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Noddy-Crd-Gme-art - 12/26/19

"The Game of Noddy" by Lady Gwir ferch John. 16th C. card game, predecessor to cribbage.

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The Game of Noddy

by Lady Gwir ferch John

<a href= http://gambiter.com/img/Elizabethan_card_players.JPG">I

Image: Gambler

Setting and Persona

It’s 1550. Around London, men of various classes are bent over a board and a deck of cards playing Noddy. This fast-paced game was portable and accessible to many, and with gambling being common among all the classes, might have been played at any level of society. (Lambert, Thomas)

With its easily transportable format, one could imagine it played anywhere from a country house, to a city pub, to the home of a merchant.

Research Question

As an avid cribbage player, I was curious about cribbage’s origins and discovered it was the descendant of the game of Noddy. (Cribbage Corner) Most of the information about the basic history and rules was straightforward and documented. However, the more I learned, the more questions I had about the mechanics of play – how would an actual game have looked to an observer?

· What was the timeframe of Noddy’s popularity?

· What would the cards have looked like? Where would they have come from?

· How did they keep score

History

It is difficult to pin down the exact date Noddy was developed, but an early reference, from 1589 gives some timeframe to its popularity. The reference is in the book, An Almond for a Parrat, attributed to Thomas Nashe, “Let not me take you at noddy anie more, least I present you to the parish for a gamster.” The Oxford English Dictionary cites this as the first use found. (Gambiter)

The name Noddy comes from the term for a simpleton or a fool. This term dates back to approximately 1530 which helps narrow our timeline to somewhere between 1530 and 1589.

In the 17th century, it was eventually replaced by its successor, cribbage and became less common as cribbage grew in popularity. Noddy is mostly extinct now, although there is some evidence it is still played in areas of Lancashire. (Historical Thesaurus) Evidence suggests a resurgence as an Android app following the medieval rules was released in April 2018. (Google Play)

Noddy is a reference to the importance of the Jack in the game. In early card games, there was no Joker. The Jack was referred to by a term meaning fool, Knave. In the play of the game, the Knave Noddy is key in earning extra points. (Johnston)

Playing Noddy

An early description of the play of Noddy is found in the Academy of Armory (1688) by Randle Holme (72-73):

2 or 4 may play at it, 61 being up. Each perſon hath 3 cards and one turned up to which he makes as many caſts as he can. They are thus merkett, Flat back or King of Spads is ſix, Countenance or Queen of Hearts, four, Knave of the trump, 2, Knave of Hearts 5, a pair 4, pair Riall 12, a pair Taunt 24. Every 15 as you can make is 2, and every 25 is 2. In playing down the cards you have the ſame advantage of 15, 25, paires &c. and the next to 31 hath 1 caſt, if he make 31, there is 2 caſts.

While it is an interesting reference, and often quoted, it is also a good example of some discrepancy in the details of play. One item up for debate is whether play goes to 61 or 31, 31 seeming to be the most common. This was also the only reference I located which mentioned the Flat back, King of Spads, Countenance, and the Knave of Hearts.

Noddy is played with a deck of cards and a scorekeeping device, likely a pegging board. The game is played with two people or with four people as teams of two. The object is to reach the score of 31 on the pegging board by gaining points in the hand dealt and through playing each hand.

Each hand is played as follows: (Game Report, Johnston)

1) The cards are cut and whoever cuts the lowest card deals first

2) Dealer deals 3 cards to each player

3) The remaining cards are placed face down and the top card is turned over, the trump. If it is a Knave Noddy, the non-dealer pegs (scores) two points.

4) Each player finds the points in their hand - the three cards and the trump card, pegs it and announces their score without revealing their hand. Cards can be used more than once for scoring. A further explanation of how points are earned follows in the next section.

5) Now the hand commences.

a. The non-dealer places the first card and states its value.

b. The dealer follows with a card and states the value of the two added together.

c. Play continues in this way, gradually adding to the total count until the count reaches 31 or as close as possible without going over. If a player does not have any cards low enough to stay under or reach 31, they announce this and the other player can continue playing cards until he can no longer do so without going over 31.

6) This cycle is repeated with successive hands until one player pegs at least 31 on their scoring board and wins the game.

