Medieval WLBOTTers enjoy a game of Whist prior to the Roast Rutabaga Feast
Come join Elder G and me as we begin this wistful journey!
Whist – the Nuts and Bolts
Whist is the father to Spades and Bridge. It also embraced the “ace high”.
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game that was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play.
Rules A standard 52-card pack is used and the game is played clockwise. By the time of Whist, the ace had been promoted to top honour, so the cards are ranked: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Whist is played by four players who draw cards to decide partnerships and the dealer. The two lowest cards play together, and choose their seats facing each other. Highest card is dealer and second highest is his partner.
Shuffling and dealing Dealer chooses a pack, which their side will deal throughout, and passes it to the player on their left to be shuffled. Dealer then picks up the pack, and may give it a last shuffle, before passing to the player on their right to cut. Dealer then completes the cut and deals 13 cards to each player one at a time, dealing their last card face up to set trumps.
Play The play at Whist is the simplest form of triumph and has been used by many other games. Eldest hand, the player on dealer’s left, leads to the first trick. Dealer picks up the trump card when it is their turn to play. Players must follow suit if they can, and if they can’t follow suit may discard or play a trump. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, unless trumps are played to the trick, when the highest trump wins.
Before the next trick starts, a player may ask to review the cards from the last trick. The winner of the trick leads to the next trick.
Scoring A point is scored for each odd trick (trick in excess of six) won by a pair.
Literary references In the opening chapter of Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the characters contrast the solemnity of the funeral ceremony with the desire to escape and play whist.
My favorite aspect of whist is how the play is randomized:
the trump suit is random (no matter what cards you are dealt, you must yield to the trump suit)
the dealer is randomly selected each match
the partners are randomly selected. If you want to win, you must be simpatico with everyone at your table.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Ah, those delightful russians. In a nutshell, this is Tolstoy’s story of the illness and death of an empty, hollow, petty man, and the contempt his friends hold for him.
“Here, read it,” he said to Fyodor Vassilievich, handing him the paper still smelling of fresh ink.
Inside a black border was printed: “It is with profound grief that Praskovya Fyodorovna Golovin informs relations and acquaintances of the passing away of her beloved husband, Ivan Ilyich Golovin, member of the Court of Law, which took place on the 4th of February of this year
1882. The funeral will take place on Friday at 1 p.m.”
Apart from the reflections this death called up in each of them about the transfers and possible changes at work that might result from it, the very fact of the death of a close acquaintance. called up in all those who heard of it, as always, a feeling of joy that it was he who was dead and not!
“You see, he’s dead, and I’m not,” each of them thought or felt. Close acquaintances, Ivan Ilyich’s so-called friends, involuntarily thought as well that it would now be necessary for them to fulfill the very boring obligations of decency and go to the funeral service and to the widow on a visit of condolence. […] Pyotr Ivanovich let the ladies go ahead of him and slowly followed them up the stairs. Schwartz did not start down, but remained upstairs. Pyotr Ivanovich understood why: he obviously wanted to arrange where to play vint that evening. The ladies went on upstairs to the widow, and Schwartz, with seriously compressed, firm lips and a playful glance, moved his eyebrows to show Pyotr Ivanovich to the right, to the dead man’s room.
[after briefly staying in the room where the wake was being held…] Pyotr Ivanovich understood that he, Schwartz, was above it all and would not succumb to depressing impressions. His look alone said: the incident of the funeral service for Ivan Ilyich could in no way serve as a sufficient motive for considering the order of the session disrupted, that is, that nothing could prevent them from cracking a newly unsealed deck of cards that same evening, while a valet set up four as yet unlit candles; in general, there were no grounds for supposing that this incident could prevent us from spending that evening pleasantly. He even said so in a whisper to the passing Pyotr Ivanovich, suggesting that they get together for a game at Fyodor Vassi Hevich’s. But PyotrIvanovich was evidently not fated to play vint[1] that evening.
[…] Ivan Ilyich’s life came together very pleasantly in this new town as well: the society that cast aspersions at the governor was close-knit and agreeable; his salary was higher, and no little pleasure was added to his life by whist, which Ivan Ilyich began to play, having a capacity for playing cards cheerfully, for calculating quickly and subtly, so that generally he always came out the winner. […] The main thing was that Ivan Ilyich had his work. The whole interest of life was concentrated for him in the world of his work. And this interest absorbed him. The consciousness of his power, the possibility of destroying any man he wanted to destroy, his importance, even externally, as he entered the court or met with subordinates, his success before his superiors and subordinates, and, above all, his skill in pleading cases, which he was aware of-all this was a cause for joy, and, along with friends, dinners, and whist, filled his life. So that generally the life of Ivan Ilyich continued to go as he thought it should go: pleasantly and decently.
[1] Even to this day, the russian vibe is not for the betterment of mankind, but screwing others so that you come out on top, even if the “top” is a smoldering pile of rubble.
Excerpts from The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. Images by Elder G.
Phileas Fogg
Jules Verne uses whist playing to describe Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days:
"His only pastime was reading the papers and playing whist. He frequently won at this quiet game, so very appropriate to his nature."
- Wikipedia
Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg.
Fogg is a man of independent means and is a gentleman who is “exact”, as in he has a perfect routine and life right down to the number of steps he walks to the temperature of his shaving water. Having fired a servant for providing him with shaving water at a slightly incorrect temperature, he hires Jean Passepartout as a valet. Fogg makes a wager of £20,000 (£2.3 million in 2023) with members of London’s Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days or fewer.
While in India, Fogg saves a widowed princess, Aouda, from sati during her husband’s funeral and she accompanies Fogg for the rest of his journey after initial plans to take her to an uncle failed as the uncle had moved. Together, the trio have numerous exciting adventures
