mes of Old Oliver--when undoubtedly cards were
styled 'the devil's books.' But, indeed, by that time they had become an
engine of much fraud and destruction; so that one of the early acts of
Charles II.'s reign inflicted large penalties on those who should use
cards for fraudulent purposes.

'Primero was the fashionable game at the court of England during the
Tudor dynasty. Shakspeare represents Henry VIII. playing at it with the
Duke of Suffolk; and Falstaff says, "I never prospered since I forswore
myself at Primero." In the Earl of Northumberland's letters about the
Gunpowder-plot, it is noticed that Joscelin Percy was playing at this
game on Sunday, when his uncle, the conspirator, called on him at Essex
House. In the Sidney papers, there is an account of a desperate quarrel
between Lord Southampton, the patron of Shakspeare, and one Ambrose
Willoughby. Lord Southampton was then "Squire of the Body" to Queen
Elizabeth, and the quarrel was occasioned by Willoughby persisting to
play with Sir Walter Raleigh and another at Primero, in the Presence
Chamber, after the queen had retired to rest, a course of proceeding
which Southampton would not permit. Primero, originally a Spanish game,
is said to have been made fashionable in England by Philip of Spain,
after his marriage with Queen Mary.

Maw succeeded Primero as the fashionable game at the English court, and
was the favourite game of James I., who appears to have played at
cards, just as he played with affairs of state, in an indolent manner;
requiring in both cases some one to hold his cards, if not to prompt him
what to play. Weldon, alluding to the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury,
in his Court and Character of King James, says: 'The next that came on
the stage was Sir Thomas Monson, but the night before he was to come
to his trial, the king being at the game of Maw, said, "To-morrow comes
Thomas Monson to his trial." "Yea," said the king's card-holder, "where,
if he do not play his master's prize, your Majesty shall never trust
me." This so ran in the king's mind, that at the next game he said he
was sleepy, and would play out that set the next night.

'It is evident that Maw differed very slightly from Five Cards, the most
popular game in Ireland at the present day. As early as 1674 this game
was popular in Ireland, as we learn from Cotton's Compleat Gamester,
which says: "Five Cards is an Irish game, and is much played in that
kingdom for considerable sums of