Ballroom games at balls. Ballroom dancing game
Games were an indispensable part of secular living rooms. Parlor games, called petit-jeux, created an atmosphere of ease and humor. The players demonstrated quick reactions, the ability to improvise, and sometimes rhyme.
The most common games are “rhymes”, “mail”, “biography”, “public opinion”, “friends”, “letter”, as well as charades and puns, tableaux vivants.
The game was also popular. There was another variation of this game called "Cupid's Jokes."
Young nobles were fascinated by more active entertainment with an element of pranks and light tomfoolery - “musical chairs”, “feather”, forfeits.
One of the most favorite games was theatrical charades. Participants were divided into two groups: “actors” and “spectators”. The actors conceived and acted out a riddle on stage, and the audience guessed it.
For example, three small performances were created from the word chu-gesture-satchel, each of which depicted a separate part of the word. The audience tried to guess what each scene could mean; if this failed, the actors were asked to imagine the whole word, and then the fourth performance was played. Charades brought the joy of acting, gave the opportunity to invent costumes, decorations, and find use not only of one’s talents and abilities, but also of antiques stored in heavy chests and cabinets.
Forfeits are a parlor game, the meaning of which is to perform so-called penalty tasks for forfeits (players who drew a card).
The nobles wrote down various tasks on paper, and then passed the hat with them in a circle, forcing the ladies and gentlemen to pull out a random forfeit and carry it out. This game was also revered at hussar parties.
There is another variation of this game - one of the players takes on the role of manager. Approaching each of the players, he offers a series of questions or comments that must be answered, but with the condition not to use the words “yes” and “no” in your answers. The one who utters any of these words pays the manager a “fanta,” that is, gives him one of his things: a ring, a watch, etc. When all the forfeits have been collected, the manager sits down and, taking one of them, asks : “Whose forfeit?” - "My!" — the owner of the thing answers. “What should we do with it?” - “Whatever you order.” When taking it out, the collector says: whose forfeit is taken out, he must be, for example, a mirror, or an oracle, or funny, etc. When all the forfeits have been taken out, then the guilty ones one by one go around all the players and everyone offers what he is ordered to be. The one appointed to be the mirror goes around everyone and invites them to look into it; the oracle offers to predict fate; the funny one tries to make everyone laugh. Sometimes, when redeeming forfeits, it was necessary to compose a whole story, which had to contain several obligatory words, or to compare each of the participants in the game with a flower and explain the similarities. After the order is executed, the forfeit is returned according to its ownership; the same thing is repeated with other forfeits with a variety of orders.
Mail
Forfeits are performed as follows: for example, a forfeit for one young man is a ring. This phantom is assigned to be a mirror. He stands in the middle of the room, all the players come up to him and stand face to face and begin to do whatever they want, for example, comb their hair, fix something on themselves. The mirror should do the same thing that the players do. After that, he is given a forfeit. The game of mail can end at the request of the players.
Home productions
Appropriate gestures and body movements are best learned in front of a mirror, but care must be taken to ensure there are not “too many” or “too few.”
When choosing a play, if you cannot rely on yourself, it is best to seek advice from an experienced person. You should avoid plays in which one role is the main one, while the rest are only secondary, because this can easily lead to envy and ill will and trouble for the mistress of the house. The most suitable plays are small vaudevilles, of which you can find many.
Put living pictures so that they fully reproduce their artistic samples is very difficult and almost impossible without preparation.
If the idea of staging live paintings arose during the evening and everything is done in haste, then the audience will not be strict about the lack of costumes, lighting, etc.; on the contrary, they will serve as entertainment and the subject of pleasant conversations.
If the paintings are timed to coincide with a well-known, appointed day, then the requirements both for the performers and for the production are different.
When paintings are staged on the occasion of some family celebration, care must be taken that their subject matter suits the celebration.
In addition to choosing a picture, a lot of work goes into placing the performers and getting the right lighting...
Several rehearsals are also necessary, and the last one is done in costume and in full lighting whenever possible.
It is quite natural that when staging live paintings, each participant must unquestioningly obey the orders of the director, since he alone can judge whether the pose is correct and whether the living painting requires any changes.
There is another stage entertainment, which perhaps gives more pleasure than theatrical plays and living pictures, namely - riddles in faces. At first glance, it seems that performing such charades is much easier than staging theatrical plays. But this is completely wrong. In a theatrical play, the author provides a completely ready-made frame in which the performers only have to give the roles a certain character. The writer has already prepared the conversations, the plot and the effects of the denouement. When posing riddles, all this must be created from very poor indications contained in the chosen word.
