the best trump should be led, whatever it is. When the adversary who leads in any trick is not on the left of the solo player, the caller will, of course, not be the last player, as at least one adversary must play after him. In such cases it is best to lead the longest suits. _=MISÈRE.=_ The great difficulty in Misère is not in playing it; but in judging what hands justify such an undertaking. _=Calling.=_ As a general proposition it may be stated that misère should not be called with a long suit not containing the deuce. But the longer the suit the less the danger there is for a player who is determined to risk it; because the deuce is more likely to be found alone in some adversary’s hand. Short suits may be risked, even with no card smaller than a 5 or 6, and it is of course a great advantage to have a suit altogether missing.
There being three players besides himself, A puts up three times three, or 9 counters. B and C put up 15 each, and D none; so that there are 39 in the pool. Each player then takes out of the pool 1 counter for every heart he did _=not=_ hold when the hearts were announced. D, having taken no hearts, gets 13 counters. A, having taken three hearts only, is entitled to 10 counters for the 10 hearts he did not hold, while B and C get 8 each. This exhausts the pool. There are no Jacks in this way of settling. Matters may be facilitated by having counters of different colours, the white being the unit, and the red representing the number which it will be necessary to pay for one heart. Practice will make the players so familiar with the amount of the various profits or losses that they simply pay or take what is due to them. The first time this is played it looks like a pretty severe game for a player who takes in a large number of hearts on one deal; but it will be found that he rapidly recovers.