Abstract
"A sceane of uttmost vanity" The Spectacle of Gambling in Late Stuart Culture JAMES E. EVANS Restoration diarist John Evelyn describes a memorable occasion at court on Twelfth Night, 6 January 1662: This evening (according to costóme) his Majestie opned the Réveils of that night, by throwing the Dice himselfe, in the Privy Chamber, where was a table set on purpose, & lost his 100 pounds: the yeare before he won 150 pounds: The Ladys also plaied very deepe: I came away when the Duke of Ormond had won about 1000 pounds & left them still at passage, Cards &c: at other Tables, both there and at the Groome-porters, observing the wiccked folly vanity & monstrous excesse of Passion amongst some loosers, & sorry I am that such a wretched Custome as play to that excesse should be countenanc'd in a Court, which ought to be an example of Virtue to the rest of the kingdome.1 According to The History of Gambling in England, "Play at Court was lawful, and encouraged" between Christmas and Epiphany: "When the King felt disposed, and it was his pleasure to play, it was the etiquette and custom to announce to the company, that 'His Majesty was out'; on which intimation all Court ceremony and restraint were set aside, and the sport commenced." Restored along with the Stuart monarchy, this custom was not limited to 2/EVANS holidays. A few years after the Restoration the French ambassador wrote about the court of Charles II: "There is a ball and a comedy every other day; the rest of the days are spent at play."3 High stakes gambling, which became one of the ubiquitous recreations of late seventeenth-century England at palaces, the groom-porter's, and private houses, epitomized the Carolean carnival that followed the Cromwellian lent. "At no time probably in the history of England," asserts Cyril Hughes Hartmann, "has the passion for gambling reached a greater height or spread over a larger section of society" than during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.4 Nowhere did the rage for gambling remain more evident than at court, where the King's mistresses and numerous others wagered enormous sums. In January 1685, near the end of Charles's reign, Evelyn once again depicts the gamblers: "I saw this evening such a sceane of profuse gaming, and luxurious dallying & prophaneness, the King in the middst of his 3 concubines, as I had never before." Among those present, Evelyn adds, he was "witnesse" of the King, sitting & toying with his Concubines ... whilst about 20 of the greate Courtiers & other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2000 in Gold before them, upon which two Gent: that were with me made reflexions with astonishment, it being a sceane of uttmost vanity; and surely as they thought would never have an End: six days after was all in the dust.5 The rhetoric of Evelyn's diary frames these occasions in such language as "observing the wiccked folly," "a sceane of profuse gaming," and "a sceane of uttmost vanity." However, between the two passages, separated by more than twenty years, there is an important shift in perspective. On the first evening, the persons observed retain their power; depicted in active verbs, the King opens the gambling, the ladies play, the Duke wins. During the second visit the spectator assumes greater authority over those observed. He sees the King "in the middst" and the courtiers "at Basset." Given additional force, at the time of writing, by his knowledge of the reign's imminent end, Evelyn emphasizes the observers' "astonishment" and moral outrage rather than lamenting the negative influence of the court. Using Evelyn's texts as a starting point, this essay examines a similar shift in the discourse of gambling—from a social spectacle representing the uneasy privilege of the aristocracy during the Restoration to a spectacle recreated in comic plays and periodicals after the Revolution of 1688. Early in this period, for example, Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester (1674), "A Sceane of Uttmost Vanity": The Spectacle of Gambling / 3 a manual describing "all manner of usual and most Gentile Games either on CARDS or DICE...
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.