John Cotgrave (1611 - ?) was an English anthologist whose works included ''Wit's Interpreter'', notable for containing the earliest detailed descriptions of card games in English.
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Works

The following works by John Cotgrave are recorded: * ''The Covrt Mercurie'' (1644). Journal. London: Tho. Forrest. * ''Le Mercure Anglois'' (1644–1648). Journal. London: Robert White (in French). * ''The English treasury of wit and language'' (1655) London: Humphrey Moseley. * ''Wits interpreter, the English Parnassvs'', 1st edn. (1655) London: N. Brooke. * ''The Muses Mistresse, or A Store-House of Rich Fancies'' (1660), London. * ''Wits interpreter, the English Parnassvs'', 2nd edn. (1662) London: N. Brook. * ''Wits interpreter, the English Parnassvs'', 3rd edn. (1671) London: N. Brook.

''Wit's Interpreter''

''Wit's Interpreter'' has been described as a "sort of Idler's Vademecum". The section on "games and sports" described in detail for the first time in English "the Noble Spanish Game of Ombre", "the Ingenious Game of Piquet", "the Gentile Game of

Cribbidge Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbag ...

" and "the Princely Game of Chesse". Its format is as a book of quotations not unlike earlier well known books such as ''Politeuphuia'' (1597), '' Palladis Tamia'' (1598) ''

Wit's Treasury ''Palladis Tamia: Wits Treasury; Being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth'' is a 1598 book written by the minister Francis Meres. It is important in English literary history as the first critical account of the poems and early plays of William ...

'' (1598), '' Belvedere'' (1600) and ''Wits Labyrinth'' (1648). As a genre, these works comprise a mass of quotations grouped by subjects such as beauty or sin. Cotgrave is unusual, however, in that it is written almost entirely in poetic form. Cotgrave's work contains "memorable extracts from about 250 plays" quoting frequently from John Webster's '' The Duchess of Malfi'' and ''

The White Devil ''The White Devil'' (full original title: ''The White Divel; or, The Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Ursini, Duke of Brachiano. With The Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona the famous Venetian Curtizan'') is a tragedy by English playwright John We ...

'', but the most cited were

Sir Fulke Greville Sir Fulke Greville (1536 – 15 November 1606) of Beauchamp Court near Alcester in Warwickshire, was an English gentleman. Origins He was born in 1536, the son of Sir Fulke Greville (d. 10 November 1559) by his wife Elizabeth Willoughby, 3rd Bar ...

's ''Alaham'' and ''Mustapha''. In the same work, Cotgrave published a cipher key by

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

. In successive editions, more information on the manufacture of secret inks was described.Daybell & Gordon (2016), p. 83.

References

External links

Sources

* Bentley, Gerald Eades (1943). ''John Cotgrave's "English Treasury of Wit and Language" and the Elizabethan Drama''. University of N. Carolina. * Daybell, James and Andrew Gordon (2016). ''Cultures of Correspondence in Early Modern Britain''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. * Wymer, Rowland (1995). ''Webster and Ford''. Basingstoke: Macmillan. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotgrave, John 17th-century English writers Card game book writers 1611 births