Most social evenings in Jane Austen's time in Bath revolved around card games even though they involved a small amount of gambling. In London at the time of course, thousands of pounds could be lost in a game of whist, but in Bath the stakes were more modest.
Games such as cassino, loo, quadrille, piquet, commerce, brag, whist, vingt-un and speculation could all be played in polite society. Cassino was a game in which open cards on the table were used to make number combinations, piquet required you to make tricks, loo involved gambling tokens wherein players would bet on how many tricks they thought they could take; quadrille also trick-taking related to whist, vingt-un a forerunner of pontoon, commerce depended on certain card combinations and speculation was a gambling game that used tokens, the holder of the highest trump taking the pot.
This latter was Jane's favourite, saying of its superiority over brag: 'When one comes to reason upon it, it cannot stand its ground against Speculation'. She even composed a poem:
'Alas! poor Brag, thou boastful game!
What now avails thine empty name?
[as opposed to]... tender-hearted speculation.'
Speculation is mentioned several times by her in her writings and here in Mansfield Park we read:
'"What shall I do, Sir Thomas? [asks his wife]: Whist and speculation; which will amuse me most?" Sir Thomas, after a moment's thought, recommended speculation. He was a whist player himself, and perhaps might feel that it would not much amuse him to have her for a partner'.
Speculation had disappeared completely by the end of the century.
Commerce, a game whose aim was to finish with the best three-card combination in hand, made Jane rather uneasy because of the expense. She notes sourly in a letter when in Portsmouth:
'We found ourselves tricked into a thorough party at Mrs Maitland's, a quadrille and a commerce table... There were two pools at commerce, but I would not play more than one, for the stake was three shillings (15p), and I cannot afford to lose that twice in an evening.'
Card games occur throughout Jane's novels which reflect the mores of the time and were a quintessential part of a successful society evening. janeausten
Games such as cassino, loo, quadrille, piquet, commerce, brag, whist, vingt-un and speculation could all be played in polite society. Cassino was a game in which open cards on the table were used to make number combinations, piquet required you to make tricks, loo involved gambling tokens wherein players would bet on how many tricks they thought they could take; quadrille also trick-taking related to whist, vingt-un a forerunner of pontoon, commerce depended on certain card combinations and speculation was a gambling game that used tokens, the holder of the highest trump taking the pot.
This latter was Jane's favourite, saying of its superiority over brag: 'When one comes to reason upon it, it cannot stand its ground against Speculation'. She even composed a poem:
'Alas! poor Brag, thou boastful game!
What now avails thine empty name?
[as opposed to]... tender-hearted speculation.'
Speculation is mentioned several times by her in her writings and here in Mansfield Park we read:
'"What shall I do, Sir Thomas? [asks his wife]: Whist and speculation; which will amuse me most?" Sir Thomas, after a moment's thought, recommended speculation. He was a whist player himself, and perhaps might feel that it would not much amuse him to have her for a partner'.
Speculation had disappeared completely by the end of the century.
Commerce, a game whose aim was to finish with the best three-card combination in hand, made Jane rather uneasy because of the expense. She notes sourly in a letter when in Portsmouth:
'We found ourselves tricked into a thorough party at Mrs Maitland's, a quadrille and a commerce table... There were two pools at commerce, but I would not play more than one, for the stake was three shillings (15p), and I cannot afford to lose that twice in an evening.'
Card games occur throughout Jane's novels which reflect the mores of the time and were a quintessential part of a successful society evening. janeausten
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