The riddle in the faces represents an improvisation in which each scene means a syllable of a known word. The last scene should express this entire word. Those who are about to pose a riddle secretly agree on what word the improvisation they are undertaking should mean. The appeal of the riddle in faces lies not in the difficulty of guessing the word, but in the greater or lesser amusingness and whimsicality of the staged scenes.
The formulation of riddles can be different. The funniest part is the one in which everything is improvised, quickly performed without special preparations, costumes or pretensions. This, however, requires practice in this kind of fun, the gift of resourcefulness in answers and wit.
Another way is to find scenes from different authors that are capable of expressing the syllables of the chosen word. This makes it possible to insert one or two pieces of music or a witty conversation in verse or prose. This requires talent and necessarily several rehearsals, which are very entertaining for the participants; This makes for some very interesting performances. There are few things more pleasant to keep guests occupied.
Let's see how you can arrange such a cute game.
Let's deal with the characters and costumes first. Among close acquaintances there are likely to be several people who are inclined to take part in fun, gifted with liveliness and inspired by fun. They are very good for posing riddles. Sometimes it is quite difficult to find participants for such fun. Ladies prefer theatrical performances, where it is more convenient to show a pretty toilet.
Decorations for setting riddles are usually not needed. Just a screen is enough.
As for the costumes, the question here is to increase the entertainment of the performance. There are many benefits that can be gained from old dresses. You'll have to sacrifice a few wardrobe items. If you still have the dresses or hats of your old aunt or grandmother, that’s wonderful. Add to this several pieces of red, white, green and yellow material.
Someone must be chosen as a costume designer, who must ensure that the characters are content with the existing material.
A little wire, horsehair and flax are enough to make magnificent beards of young men, robbers, tyrants, noble fathers, hermits, etc., as well as wigs. The two ends of the wire are bent and hooked over the ears, just like the arches of glasses. The wire passes in an arc above the mouth, and a little horsehair, even pulled out of a mattress, is attached to it with a thin wire, in the form of sideburns, long or short mustaches, etc., completely changing the face. They use flax, silk or cotton wool in the same way. Wigs can be made in the same way.
You can also get everything from costume designers and hairdressers. Let us only note that preparing homemade supplies gives future actors many pleasant hours, especially in bad weather.
Others have a special talent for creating cute costumes and hairstyles from ordinary materials. In one minute they will roll a large turban around your head and stick a large feather on the side, then they will throw on a wide skirt, draw the front panel back and attach it to the belt to turn it into trousers, girdle it with a red scarf, hang an old saber, tuck a pistol into the belt, dress you up into a colorful vest, they will attach a huge beard and in a quarter of an hour they will turn you into a ferocious pasha.
Riddles in faces can be played out in a close circle of acquaintances, because condescension is required from the audience, without which the actors will feel constrained. Caricatures of celebrities, parodies of their works, bizarre inventions - everything is permissible here.
There are no rules for this kind of game. Therefore, we can advise you not to forget only three things:
1) remain silent while someone else is speaking
2) turn your back to the public as little as possible
3) take care to keep the intermissions between three or four scenes short,
constituting one riddle so that the audience does not get bored, cool down and does not forget the content of the beginning of the performance.
The troupe must elect from among itself a director or manager, who is obliged to arrange the scenes before they begin, so that everyone knows what he will have to present and where to take his place.
Note that for riddles in faces, costumes are less important than conversations. In this regard, everything should run smoothly, lively and witty.
It happens that among very young people there is someone who is capable of taking on the female roles of soubrette, ingenue and even first mistress. This can only increase the funniness of the performance.
Still, the most common game in living rooms was cards.
In some living rooms they played incredibly exciting and completely harmless games. In the 70s of the 19th century, the venerable Elizaveta Petrovna Makulina was in the service of Empress Maria Alexandrovna and, among other things, was in charge of the Empress’s wardrobe and diamonds; her apartment was located in the Winter Palace building, above the Commandant’s entrance and overlooked Palace Square almost opposite the Alexander Column . On Wednesdays, jourfixes were held here - ladies' receptions.
These were fashionable evenings where the golden youth of St. Petersburg gathered. In addition to dancing and other entertainment, there was always playing in Elizaveta Petrovna’s living room.
