Life in Elizabethan England Next


Knave of Clubs, 1567

Games

Drinking may be done in taverns, ale houses, or tippling houses.

Gambling is gaming (game-ing).

Playing at dice is dicing.

At the table

A popular dice game is Hazard, played rather like Craps.

The word for backgammon is tables. The "ace-deuce" version is called the Corsican game.

You can lose a good deal of money in a tabling den.

An easy card game is Landsknecht. Two much harder ones are Primero and Taroccho (ta-ro'-koh), played with tarot cards.

Other sport

A whore house or stew is also a bawdy house or a leaping house or a shugging den.

A drab is a woman of low character or a prostitute. A drabber is someone who spends too much time with such women.

A punk is a whore who may work in a stew. Working girls in Southwark in the domain of the Bishop of Winchester are also called Winchester geese.

Playing Chess

Note: Scottish money is worth about one-quarter of the English in the same denominations. That is, a Scottish pound is worth about five English shillings. Irish money is worth even less, and they may want to pay you in nails. (Be wary when gaming with either.)


::  Filling the Time
::  More Things To Do
::  Still More Things To Do
::  The Hunt is Up

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25 March 2008 mps