Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards

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J. R. Smith, 1848 - 343 pages
 

Contents

I
1
II
60
III
92
IV
189
V
281

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Page 123 - Growing on's cheek (but none knows how), With these, the crystal of his brow, And then the dimple of his chin; All these did my Campaspe win. At last he set her both his eyes, She won, and Cupid blind did rise. O Love! has she done this to thee? What shall, alas! become of me? THE SONGS OF BIRDS What bird so sings, yet so does wail? O 'tis the ravished nightingale. 'Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu,' she cries, And still her woes at midnight rise.
Page 147 - I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God, (it being Sunday evening,) which this day se'nnight I was witness of, the King sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland...
Page 33 - Alike in the political and in the military line could be observed auctioneering ambassadors and trading generals ; — and thus we saw a revolution brought about by affidavits ; an army employed in executing an arrest ; a town besieged on a note of hand ; a prince dethroned for the balance of an account.
Page 160 - Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he found himself much weaker, yet his cheerfulness never abated, and he continued to divert himself, as usual, with correcting his own works for a new edition, with reading books of amusement, with the conversation of his friends; and, sometimes in the evening, with a party at his favourite game of whist. His cheerfulness was so great...
Page 147 - I was witness of. the King sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing love songs, in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty 50 of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2000 in gold before them ; upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days after, was all in the dust.
Page 243 - The Arabian courtesans, like the Indian women, have little golden bells fastened round their legs, neck, and elbows, to the sound of which they dance before the King. The Arabian princesses wear golden rings on their fingers, to which little bells are suspended, as well as in the flowing tresses of their hair, that their superior rank may be known, and they themselves receive in passing the homage due to them."— Calmet's Dietionary, art.
Page 173 - This picture, placed these busts between, Gives satire all its strength : Wisdom and Wit are little seen, But Folly at full length.
Page 33 - ... military line could be observed auctioneering ambassadors and trading generals; — and thus we saw a revolution brought about by affidavits; an army employed in executing an arrest; a town besieged on a note of hand; a prince dethroned for the balance of an account. Thus it was they exhibited a government, which united the mock majesty of a bloody sceptre, and the little traffic of a merchant's counting-house, wielding a truncheon with one hand, and picking a pocket with the other.
Page 17 - Vyasa, who explains, at the king's request, the form of the fictitious warfare, and the principal rules of it. " Having marked eight squares on all sides," says the sage, " place the red army to the east, the green to the south, the yellow to the west, and the black to the north...
Page 6 - In a ru<f gown, there's D, and Rug, that's drug: And right anenst him a dog snarling er; There's Drugger, Abel Drugger. That's his sign. And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic ! FACE. Abel, thou art made. DRUG. Sir, I do thank his worship. FACE. Six o' thy legs

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