Scoring

Scoring is one area where cribbage has remained mostly consistent with its Noddy predecessor. Points are earned as follows:

Knave Noddy

· Having a Knave in your hand whose suit matches the trump card – 1 point

· A Knave pulled up as the trump card means the non-dealer receives 2 points

Hand Count or During Play

· Fifteen, any combination of cards totaling 15 – 2 points

· Pairs

o Pair – 2 points

o Pair royal, 3 of a kind – 6 points

o Double pair royal, 4 of a kind – 12 points

· Runs

o Run of 3

o Run of 4

· Flushes

o Three or more cards of the same suit – 1 point per constituent card

For example, the hand pictured here (with the J, 5, and 4 dealt and the 6 pulled as the trump card) would be worth 12 points. Note that cards have been used multiple times in creating combinations worth points.

· Fifteen – J/5, 6/5/4 – 2 sets of 15 equaling 4 points

· Pairs – none

· Runs – 4,5,6 – 3 points

· Flush – 4 Spades – 4 points

· Knave Noddy – 1 point

During Play Only

· Twenty-five, any combination of 3 or more cards totaling 25 during play – 1 point per constituent card.

· Thirty-one, any combination of 4 or more cards totaling 31 during play – 1 point per constituent card.

· Run of 5 or more – 1 point per constituent card

Players play as many rounds as needed to reach 31, using both the score in their hand and during play.

Keeping Score

References to the specific method of scorekeeping in Noddy are mixed. There are references both to using counters and to using a board.

The idea of counters appealed to me initially as my study of the commonality of counters/markers would mean they would be readily at hand. However, I struggled with finding information on how the calculations would happen. One theory I pursued was that of counting cloths similar to the tables used for calculations in trade. (Cadw Wales, 5) I pursued this line of reasoning until I discovered that calculating in this form ended popularly before or near 1500. Although it is reasonable that some may have continued the method, the timeline I discovered of 1530-1600 makes it seem unlikely.

A pegging board is more likely when one takes into account that Cribbage, the game that evolved from and eventually replaced Noddy uses a pegging board. I was skeptical because there seems to be none left in existence, but realized that a Noddy board would have easily become a cribbage board without alteration so the transition would have removed the Noddy reference. Based on cribbage boards, one could guess it could be made from any material ranging from scrap wood to ivory.

The board would have had enough holes for players to track to 31 with two pegs. The pegs “jump” each other each time a score is added. One sketch of a Noddy board by Francis Willoughby in the 1660s, shown to the left, indicates the holes approaching each other as arches that meet at the middle for the winning score. (Online Guide)

In considering the references to counters and the history of gambling, my next stage of inquiry would be to see if there is a connection between the use of counters/markers and the gambling practice.

Sketch of a Noddy board by Francis Willoughby in the 1660s

(Image: Online Guide)

The Cards

My initial plan in this research was to create a sample deck of cards, assuming that one would have had to create their own. I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to learn that cards would have likely been purchased in this time frame, and fairly inexpensively.

Playing cards were commonly accessible in the 1500s for purchase for about iid. As quoted in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society: With Communications Made to the Society, Volume 5, “mentioned by Roger Ascham in Towophilus published in 1545,-“he said a payre of cards cost not past iid.” (Proceedings)

Fragment of uncut sheet containing red knaves

(Image: The World of Playing Cards)

Further research revealed that iid is the symbol for 2 pence. (Secara) To put that in context, an average carpenter of the period made 12 pence a day and a laborer made 8 pence. (van Zanden)

Cards in England during the 15th and 16th centuries would have been exported from the Rouen region of France, which lay across the English Channel. (Wintle) They were French suited (there were also German-suited and Latin-suited cards at the time) and what we are familiar with today – hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds. In the 16th century, when Noddy was played, the cards were printed using copper plate engraving, replacing the more expensive wood blocking and hand coloring. (Encyclopedia.com)

Because as a citizen of the 16th century, I could have likely purchased a set, for this research, I purchased a reproduction set from England based on the Rouen style, with a set of face cards by Pierre Marechal.

3. Sixteenth century French-suited playing cards

Reproduction cards obtained by the author from

The Historic Games Shop

Summary and Conclusions

With popularity at its height in the mid-to-late 1500s and into the 1600s, Noddy’s rules are well documented and easy to locate. It’s the culture around it that became fascinating in writing this paper. Some main conclusions I made were:

· Noddy would have been accessible to most levels of society because of its minimal, inexpensive or easily made equipment.

· Noddy would have been socially acceptable in all levels of society because of the popularity of gambling.

· Scoring would have been accomplished with a board similar to our modern-day cribbage board.

