The giving pre-eminence or victory to a
certain suit, by the name of 'trump,' which is only a corruption
of the word 'triumph,' is a strong trait of the martial ideas of
the inventors of these games. So that, if the Chinese started
the idea, it seems clear that the French and Spanish improved
upon it and gave it a plain significance; and there is no reason
to doubt that cards were actually employed to amuse Charles VI.
in his melancholy and dejection.
The four suits of cards are supposed to represent the four
estates of a kingdom:--1. The nobility and gentry; 2. The
ecclesiastics or priesthood; 3. The citizens or commercial men;
4. The peasantry or Husbandmen. The nobility are represented in
the old Spanish cards by the espada, or sword, corrupted by us
into 'spades,'--by the French with piques, 'pikes or spears.'
The ecclesiastical order is pointed out by copas, or sacramental
cups, which are painted in one of the suits of old Spanish cards,
and by coeurs, or 'hearts,' on French cards, as in our
own--thereby signifying choir-men, gens de choeur, or
ecclesiastics--from choeur de l'eglise, 'the choir of the
church,' that being esteemed the most important part or the HEART
of the church.
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