On the Englyshe Game of Gleeke
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As You are well-travailed, and have seen muche of the world, you will
knowe that a game may change from lande to lande. It is wise for any
noble to have knowledge of the wayes of eche country hee sees, lest he
find himself in argument from some trifling misunderstanding of how
his opponents plaie with the Cardes.

I write to you today about the game of Gleeke, which is most popular
in Englande. While somewhat like our owne Glic, it is in manie wayes
a different game, one of skill and muche monie. It is a fine game for
the gamester of wit and nerve, but not for those easily afrighted.

The plaie is for three gamesters; and first these three must agree
upon a stake. This is no smal matter, for one may easily trade
hundreds of stakes in an evening. He who plaies Gleeke for Crowns
or Sou is brave or foolyshe, or a cozener who knows he shal win,
for one may loose a month's wage or more in a sitting. I urge you
to play at this game for light stakes, as I would not have you
suddenly impoverished. Here I shal describe the game with a penny
stake, small enough to make a pleasant plaie.

Discard the deuces and treys from your deck, leaving four and
forty Cardes; lift for the deal, giving the deal to hee who lifts
lowest. The Dealer will shuffle, and another cut; the Dealer then
deals twelve to eche plaier, four at a time, leaving eight in the
middle. Turn the top carde of those left; the sute of this carde
shal be the Trump Sute. The Foure of Trump is called Tiddie, and
when anie player first shews Tiddie in the game, his opponents pay
him tuppence eche; and if Tiddie is the carde turned for Trump,
it belongs to the Dealer, and his opponents pay him tuppence then.

The seven cardes left down are called the Stock; and the plaiers
now bid for the Stock. The Eldest must begin, bidding 13 pence for
the Stock; go around, eche raising the bid by a penny or dropping
out, until only one bid is left; hee who has won the Stock must
pay his bid to his opponents, giving the odd penny (if there be
one) to hee who stayed longest. Hee then discards seven of his
twelve, then takes in the Stock to his hand. A goode Stock may be
a great boon in the game, but a weak one may help little, or hinder
one's plaie.

Now the gamesters vie for the ruff, which is what we call the ronfle;
and you must score your ruff as I sayed for Piquet, marking Ten for
court cardes, Eleven for Aces, and Pippe cardes as their number of
Pippes, all within a single sute. You doo not say your score, however;
you merely know it yourself, to know your strength for vying. And note
that Foure Aces are alwaies the highest Ruff, even if another should
have a hande with a higher score.

Eche player places tuppence in the pot to begin. Hee who is fyrst
may vie or pass; those after may see, revie or pass. To vie or revie,
toss tuppence into the pot. Hee who sees the vie places an equal
amount into the pot, and maye continue, and may revie should hee
choose. Hee who passes after the fyrst vie loses, but hee may pass
at the beginning without loss, if none have vyed yet.

When playe returns to hee who last vyed, and there is no revie, the
ruff is done; all the gamesters declare their Ruffs, and hee who has
the greatest shews those cardes, and takes the pot; and if only one
gamester is left, then hee need not shew his cardes, but may take
the pot. A gamester of skill may win the Ruff even with a poor hand,
if his Opponents belive him to have a strong one, and pass out.

If none vie for the Ruff, then none win the pot, and it is held as
a double stake for the next hande.

Now the plaiers declare their Murnivals and Gleekes, a Murnival being
four cardes of like rank, a Gleeke being three. A Gleeke of Aces is
four pence from eche Opponent, a Gleeke of Kings three, Queens two,
and Knaves one; other cardes have no value here. And a Murnival is
worth twice a Gleeke, so that a Murnival of Aces is .viii. etc.

And now the gamesters play their cardes in twelve tricks. The sute
turned at the start is Trump; you must follow sute if you can, but
may Trump if not. And know that winning anie trick is good, but
winning the Honours is better.

When the tricks have been plaied, eche plaier scores his cardes.
Hee scores one for eche carde; that is, three for eche trick won.
And hee scores more for Honours. The Ace of Trump is called
Tib, and scores fifteen; Knave of Trump is Tom, who scores nine;
and King and Queen of Trump eche score three. If the Trump Carde
(that is, that turned up at the start) is an Honour, the Dealer
may score it as suche, but it does not count otherwise.

And the total score for all plaiers is sixty and six, being thirty six
for cardes, and thirty for Honours. Hee who has twenty two in his hand
thus is even, and payes nothing further; hee who has less than twenty
two payes one to the pot for eche less; and hee who has more takes one
from the pot for eche less.

I must now take my leave for some while, to travail south to
Orleans for a time, but shal return ere long. Yr ob'dient,
Justin duC, January 22 in the yeere of Our Lorde 1597.

Endnotes
--------

If the description at the beginning sounds odd, remember that
Justin is French, and is writing from Calais. Hence, this Gleeke
is technically a foreign game.

Gleek is, as described, probably a relative of the French game
Glic (and through it, the German Pochspiel); however, the resemblance
is pretty distant. For more information about Pochspiel and Glic, see
Thierry Depaulis' series on the subject in The Playing Card (the
Journal of the International Playing Card Society), volume XIX.

As mentioned, this is a relatively expensive game; it is quite common
to burn through a hundred stakes at a sitting if the cards aren't with
you. I really do recommend penny stakes.

This reconstruction is based on the description in Cotgrave's _Wit's
Interpreter_, with some disambiguation from Willughby's _Volume of
Plaies_. It is also described in Cotton's _Compleat Gamester_, but
that mostly plagiarizes Cotgrave, so I used the earlier source.  It
differs in a few details from some more common reconstructions; I'm
pretty sure my interpretation is more accurate.

If it isn't clear in the text, Tiddie is just an odd little
extra, and appears to have been optional in many places. It seems
to be a consolation prize: it's a trump, but the lowest trump
(since twos and threes are out of the deck). So, when you show
it, you get tuppence from each opponent.

The business of mandatory bidding for the Stock looks a little
odd, but seems to be right; it is described in all the sources.
Note that the sources differ on whether bidding must start at
12 or 13 pence; it doesn't seem to make a huge difference.

If you know Poker at all, vying for the Ruff is usefully compared
to that. Each player is claiming to have the strongest hand. The
primary sources are quite explicit that bluffing is common, and
often successful. The use of a pot for keeping track of the bets
in the Ruff is my own, and may well be incorrect -- as far as I
can tell, players may have just tracked it in their heads. It's a
lot easier with a pot, though.

There are some variations in the scoring, particularly in the later
sources, which add Tumbler and Towser (the 5 and 6 of Trump) to the
stew. However, these are not mentioned in the earlier sources, and
screw up the math, so I have chosen to ignore them. Note that the
math works out quite neatly if all the Honours are in play; there
seems to be an unstated assumption that no one would be so daft as
to discard an Honour.

The scoring system described is slightly up to dispute. An alternate
interpretation says that you pay or collect the difference from 22
points to *each* opponent; this results in exactly thrice the amount
of money changing hands. But I believe that the interpretation
described is a bit more likely.

				-- Justin