of
Henry VIII. (v. 1) playing at primero with the Duke of Suffolk, and
makes Falstaff exclaim, in "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 5), "I never
prospered since I forswore myself at primero." That it was the court
game is shown in a very curious picture described by Mr. Barrington, in
the "Archaeologia" (vol. viii. p. 132), which represents Lord Burleigh
playing at this pastime with three other noblemen. Primero continued to
be the most fashionable game throughout the reigns of Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, and James I.[811] In the Earl of
Northumberland's letters about the Gunpowder-plot we find that Josceline
Percy was playing at primero on Sunday, when his uncle, the conspirator,
called on him at Essex House; and in the Sydney Papers there is an
account of a quarrel between Lord Southampton and one Ambrose
Willoughby, on account of the former persisting to play at primero in
the presence-chamber after the queen had retired to rest. The manner of
playing was thus: Each player had four cards dealt to him one by one;
the seven was the highest card in point of number that he could avail
himself of, which counted for twenty-one; the six counted for sixteen,
the five for fifteen, and the ace for the same; but the two, the three,
and the four for their respective points only.

[810] "Sports and Pastimes."

[811] Smith's "Festivals, Games, and Amusements," 1831, p. 320.

There may be further allusions to this game in "Taming of the Shrew"
(ii. 1), where Tranio says:

"A vengeance on your crafty, wither'd hide!
Yet I have faced it with a card of ten"

--the phrase "to face it with a card of ten" being derived, as some
suggest, possibly from primero, wherein the standing boldly on a ten was
often successful. "To face" meant, as it still does, to attack by
impudence of face. In "1 Henry VI." (v. 3) Suffolk speaks of a "cooling
card," which Nares considers is borrowed from primero--a card so decisive
as to cool the courage of the adversary. Gifford objects to this
explanation, and says a "cooling-card" is, literally, a _bolus_. There
can be no doubt, however, that, metaphorically, the term was used to
denote something which damped or overwhelmed the hopes of an expectant.
Thus, in Fletcher's "Island Princess" (i. 3), Piniero says:

"These hot youths
I fear will find a cooling-card."

_Push-pin_ was a foolish sport, consisting in nothing more than pushing
one pin across an