“Her weekly parties on Wednesdays usually attracted, in addition to her family... quite a few acquaintances: artists, painters and golden youth - officers of the guards regiments... Only occasionally, and then at the end of the evening, in the hostess’s cozy boudoir, separated by a fancy drapery from her bedroom, a small but serious party was being drawn up - a small one at a time for preference.”
We stayed up past midnight and set the table at about 12 o'clock. Then they played preference, drew, and got into charades and charades.
The young people, separately, a parte, entertained themselves by playing “cab-pulls and crosses,” a simple game in which there were many funny situations. According to the rules, the number of players was unlimited. Circles were drawn on the table with chalk from the center to the edge. Each of the players had to place a ring, token, coin or any small object on the first circle from the edge.
“The cards were dealt by the one who opened the smallest one, which was considered a trump card. Each of those present took turns pulling a card at random from the neighbor on the right, and when it was the dealer’s turn, the cards were revealed, and whoever had the smallest trump card moved forward one circle, dealt cards to everyone except himself, and did not take part in the game until until the cards again revealed a substitute. The main and almost the most interesting and significant interest of the game was speaking on familiar terms with those with whom they usually spoke on familiar terms, and vice versa.
Everyone tried to catch on to this, force them to move forward one lap, and whoever got to the center first would give a forfeit. The jury selected according to the notes awarded forfeits, which were played out at the end of the game.”
One day, two young artists had the chance to divide the table in half and depict a woman’s head. Both of them coped with their task with extraordinary talent, and everyone felt very sorry to erase such successful drawings and it was a shame that it did not occur to anyone to offer pen, pencil and paper. Sometimes the jury appointed poetry readings, showing card trick, musical impromptu or solving a puzzle. This game caused a lot of noise and laughter.
E. Keller "High Life in the Interiors of Capital Mansions."
"Russian games for all ages"
“The life of a landowner is a curious page of history... No matter how much I study ancient estates, I can never feel tired and satiated,” wrote the famous researcher of the Russian noble estate Yu.I. at the beginning of the 20th century. Shamurin.
The culmination of the art of receiving guests was a ball - a special event in the life of a person in the 19th century. This is both a “bride fair”, and therefore a reason for concern not only for the young lady, but also for her parents, and a “place for confessions”, and an opportunity to express yourself, to take the first steps towards a successful career.
“The ball is life in miniature,” wrote one of Lermontov’s contemporaries, “with all its seductions, intrigues, oddities, intrigues, with everything that is sweet and bitter in it.”
Traditionally, the ball season did not last long: from Christmas until Lent. But often balls were given both in summer and autumn to celebrate some event, for example, the arrival of an important person. The organization of the ball was associated with “major preparations” and the anticipation of it in a house adapted to the bliss of a quiet family life often became “a misfortune for a whole week” due to the “washing, polishing and cleaning” of all the rooms. In addition to these troubles, the hostess had to take care of gentlemen “very in advance” for the invited ladies and young ladies.
The organization of balls until the middle of the 19th century was subject to a fairly strict schedule; the system of dances, as well as their sequence, were strictly defined. Not only men's shoes and trousers, but also ladies' toilets and their hairstyles did not allow excessive freedom, especially in the presence of noble persons. An inopportunely sewn bow or a misplaced flower could ruin the “successful future” of a young girl forever.
It is no coincidence that the ironic and insightful Pechorin was convinced that “a woman at a ball with her outfit makes up something whole, inseparable, special...”.
G.G. Gagarin. "Ball at Princess Baryatinskaya" (Lermontov in the center)
The ball began with a solemn polonaise. This dance introduced all the guests, gave the opportunity to look at the ladies, their hairstyles and toilets, and the host and hostess walked as the first couple. For its unhurried rhythm and simplicity of movements, it was defined as a “walking conversation.” But for many ladies it turned into a very reluctant test - it was not at all easy to walk in front of those present “with grace and nobility,” touching the gentleman’s hand only with the tips of his fingers.
The second dance was often a quadrille, which even allowed “some liberties.” One of Lermontov’s contemporaries, a certain Wurchholz, recalled this dance: “Ten or twelve couples tied themselves with handkerchiefs, and each of those dancing, taking turns, walking in front, invented new figures. The ladies especially danced with great enthusiasm. When it was their turn, they made their figures not only in the hall itself, but also moved from it to other rooms, some were taken to the garden, to another floor of the house, and even to the attic. In a word, they were not inferior to one another. During all these transitions, one musician with a violin had to constantly jump in front and suffered to the extreme.”
