WHIST, a game at cards. The etymology of the name is disputed. Possibly it is of imitative origin, from "whist" (Hist! Hush! Silence!). "It is called Whist from the silence that must be observed in the play" (Cotton, Compleat Gamester). In the i6th century a card game called triumph or trump was commonly played in England. A game called trionfi is mentioned as early as 1526, and triumpus Hispanicus in 1541. La triomphe occurs in the list of games played by Gargantua (Rabelais, first half of 16th century). In Giovanni Florio's Worlde of Wordes (159S) trionfo is defined as "the play called trump or ruff." It is probable that the game referred to by the writers quoted is la triomphe of the early editions of the 'Académie des jeux. It is important to note that this game, called by Charles Cotton "French ruff," is similar to écarté. "English ruff-and-honours," also described by Cotton, is similar to whist. If we admit that ruff and trump are convertible terms, of which there is. scarcely a doubt, the game of trump was the precursor of whist. A purely English origin may, therefore, be claimed for trump (not la triomphe). No record is known to exist of the invention of this game, nor of the mode of its growth into ruff-and-honours, and finally into whist. The earliest reference to trump in English is believed to occur in a sermon by Latimer, "On the Card," preached at Cambridge, in Advent, about the year 1529. He says, "The game that we play at shall be the triumph. … Now turn up your trump, … and cast your trump, your heart, on this card." In Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575) Dame Chat says, "We be fast set at trumpe." Eliot (Fruits for the French, 1593) calls trump "a verie common alehouse game." Richard Price or Rice (Invective against Vices, 1579) observes that "renouncing the trompe and comming in againe" (i.e. revoking intentionally) is a common sharper's trick. Cotton in his Compleat Gamester says, "He that can by craft overlook his adversary's game hath a great advantage." Thomas Dekker (Belman of London, 160S) speaks of the deceits practised at "tromp and such like games." Trump also occurs in Antony and Cleopatra (written about 1607), with other punning allusions to card-playing—
"She, Eros, has Packed cards with Caesar, and false-played my glory Unto an enemy's triumph."—Act iv.
Ruff-and-honours, if not the same game as trump, was probably the same with the addition of a score for the four highest cards of the trump suit. A description of the game is first met with in The Compleat Gamester (1674) by Cotton. He states that ruff-and-honours (alias slamm) and whist are games very commonly known in England. It was played by four players, paired as partners, and it was compulsory to follow suit when able. The cards ranked as at whist, and honours were scored as now. Twelve cards were dealt to each player, four being left in the stock. The top card of the stock was turned up for trumps. The holder of the ace of trumps was allowed to ruff, i.e. to take in the stock and to put out four cards from his hand. The game was played nine up; and at the point of eight honours could be called, as at long whist. Cotton adds that at whist there was no stock. The deuces were put out and the bottom card was turned up for trumps.
It is believed that the earliest mention of whist is by Taylor, the Water Poet (Motto, 1621). He spells the word "whisk." The earliest known use of the present spelling is in Hudibras, the Second Part (spurious), 1663. The word is afterwards spelt indifferently whisk or whist for about half a century. Cotton (1674) spells it both ways. Richard Seymour (Court Gamester, 1734) has "whist, vulgarly called whisk." While whist was undergoing this change of name, there was associated with it the additional title of swabbers (probably allied to sweep, or sweepstakes). Fielding (History of Mr Jonathan Wild) says that whisk-and-swabbers was "the game then [1682] in chief vogue." Francis Grose (Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) states that swabbers are "the ace of hearts, knave of clubs, ace and duce of trumps at whist." The true function of the swabbers is not positively known; it is probable that the holders of these cards were entitled to receive a certain stake from the other players. Swabbers dropped out of general use during the 18th century. The points of the game rose from nine to ten ("nine in all," Cotton, 1725; "ten in all," Seymour, 1734, "rectified according to the present standard of play"). Simultaneously with this alteration, or closely following it, the entire pack of fifty-two cards was used, the deuces being no longer discarded. This improvement introduces the odd trick, an element of great importance in modern whist. Early in the 18th century whist was not a fashionable game. The Hon. Daines Barrington (Archaeologia, vol. viii.) says it was the game of the servants' hall. Contemporary writers refer to it in a disparaging way, as being only fit for hunting men and country squires, and not for fine ladies or people of quality. According to Barrington, whist was first played on scientific principles by a party of gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, about 1728. They laid down the following rules: "Lead from the strong suit; study your partner's hand; and attend to the score." Shortly afterwards the celebrated Edmond Hoyle (q.v .) published his Short Treatise (1742). It has been surmised by some that Hoyle belonged to the Crown Coffee House party. This, however, is only a conjecture. There is abundant evidence to show that, in the middle of the 18th century, whist was regularly played at the coffee houses of London and in fashionable society. From the time of Hoyle the game continued to increase in public estimation, until the introduction of bridge, which has to a large extent replaced it, but which has much in common with it.
It will be of interest to mark the successive stages through which whist passed from the time of Cotton. The only suggestions as to play in Cotton are that, "though you have but mean cards in your pwn hand, yet you may play them so suitable to those in your partner's hand that he may either trump them or play the best of that suit"; also that "you ought to have a special eye to what cards are play'd out, that you may know by that means either what to play if you lead or how to trump securely and advantageously." It appears from this that the main ideas were to make trumps by ruffing, to make winning cards, and to watch the fall of the cards with these objects. In the rules laid down by the Crown Coffee House school a distinct advance is to be noticed. Their first rule, "Lead from the strong suit," shows a sound knowledge of the game. Their second rule, "Study your partner's hand," though sound, is rather vague. Their third rule, "Attend to the score," if amended into "Play to the score," is most valuable. From the Crown Coffee House school to Hoyle is rather a wide jump; but there is no intervening record. Hoyle in his Short Treatise endorses and illustrates the "Crown" rules. He also brought the doctrine of probabilities to bear on the game, and gave a number of cases which show a remarkable insight into the play.
About 1770 was published William Payne's Maxims for Playing the Game of Whist. The advance in this book is decided, as it inculcates the rules of leading invariably from five trumps and the return of the highest card from three held originally. Matthews's Advice to the Young Whist-Player (anon., 1804) repeats the "maxims of the old school," with "observations on those he thinks erroneous" and "with several new ones," but some of the maxims which he thinks erroneous are now generally allowed to be correct.
Soon after Matthews wrote the points of the game were cut down from ten (long whist) to five (short whist). Clay's account of this change is that, about the beginning of the 19th century, Lord Peterborough having lost a large sum of money, the players proposed to make the game five up, in order to give the loser a chance of recovering his loss. The new game, short whist, was found to be so lively that it soon became general, and eventually superseded the long game. "Coelebs" (Laws and Practice of Whist, 1851), who mainly repeats former writers, only calls for mention because he first printed in his second edition (1856) an explanation of the call for trumps. Calling for trumps was first recognized as part of the game by the players at Graham's Club about 1840. Long whist may be said to have died about 1835. The new game necessarily caused a change in the style of play, as recorded by James Clay in The Laws of Short Whist, and a Treatise on the Game (1864).
Whist then travelled, and about 1830 some of the best French whist-players, with Deschapelles at their head, modified and improved the old-fashioned system. They were but little influenced by the traditions of long whist, and were not content merely to imitate the English. The French game was the scorn and horror of the old school, who vehemently condemned its rash trump leads; those who adopted the practice of the new school were found to be winning plavcrs.
Dr William Pole (Philosophy of Whist, 1883) remarks that the long experience of adepts had led to the introduction of many improvements in detail since the time of Hoyle, but that nothing had been
