but forty-four cards. The two’s and three’s were thrown out of the pack. Each person received twelve cards, and eight were left upon the table. Seven of these could be bought by the players. The eighth, or turn up card, belonged to the dealer. The different cards had various nicknames. The ace of trumps was Tib, the knave, Tom, and the four, Tiddie. Each of these was paid for by the others to him who held it. The manner of counting was such that it involved upon occasion the payment of large multiples of the original stake. Thus, though a farthing or half penny was often the sum adventured, considerable money sometimes changed hands during a game. Some people, however, would not play for less than sixpence or a shilling; and a spendthrift in Greene’s Tu Quoque played for the high sum of half a crown. In the time of Ben Jonson, gleek seems to have been an extremely fashionable game. “Nor play with costermongers,” one says, “at Mum-chance, tray-trip—But keep the gallant’st company and the best games—Gleek and primero.”[1] The name gleek was applied to three cards of a sort. The laws of the game can be found in full in Wit’s Interpreter, 1662, p. 365.
Of the game maw very little is known beyond the fact of its popularity. Sir John Harrington,
- ↑ The Alchemist, v. 4.