The games and variations that were part of the quadrille made it possible to show what the dancers were capable of - it was not without reason that in the manual for this dance the author of the manual indicated possible options for steps (chasse, croisé, glissé, pirouettes, etc.) that could make the ball a real adventure, because that its participants did not always know how to behave.
The everyday writer of the “old life” Pylyaev M.I. described a “funny adventure” that happened in an ecosaise (a type of quadrille): “Finally, in order to fully enjoy this dance, someone came up with the idea that in the first knee a lady with a whip would chase her a gentleman to strike, and in the second, the pursued and the pursuer triumphantly make a promenade, throwing the whip to the next couple.”
After the polonaise and quadrille, it was time for the waltz. It came into fashion at the beginning of the 19th century and immediately became so popular that already in 1825 the following was published in the “Rules for Noble Public Dances”: “It would be unnecessary to describe how the waltz is generally danced, since there is almost no one who would not dance it himself or see how it is danced.” Young people were especially infatuated with him, while Old Believers grumbled that he was “indecent and too free,” seeing a young, half-dressed young lady in the arms of a man.
Decency could be maintained by strictly following the following recommendations written in the “Rules...”: “... do not dance too close to each other, which would offend decency; not too far away, which could interfere with turning, ...neither the lady nor the gentleman should turn their heads away from each other, ...the eyes should be neither too raised nor lowered, but pleasantly open. Moreover, keep your legs extended, dance on your toes, avoiding the slightest shuffling, round your arms, of which the lady’s left should be deftly placed on the gentleman’s shoulder, and the gentleman’s right should embrace the lady from the waist...”
“A musical poem in sweet forms”, “a dance of lovers”, “monotonous and crazy, like the whirlwind of a young life” - such epithets were awarded by contemporaries to Lermontov’s waltz, the too fast and airy steps of which, in the opinion of foreigners, the Europeans could not stand and therefore considered unsurpassed masters it is performed only by Russians.
The culmination of the ball was the mazurka - the favorite dance of military youth. It was in it that the dancer’s skill was revealed in all its brilliance and therefore the mazurka was looked at as a solo performance, while the rest became spectators appreciating the skill of the dancers.
The ball ended with a cotillion. This is a kind of quadrille danced to the tune of a waltz. Dance is a game, the most relaxed and playful. It included “figures with jokes, and giving cards, knots made from handkerchiefs, and deceiving and bouncing off one another in a dance, and jumping over a handkerchief, and, most attractive of all, the gentleman clapping his hands after the waltzing couple, so that they would stop dance,” wrote dance master L. Petrovsky, explaining why many young people wanted to go to the ball: “Only to dance the cotillion.”
The tasks before the dance masters were not easy, and the first thing that the teacher and the not always obedient spoiled students strived for was the “correct portrayal of a person’s appearance” in dance.
The “image” in the “Rules for Noble and Public Dances” was described as follows: “The head should not be raised too high, which would show a proud person who does not want to look at others, nor lowered, which shows humiliation of oneself, and should be kept straight and even. The eyes, serving as the mirror of the soul, should be modestly open, meaning pleasant gaiety, the mouth should not be open, which shows a satirical or bad temper, and the lips should be arranged with a pleasant smile, without showing teeth.”
There were no less concerns with representatives of the fair sex: “First, you need to keep your body and head straight without coercion and establish yourself on the lower back, the neck movement should be free and easy, the look should be cheerful and affectionate, the shoulders should be lowered and pulled back, the hands should be near body and leaning forward a little so that there is almost no distance between them and the body, place the hands one on top of the other...”
The ball was a very, very expensive event. Pushkin’s remark to Father Eugene Onegin confirms the above: “...he gave three balls every year and finally squandered it.” Lighting also required a lot of expense. Hundreds of wax candles, which were quite expensive, were supposed to burn throughout the evening in the hall and other rooms. The maintenance of a home orchestra was also expensive, and its presence was considered one of the most important elements at the ball. Dancing under the piano was not considered a ball.
Most often, estates simply held “dances” to entertain guests.
The melodies of polonaise, mazurkas, waltzes, quadrilles and in Tarkhany sounded - “when the neighbors came.” Lermontov’s second cousin recalled this.
