[Typesetting note: the "C" below is a chapter marker. If you haven't
gotten one of these yet, don't sweat it; just leave the "C" out of the
title...]

C The Kindes of Games At Which People Play

Your Excellencies, in this letter I will begin my teching of games,
by describyng the manie sorts of games that are plaied, and have been
played, in the landes of whych I know. While no mann knows every game
plaied by men, a good gamester wyll know a great variety of games.

Fyrst, know that there are two principal categories of plaies:
Active Games and Quiet Games. In Active Games, the players exert
their bodies as well as their minds, whereas in Quiet Games, there
is less motion of the bodie.

There are manie sorts of Active Games. Fyrst, there are Games of
Running and Chasing, such as Barley Break and Blind Manns Bluff.
In these, the Plaiers run around within an open area, trying to
catch eche other. In some of these, one plaies against the others
(as in Blind Mann's Bluff) whilst in others, teams will vie with
eche other to win some goal (as in Barres): And while some will
saye that these plaies are only for children, I have seen men of
twoscore play at them with great enjoyment.

Next, there are games in which players throw objects at some mark,
or roll bowls or other objects at a goal: and in these, the
purpose is to end close to the goal. These may involve throwing
objects of some weight (as in Horseshoes or Quoits), or smaller
thyngs such as coins or knives: also, the object at whych they
throw may be planted solidly in the ground, or it may be itself
thrown fyrst (as in some kynds of Bowling). These games may also
be plaied in small wayes inside, when the weather in inclement,
with small games such as skittle-pins or Trole Madam. And like
these are games in whych one uses skill to meet a goal other than
neering a stake, such as shovelboard, in which one tryes to put
coins in manie places on a board, not meerly one.

There are yet more active sports, in whych men do contest with
eche other. Some are peaceful uses of the arts of warre, such as
archery, or jousting, or the duello. And some wyll say that these
are not games, yet I say that many do pursue them for recreation,
and they are as much playes as anie other. And note that children
wyll often play at these combats in the small, tilting on riverboats
or with small swords and bucklers. And there are other sports whych
are not of warre, but styll active, such as swimmyng, wrestling, and
boxing.

There are playes that make use of balles, and sometimes of mallets
with whych to hit the balles. Some of thes games are plaied with the
ball upon the ground, such as pall-mall, and some with it in the ayr,
as in stool-ball. And note that the fine game of Billiards is also of
this kynde, but is plaied upon a table, with smaller balles and
mallets.

And there are manie games in which sport is made of animals, and they
are made to harm one another, as in cock-fighting and bear-bating. But
as the people of Carolingia are wel-known to be fond of animals, and
to dislike plaies which doo them harm, I wyll speke no more of these.

Know that the Quiet Plaies are as numerous and as interesting as the
Active. And these too can divyde into manie sorts.

First, there is the noble Plaie of Chesse. This has two forms that are
most common, the older game and the newer, and know that the newer
game is much like the old, save that the Queen and Byshop travell
further and present greater danger to one's opponent. Yet the older
game is the more wydely known, plaid in many landes since the time of
Xerxes. And there are both the long and short assizes, and manie
landes have their own formes of Chesse. The Almayn play with more
pieces, the Greke upon a round table, and many doo play it with
dyce, wyshing the game to have a measure of chanse in it. And there
are few landes in which they doo not play Chesse.

Less esteemed, but neerly so common are the games within the Tables.
And these are all games of two plaiers, upon a board of four and
twenty points, and the games are all to be plaid with dyce. The
most commyn of these is Irish (known in some landes as Nard), and
allmost all know of this game. But there are manie other games, as
Dubblets and Tick-Tack, which are plaid much in Taverns, and whych
play faster than Irish.

There are the games of Merelles, as Nyne or Twelve Men Morris: and
these too are plaid in many landes.

There are manie other games with fewer kyndes of pieces than Chesse,
but at whych pieces still capture eche other. These may be games as
Draughts or Alquerque, in which pieces jump over one another to
capture, or Tablut, in whych pieces capture by surrounding their
enemie.

There is the game of Rythmomachy, known as the Game of the Philosophers.
And this is a game in whych all the men have numbers upon them, and the
gamesters doo use these numbers to capture eache other, and the capture
is more complex than meerly jumping or landing upon the enemies men.
This game is most esteemed among scholars, and those who play it well
are accounted wise indeed.

The last sort of games plaid on bordes are games in whych the gamesters
doo race against eche other to reach a goal: and the most common of
these is the Game of the Goose.

Men play also with dyce outside of the Tables: and som of these games
involve som skill, but most are games of pure luck, and he who rolls
the best wins. And the most common of these is Hazard, but there are
manie plaies beside: and these games are very popular with the folk
of Spaine.

There are games whych require no boards or objects, but meerly the
players' words. And these are games of Riddles and Rhymes, in whych
the gamesters seek to foole one another, or to create difficultie in
following one another.

Last but most commyn in these days are games with the Cards. And these
have manie sorts as well. Many games require the gamesters to try to
take Tricks, which are one card from eche opponent (as in Ruff and
Honors, or Trump), but manie others do not play for these kyndes of
tricks (as Noddy). Some games are for partners to play together (as
Ruff and Honors), but in most the gamesters eche play alone. Some
games are mainely of luck (as One-and-Thirty), but most require skill
and thought of eche plaier. And some games are plaied with the Tarots,
whych have a suit that is allwayes Trump, and whych have a large deck
of 78 cardes: others are played with deckes much smaller, taking
cardes from the normal deck, to make decks of 32 or 36 cardes. And
the suites on the cardes are different for eche Kingdom, but plaiers
at Cardes can be found any where.

In my next letter, I wyll begin to tell you of certain games, and
the rules therein. I remain, Justin duC, this .xxii. day of October,
in the yeere of Our Lorde 1596.

Endnotes
--------

I'll keep the notes brief this time, since the letter itself was long.
Suffice it to say that tracts like this tend to have a prefatory
chapter, categorizing the subject matter at hand, generally not very
cleanly. (It isn't always quite as random as the above, but often
was.)

I should acknowledge clearly that the period Justin probably wouldn't
have been able to know of all the games listed. In particular, most
of the more interesting chess variants were largely dead well before
his time, and the Chess of the Mad Queen (that is, our modern chess)
was beginning to shove the last remaining variants out the door.

More details on the individual games will be given in the letters on
those specific games and classes of games. Feel free to ask questions,
though; I love to discuss the subject.

Finally, I'd like to acknowledge Baron Salamallah the Corpulent; I
used his book "Medieval Games" as a source of ideas for this article.
I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in period gaming --
although it occasionally drives me a little mad due to its lack of
footnotes, it is unquestionably the best primer on the subject,
covering it in far more breadth (if not always depth) than anything
else ever written on the topic.