Playing Cards in Literature #2: The Spiritual Quixote by Richard Graves

One of the earliest mentions of using playing cards as a social invitation comes from The Spiritual Quixote: The summer's Ramble of Mr. Geoffry Wildgoose. A Comic Romance by Richard Graves in 1773. Its mention in Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer's The Devil's Picture-Books: A History of Playing-Cards from 1890 inspired me to look for the passages:

"A lady, who is disgusted with the world, desires half an hour's conversation with Mr. Wildgoose, as soon as he is at leisure."

Of course, I botched the quote on the card but... anyway, there were rules for what card should be used and by whom but surely it was all in jest said within a romance so should we really use it as a guide? Of course!

Some cards mentioned are the Queen of Hearts (too trite to send to a fine woman); Jack of Diamonds (never inquire of a fine man's health under such auspices); The Two of Clubs (appropriate for duels and challenges); Black Aces (entirely discarded in correspondence with ladies of character). I don't understand the connotations of the Nine and Ten cards in the games ombre or quadrille, though both leave out the aforementioned cards.

The two chapters:

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A Card Within a Card: 3 Jokers and Theirs

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Tart Rhymes

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

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