I remember one of my dance evenings A.V. Shchepkina: “When dances were held, the music influenced, enlivening. The dancing couples, elegantly dressed, seemed so beautiful, and spectators of guests gathered around the dancers. It was light in the large hall; the dancing began before dark. I, a ten-year-old girl, liked it when older people invited me to a square dance - adults were pleased to please the child and not be embarrassed to engage such a lady in conversation...”
In those days, in addition to fashionable dances, people willingly danced Grosvater and Ecossaise. Couples dancing the Grosvater (translated from German - German dance) walked through the whole house with a crane gait with laughter and noise, walking to the accelerated tempo of the music... And starting into the ecosaise, they hurried to line up in two rows and couple after couple flew through the middle of the hall. .. These were festive evenings, and all the visitors became lively and playful, pleased with the hospitality and treats of the owner.”
Materials of the exhibition "Pictures of Russian life in the first half of the 19th century." Lithographs, engravings, fashionable pictures captured by foreign artists: G. Engelman, D.A. Atkinson, G. Arney.
Zhmurki
List of materials used
Introduction to the table of contents
Any organizer of a ball or dance evening sooner or later wonders what to do with guests who want to take a break from dancing, or those who do not know the program very well and may get bored. Small talk is not given to everyone with the same ease with which it entertained our ancestors, brought up in the traditions of easy salon chatter (or, conversely, complex court intrigues). It happens that from trying to come up with a topic for conversation, to find where to put their hands, and at the same time maintain a kind expression on their face, guests get no less tired, or even more, than from the fastest galliards or polkas.
Obviously, the same questions occupied the owners in the 19th and 17th centuries, and at any other time, with the only difference being that the culture of spending time together was alive and did not have to be modeled or recreated. However, it is the difference in general education, habits and skills that creates difficulties for us when trying to take advantage of the “experience of our ancestors.” I will cite only two broadly famous examples— joint music playing and cotillion. Playing musical instruments, accompanying each other in the performance of arias, romances or popular songs, joint performance of one or another work for the entertainment of the public or for one’s own pleasure was a natural activity for any educated person from the Middle Ages until the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. How many people can do this today? Alas. Lack of knowledge is the first reason for the difficulties that arise when recreating ballroom “life.” The second is the norms of behavior that have changed greatly since ancient and not very ancient times, the blurred boundaries of etiquette and the permissibility of many things that were previously prohibited. The piquancy, attractiveness and secret meaning of many ballroom games are often completely incomprehensible to modern people. That is why many (almost all) figures of the cotillion, which was a wonderful entertainment for guests of the ball in the 19th century, are, out of habit, at best puzzling. Get a firecracker, take out a folk costume from it, put it on in a special room and, to the sounds of lively music, depict a “folk” dance - what is this?... And, finally, the last difficulty - the further into the depths of centuries, the poorer our ideas about entertainment of the nobility. The 19th century has been studied almost thoroughly, but what about the 15th century? What to offer the guest historical ball Renaissance?
Board for board games, Musée National du Moyen Age, France, late 15th century.
Whatever you say, you can’t do without board games or their analogues. They were popular at all times; they were used to relieve boredom by the ancient Egyptians, Celts, Romans, and Crusaders. Cards, dice, backgammon, chess and checkers come to mind almost immediately, and absolutely rightly so. But if we try to dance exactly the same way as our ancestors danced, shouldn't we try to play exactly by the same rules that they played by? In this short article I will give the rules of some games (oh, not all!) that were popular in the XIV-XVII centuries and which are easy to organize anywhere and at any time.
As the experience of using this material at KST events shows, almost all game descriptions are incomplete or do not fully explain all the situations that arise during the game. Before using this or that game in a wide circle, I would advise you to first try it out on those who want it, find out all the pitfalls and make appropriate amendments and additions to the rules so that the guests of the ball get the pleasure they deserve, and do not waste time on quarrels and mutual displeasure. We will be grateful for any information about the improvements made and, for our part, over time we will also make appropriate clarifications.
