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.
at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2021.

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 A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. The term originally applied to a small or portable book containing information useful for its owner, but the ''Oxford Engl ...

". The section on "games and sports" described in detail for the first time in English "the Noble Spanish Game of

Ombre Ombre (, pronounced "omber") or l'Hombre is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game for three players and "the most successful card game ever invented." Its history began in Spain around the end of the 16th century as a four-pe ...

", "the Ingenious Game of

Piquet Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but ...

", "the Gentile Game of Cribbidge" and "the Princely Game of

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

e". Its format is as a book of quotations not unlike earlier well known books such as ''Politeuphuia'' (1597), '' Palladis Tamia'' (1598) '' Wit's Treasury'' (1598), ''

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

'' (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 John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and '' The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and c ...

's ''

The Duchess of Malfi ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, ...

'' and '' The White Devil'', but the most cited were Sir Fulke Greville's ''Alaham'' and ''Mustapha''. In the same work, Cotgrave published a cipher key by Cardinal Richelieu. 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