Trevor Joyce has introduced me to John Taylor (1578 – 1653), who dubbed himself the Water Poet: “He spent much of his life as a Thames waterman, a member of the guild of boatmen that ferried passengers across the River Thames in London, in the days when the London Bridge was the only passage between the banks. His occupation was his gateway into the literary society of London, as he ferried patrons, actors, and playwrights across the Thames to the Bankside theatres.” In his e-mail, Trevor quoted this impressive passage from “his 1621 work Taylor’s Motto, which included a list of then-current card games and diversions”:
The prodigall’s estate, like to a flux,
The Mercer, Draper, and the Silkman sucks:
The Tailor, Millainer, Dogs, Drabs and Dice,
Trey-trip, or Passage, or The most-at-thrice.
At Irish, Tick tack, Doublets, Draughts or Chesse,
He flings his money free with carelessnesse:
At Novum, Mainchance, Mischance (chuse ye which),
At One and thirty, or at Poor and rich,
Ruffe, slam, Trump, whisk, hole, Sant, New-cut.
Unto the keeping of foure Knaves he’le put
His whole estate, at Loadum, or at Gleeke,
At Tickle-me-quickly, he’s a merry Greeke;
At Primefisto, Post and payre, Primero,
Maw, Whip-her-ginny, he’s a lib’rall Hero;
At My-sow-pigg’d, and (reader never doubt ye)
He’s skill’d in all games, except Looke about ye.
Bowles, shove-groat, tennis, no game comes amis,
His purse a nurse for any body is;
Caroches, Coaches, and Tobacconists,
All sorts of people freely from his fists
His vaine expenses daily sucke and soake,
And he himselfe sucks only drinke and smoake.
And thus the Prodigall, himselfe alone,
Gives sucke to thousands, and himselfe sucks none.
Click through to the Wikipedia article I linked to for explanations of many of these, e.g. Primifisto: “Primo visto, Primavista, Prima-vista, Primi-vist, Primiuiste, Primofistula, or even Primefisto, is a 16th-century gambling card game fashionable c. 1530–1640. Very little is known about this game, but judging by the etymology of the words used to describe the many local variants of the game, it appears to be one of Italian origin.” As for the connotations of “suck” in his day, further affiant sayeth naught. Thanks, Trevor!
As for the connotations of “suck” in his day, further affiant sayeth naught..
From internal evidence: “breastfeed” -> “(give/take) nurture/nourishment” -> “drain (for nourishment)” His purse a nurse for anybody is.
On another note, some mildly interesting rhymes:
I’m pretty sure it can’t have been a full rhyme in his day.
I first thought of a pronunciation of ‘alone’ to rhyme with ‘on’, but on second thoughts, I believe it reflects a pronunciation of ‘none’ as … as written ‘none’ actually.
I think “Cheese” should be “Chess”, probably spelled “Chesse”.
You may well be right about “non”, but occasional rhyming of what are now “long” and “short” (=”tense” and “lax”) vowels happened back then. In the following century, Pope does it, at least in his translations of Homer.
@trond
Then will two at once woo one;
That must needs be sport alone;
And those things do best please me
That befal preposterously.
Midsummer Night’s Dream III.2
I find these by advanced search on the online concordance (I can’t exclude that I half remember the lines, but I can’t assert it). Ulr has a reference work with all the rhymes.
Jerry: I think “Cheese” should be “Chess”, probably spelled “Chesse”.
Obviously, now that you point it out.
occasional rhyming of what are now “long” and “short” (=”tense” and “lax”) vowels happened back then.
Could well be. And I should have thought of it, since that’s what I thought was happening in the ‘cheese’ rhyme.
@PP: Yes, that’s ‘one’ as it was pronounced before it changed after the spelling was settled. If it was a long monophtong, that would fit with rhyming of long/tense and short/lax vowels.
Cheſſe indeed. There are a number of other OCR / transcription errors on that WP page, such as Mainchance for Mumchance.
Fun fact: The game of “Slam” listed here is the indirect origin of the modern “grand slam” in various sports, notably in baseball a home run with the bases loaded.
And “grand slam” and “little slam” in bridge.
I assume ‘whisk’ should be ‘whist.’
Cheſſe indeed. There are a number of other OCR / transcription errors on that WP page, such as Mainchance for Mumchance.
Thanks for that nudge; I’ve changed the text in the post to match that at your link (though of course I may have missed something).
I assume ‘whisk’ should be ‘whist.’
No, as it turns out whisk is (per the OED) “the earlier name of the card game now called whist”; their first citation is this very text, and the last is:
“I had that Christopher Marlowe in my boat once” (boatman in Shakespeare in Love… RIP Tom Stoppard)
I didn’t realize it back in September, but this citation from Green’s Dictionary that I quoted for “quandary” is from the Water Poet:
(I wondered what “recure” was — the OED informs me that it’s an obsolete verb that meant ‘restore, cure, recover’.) According to Green’s search function, J. Taylor is cited for (about) 466 senses in 442 entries (the search can’t distinguish him from a few other “J. Taylor”s in the database, but by limiting the search to words in use during his lifetime, the hits seem to be at least predominantly the same man). A couple of other examples:
fox-catcher ‘drunkard’
1639 [UK] J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 120: What, are you awake, good man Foxe-catcher: are you in any better humour than you were last night.
fulhams ‘weighted dice’
1630 [UK] J. Taylor ‘Travels of Twelve-pence’ in Works (1869) I 73: Where Fullam high and Low-men bore great sway, / With the quick helpe of a Bard Cater Trey.