Card games to contents
Neither the time nor the exact place of the origin of playing cards is known. The ancient Chinese dictionary of Ching Tsze Tung, which came into fashion in Europe in 1678, says that cards were invented in China in 1120. The four suits symbolized the seasons, and the 52 cards symbolized the number of weeks in the year. There is also information that the Chinese and Japanese, even before the advent of paper playing cards, already played with cards, like cards, made of ivory or wood with drawn figures, and in medieval Japan there were original playing cards from mussel shells. They were decorated with drawings depicting flowers, landscapes, and everyday scenes. With the help of such cards it was possible to play “solitaire” - shells were laid out on the table and “doubles” were looked for among them. In the 13th century, maps became known in India and Egypt.
There are several versions regarding the appearance of maps in Europe. According to one of them, the beginning of playing cards dates back to the 15th century and coincides with the appearance of gypsies on European territory. According to another, the general knowledge of cards, according to the Jesuit Menestrier, is attributed to the 14th century, when one little-known painter named Gikomin Gringoner invented cards for the entertainment of the insane king of France Charles VI (1368-1422), who went down in history under the name Charles the Mad. The cards were supposedly the only means that calmed the royal patient between bouts of madness. And during the reign of Charles VII (1422-1461) they were improved and then received their current names.
Nevertheless, this is still a hypothesis that is not confirmed by other data, and some chroniclers attribute the origin of the cards to the 13th century. This assumption has a historical basis, since during the reign of Saint Louis in 1254, a decree was issued that prohibited card playing in France under penalty of whipping. An Italian manuscript from 1299 also talks about the prohibition of playing cards. In 1260, a special workshop of manufacturers and traders of playing cards was founded in Germany. The Order of Calatrava banned card playing in Spain in 1331, and this ban was repeated in 1387 by John I, King of Castile. The existence of cards in Castile under King Alfonso XI is evidenced by his decree in 1332 prohibiting card games. It is also believed that playing cards were brought to Europe by the Saracens. In the chronicle of one Italian city for 1379 it says: “...a card game was introduced into Viterbo, originating from the country of the Saracens and called by them naib.” The Muslims of the East, the Arabs, were called Saracens. However, it is unlikely that human figures were drawn on those maps, as they are now, since the law of Mohammed prohibits the faithful from making such images. Perhaps the birthplace of maps with modern designs is Italy. Their oldest copy, engraved on copper, dates back to 1485.
Cards modern look did not immediately gain universal recognition. IN different countries for a long time they had their own distinctive features. Instead of suits, they depicted bowls, coins, swords, and sticks.
| Hand-painted Arabic maps from the late 15th - early 16th centuries. (coins, cups, sticks and swords) |
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| Change card suits in different card systems (from left to right: Arabic, Spanish, Italian, German and French) |
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There were special cards in Germany. In addition to the king, queen and jack, there was a knight. Full deck cards in Germany contained not 52, but 64 cards, among which were trump cards: the devil, death, etc. The Germans’ suits also had some differences from the generally accepted (French) ones. Hearts had a modern outline, peaks (vini) were drawn in the form of green leaves on bushes and were called green. Tambourines were depicted in the form of bells and were called bells. Acorns (clubs) indicate possible Polish influence in the adoption of German cards that depicted clubs as acorns. Modern designs of suits, adopted in France, were borrowed from oriental ornamentalism. These drawings come from ancient times and have religious and magical significance.
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| Modern traditional playing cards | |||
For a better understanding, let me explain the terms that are used when describing games:
- Bribe, trick, (trick - tracing paper from English:), set- one laying out of cards (one player lays out a card, the second lays out, etc., until someone wins a trick);
- Round, delivery- a sequence of tricks from the first to the last, until all the cards in hand have been played (unlike ours, say, “Fool”, earlier during the game cards were often not taken from the remaining pack continuously; first one round was played, then points were counted or the cards got in the way, and only after that the next ones were taken);
- A game- a sequence of rounds until one of the players wins, determined by the rules of the game.
Unknown artist, "Card Players".
Painting from the archives of the Shakespeare Library.
All fours to contents
Game for two players and one standard deck of 52 cards. One of the players is the dealer.The cards are shuffled and each player is given 6 cards. The players look at the cards, then the dealer removes the top card from the inverted deck - this will be the trump card. The second player has the right to agree or disagree with this.
- If he agrees, then the game begins.
- If he agrees, but the top card is a jack, then the game begins, but the dealer receives 1 point.
- If he does not agree, the dealer has the right to still designate this card as a trump card or also refuse it. If he nominates it as a trump card against the wishes of the second player, the second player receives 1 point. If the trump card is not recognized, the top cards from the deck are removed until a card of a different suit than the one rejected appears. This card becomes a trump card regardless of the wishes of the players.
