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Bezique is a card game. The name bezique is applied to the occurrence in one hand of the knave of diamonds and queen of spades. The game may be played by two, three or four people with two, three or four decks of cards from which have been removed cards with from two to six pips.
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Gong Zhu is a Chinese version of the card game hearts, in which the queen of spades is the penalty card known as the pig.
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Hearts (Black Maria) is a trick taking card game in which the object is to avoid winning tricks containing hearts; the queen of spades is even more to be avoided. The game first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century and is now popular in various forms in many countries.
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Mustamaija is a Finnish card game generally thought of as a children's game, though the tactical play is sufficiently interesting that adults can also enjoy playing it. The name translates roughly as 'Black Maria', but its only relationship to the British game of Black Maria (a variant of Hearts) , is that in both games the aim is to avoid being given the queen of spades.
Mustamaija is not a trick taking game like hearts - it is a beating game of the multiple attack type. There is no winner, only a loser of each hand. The loser is the player who is left holding the mustamaija (spade queen) when all the other players have run out of cards.
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The standard English deck of cards consists of four suits of cards: diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades; each suit containing pip cards ranging in value from one (ace) to ten, plus three court cards: knave (jack), queen, and king.
The Spanish deck of playing cards comprised four suits: pinks (diamonds); rabbits (clubs); roses (hearts) and columbines (spades) which later evolved into dineros (diamonds); bastos (clubs); copas (hearts) and espados (spades).
The French deck comprised four suits: carreaux (artisans, equivalent to diamonds); trefle (clover, equivalent to clubs); choeur (ecclesiastics, equivalent to hearts) and pique (pikemen, equivalent to spades).
From the French and Spanish playing card decks evolved the British form, with spades being represented by the French form of a pike with an evolution of the Spanish name (swords); clubs being the French trefoil clover and hearts being a corruption of the French choeur into coeur.
The court cards are so named on account of their heraldic dress. The king of clubs originally represented the arms of the pope; the king of spades the King of France; the king of diamonds the King of Spain and the king of hearts the King of England. In the French deck the king of spades is called David; the king of clubs Alexander; the king of diamonds Caesar and the king of hearts is called Charles - representing the Jewish, Greek, Roman and Frankish empires.
The queens or dames are Argine - the queen of hearts is Juno, the queen of clubs Judith, the queen of diamonds Rachel and the queen of spades is Pallas representing royalty, fortitude, piety and wisdom. The four queens were originally depicted in likeness of Marie d'Anjou, the queen of Charles VII; Isabeau, the queen mother; Agnes Sorel, the king's mistress; and Joan of Arc, the dame of war.
Playing cards are typically manufactured from pasteboard, but sometimes from plastic which is much more har wearing, and are produced in a number of shapes and sizes. The standard deck or bridge deck consists of rectangular cards 3.5 inches by 2.25 inches with rounded corners. The poker deck is slightly larger, 3.5 inches by 2.375 inches. Patience decks are roughly half the size of a standard deck and are designed for sole play.
In ancient times, the best playing cards were known as Mogul cards, because the wrapper they were contained within carried a picture of the Great Mogul. Playing cards with a speck, mark or imperfection were known as Harrys.
Formerly in Britain playing cards were taxed. In 1862 a government duty of 3d was levied on each pack. Previously it was 1 shilling, and in the earlier part of the 19th century century 2 shillings and 6d. Manufacturers in Britain formerly had to pay an annual license of twenty shillings.
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Queen of spades is British slang for a woman who has been widowed more than once.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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