coins, clubs, swords and cups

“Playing cards existed in China in or before the twelfth century, were introduced into Europe from China in the thirteenth century and were spread quickly from Europe over the civilized world. Certain Chinese cards which have come down to the present time were imitated from Chinese paper notes which bore pictorial symbols of their value. These pictures furnished the suit marks of the Chinese pack, and, copied again in Europe, without knowledge of their true significance, gave rise to the suits of coins, clubs, swords and cups of the eary European game.”

—Stewart Culin, quoted in A History of Playing Cards by Catherine Perry Hargrave, 1930.

Coeurs, Carreaux, Trfles, and Piques

“There are . . . painted cards of the early fifteenth century which first show the suit signs of Coeurs, Carreaux, Trfles, and Piques which are characteristic of the French cards of to-day. The suit signs of the old tarots had been Cups, Swords, Coins, and Batons; the French suit signs are supposed to have been introduced by a famous knight, tienne Vignoles, or Lahire, as he is called. He is said to have invented the game of piquet, which was the game of knights and chivalry, in contrast to the old game . . . chess, the game of war. Lahire is said to have had the help of his friend, tienee Chevalier, who was secretary to the king and a clever draughtsman and who may have been responsible for the new designs. The suit of Coeurs denotes the church; Carreaux, the arrowheads or diamonds, are symbolic of the vassals, from whom the archers and bowmen were drawn; Trfles, or clover (clubs) signifies the husbandmen, and Piques, or points of lances (spades), the knights themselves.”

—Catherine Perry Hargrave, from A History of Playing Cards, first published in 1930, and still published unabridged by Dover.

in gold and diverse colours

“In 1329, in the register of the Chambre des Comptes of Charles VI of France, there is an entry of the royal treasurer of moneys paind one Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three games of cards in gold and diverse colours, ornamented with many devices, for the diversion of our lord, the King. Seventeen of these strange old painted cards survive in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. They are atouts from a pack of tarots, as the early European game of cards was called. . . . In a tarot series, in addition to the customary fifty-two cards, there are four cavaliers or mounted valets besides the twenty-two high cards. These last are supposed to have been taken from an Egyptian book of hieroglyphics containing the principles of an ancient mystic philosophy in a series of emblem and symbolic figures.”

—Catherine Perry Hargrave, from A History of Playing Cards, first published in 1930, and still published unabridged by Dover.

have you ever been in new orleans

“Negroes in purple and fine linen, and slaves in rags and chains. . . .
Pimps, imps, shrimps, and all sorts of dirty fellows;
White men with black wives, et vice-versa too,
A progeny of all colorsan infernal motley crew!”

—from Have you ever been in New Orleans, a disparaging ballad of the late 1820s. Found in The American Nation, by John A. Garraty, 1975.

claudian letters

Claudian letters were developed by, and named after, the Roman Emperor Claudius. . . . He introduced three new letters:

A backwards, upside-down “F” to represent consonantal U, possibly inspired by Greek Digamma. . . .

A broken “H” to represent the sound of Greek Upsilon. . . .

A backwards “C” to replace BS and PS, much like “X” stood in for CS and GS, and inspired by Greek Psi.

These letters were used to a small extent on public inscriptions dating from his reign but their use was abandoned after his death. . . .

However, later on, the letter Y was added, filling the role of his broken “H”. His first innovation [three new letters] would not catch on for over 1500 years, when U, V, and W became recognized as separate letters. (Until the 17th century, U and V were represented by the same letter, printed V as capital, v initially, and u medially and finally, resulting in spellings such as “haue” and “vpon”.)

—Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. I know it’s not authoritative, but no one else online has anything on this vital shit!

liquid amber

In the liquid amber within the ivory-porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius, the piquancy of Lao Tzu, and the ethereal aroma of Sakyamuni himself.

—Kakuzo Okakura, from The Book of Tea, 1964.

our mind is the canvas

Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.

—Kakuzo Okakura, from The Book of Tea, 1964.

sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls

All the little boys and girls,
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

—Robert Browning, from The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

a ribbon of moonlight

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

—Alfred Noyes, from The Highwayman.

northern lights

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The northern lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

—Robert W. Service, from The Cremation of Sam McGee.