· Cards would have likely been purchased and common to find in the area, imported from France.

Personal Experiences with this Research

While its documented life was short, the game of Noddy has become a new favorite for me due to its speed and different strategy compared to cribbage. Once I had established the baseline of history and rules, the process of research led me down many unexpected roads.

First, I was exposed to research sources I never would have known before. I found myself joining SCA Facebook game groups for guidance, which exposed me to a whole new side of the SCA I didn’t know existed. I became obsessed with obtaining a copy of the Academy of Armory as the earliest source I could locate and opened an account with the Yale Beinecke library to access an image of the page I needed. I started downloading images of books that also contained early references and perusing the pages looking for the answers I needed.

I found myself following different trails just from curiosity – what was the real value of 2 pence and was a deck of cards truly accessible to the average person? I spent much time investigating the history of cards just out of curiosity. I also spent a lot of time trying to solve the question of how one would keep score with counters.

The imagination involved was also powerful. I found myself trying to picture where I would get wood to create a pegboard (scrap wood seemed the answer) and what the process would be. And trying to picture two people huddled over a board and cards and what that would look like and where that would happen.

This has been an amazing introduction to the SCA Arts & Sciences craft and I am excited to learn more.

Bibliography

Cadw Wales. “Games”. cadw.gov.wales/docs/cadw/publications/Games.pdf. Accessed August 2, 2018.

Cribbage Corner: Cribbage has a home. “Origins of Cribbage”. cribbagecorner.com/facts/origins. Accessed August 2, 2018

Encyclopedia.com. “Playing Cards” https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/games/games-and-hobbies/playing-cards. Accessed August 2, 2018.

Gambiter. “Noddy – card game”. http://gambiter.com/cards/Noddy_card_game.html. Accessed August 2, 2018.

“Game Report: Noddy and Early Cribbage”. jducoeur.org/game-hist/game-recon-noddy.html. Original Sources: Francis Willughby's Volume of Plaies, c1665. 1st attest, Noddy: Almond for Parrat, 1589 (OED); Cribbage: Braithwait's English Gentleman, 1630 (OED). Accessed August 2, 2018.

Google Play. “Noddy”. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.camoslug.noddy&hl=en_US. Accessed August 2, 2018.

The Historic Games Shop. “The Medieval Counting Board.” http://www.thehistoricgamesshop.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_3709017-The-Medieval-Counting-Board.html">www.thehistoricgamesshop.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_3709017-The-Medieval-Counting-Board.html. Accessed August 2, 2018.

The Historic Games Shop. “Sixteenth Century French-suited Playing Cards. www.thehistoricgamesshop.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_3000483-3-Sixteenth-century-Frenchsuited-playing-cards.html. Accessed August 2, 2018.

The Historical Thesaurus of English. ht.ac.uk/category/?type=search&qsearch=noddy&page=1#id=117732. Accessed Accessed August 2, 2018.

Holme, Randle. The Academy of Armory (1688, Second Edition, Book III, Chapter XVI) London. Printed for the Korburghe Club. 1905.

Johnston, Jeff. Hubpages: Games, Toys, and Hobbies. “How to Play Noddy”. hubpages.com/games-hobbies/how-to-play-noddy. Accessed August 2, 2018.

Lambert, Tim. A World History Encyclopedia. “Life In 16th Century England”. www.localhistories.org/tudor.html. Accessed August 2, 2018.

The Online Guide to Traditional Games. “Cribbage”. www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Cribbage.htm. Accessed August 2, 2018.

Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society: With Communications Made to the Society, Volume 5. London. George Bell and Sons, printed for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. 1907.

Secara, Maggie Pierce. Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge. “Money and Coinage”. http://www.elizabethan.org/compendium/6.html. Accessed August 2, 2018.

Thomas, Melita. History Extra: The official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC World Histories Magazine. “Chess, gambling and cards: Tudor games and indoor pastimes”. www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/chess-gambling-and-cards-tudor-games-and-indoor-pastimes/. Accessed August 2, 2018.

van Zanden, Jan Luiten. International Institute of Social History. “Wages and the cost of living in Southern England (London) 1450-1700”. http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/dover.php. Accessed August 2, 2018.

Wintle, Simon. The World of Playing Cards. “French Playing Cards”. http://www.wopc.co.uk/france/index. Accessed August 2, 2018.

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Copyright 2018 by Kris John. <gwir.sca at gmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.