The player who was not the dealer starts the game. Each next trick starts with the player who won the previous one. The highest card is an ace, the lowest is a two. The highest card wins the trick. Players must play cards of the same suit as long as possible. If a player does not have a card of the starting suit (the one played first by the beginning round), he can play with a trump card. If there is no trump card, any other one.
Let me explain with an example: player A plays the seven of spades. Player B only has the three of spades. He must post it. Player A wins this deal and takes the cards for himself (puts them nearby, but does not remove them far away). The trick is over. Player A plays the next card.
Player A posts again peak card- ten. Player B no longer has a peak, but has a trump card. He lays out a trump card, any trump card beats any other, so player B wins this deal and takes the cards for himself. The trick is over. Player B plays the next card.
Player B plays, say, the queen of hearts. Player A has neither hearts nor trump cards. Then he places the eight of clubs and thus transfers the move back to player B. He must deal with the eight of clubs according to original rules- answer with any club card, trump card, or a card of a different suit if there are no clubs or trump cards - and so on until someone wins the trick.
The round continues until the players' hands run out of the initially 6 cards issued. After this, everyone lays out the cards they took during the round and points are calculated according to the following rules:
- Points for identifying trump (see above);
- 1 point for using the highest trump card for the round (that is, the highest trump card out of the 12 cards dealt);
- 1 point for using the lowest trump per round;
- 1 point for the highest number of card points.
Card points are calculated as follows:
- 4 points for each ace
- 3 points for each king
- 2 points for each queen
- 1 point for each jack
- 10 points for every ten
Please note that points are counted not only for broken cards, but for all cards set aside as a result of the round. Cards from two to nine do not bring points.
After one round (one deal) is played, the next one is played and the dealers change. The first player to score 49 points wins.
Alouette to contents
Option for 2 players
Two people are playing. 48 card deck (regular 52 card deck minus tens).
The cards are shuffled, the dealer deals each player 9 cards face down. The remaining cards are set aside. There are no trump cards. The highest card is the king, the lowest is the ace (one).
One set consists of players laying out one card each. The player who plays the highest card (disregarding suit) wins. If the cards are equal, they are set aside and the next trick is played. The player who wins it wins both sets - the previous one and this one. If there is a tie in the last set, the winner is the player who won the first set in that round. The round ends when players play the last of 9 cards. The one who wins more sets wins the round. After this, the cards are shuffled again and dealt. The first player to win 12 rounds wins the game.
Option for 4 players
The rules are the same, two teams play. Players of the same team sit diagonally from each other. The first set begins with the player sitting to the left of the dealer. One set consists of players laying out one card each. The player who plays the highest card (disregarding suit) wins. If the cards are equal, they are set aside and the next trick is played. The player who wins it wins both sets - the previous one and this one. If there is a tie in the last set, the winner is the player who won the first set in that round. The round ends when players play the last of 9 cards. The team whose player wins more sets wins the round. After this, the cards are shuffled again and dealt. The dealer is the player sitting to the left of the first dealer. The first team to win 12 rounds wins.
Âs Nas to contents
A Persian card game for 5 people and a special deck of 25 cards of five suits (5 cards of each suit), which was probably the ancestor of some types of poker.
The highest card is "Âs" (ace, ace), or "Shîr vaKhurshíd", which gives the game its name - the lion and the sun. The other four suits are Padishah (king), also called Shâh or Pishâ, Bibi (queen), Sarbâs (soldier), and Lakkat (dancer). Sometimes the last card looked different and was called “Kouli” - hunter. Within the same “suit” the cards did not differ; the suits were painted in different colors to facilitate identification.
If there is no special deck for this game, you can make it from a regular deck: set aside five cards of each suit (one (Ace), two, three, four, five) as four suits, and take as the fifth suit, for example, kings each suit and joker (for example, take the king of hearts for one, the king of clubs for two, the king of diamonds for three, the king of spades for four, and the joker for five).
The cards are shuffled and each of the five players is given two cards. Each player, starting with the one sitting on the left hand of the dealer, makes a bet or misses a move. Each of those remaining in the game takes two more cards. They again make bets in the same order or skip a move (thus, both those who missed a move the first time and those who are skipping it now have already dropped out of the game). Each of the remaining players takes the fifth and final card. All remaining players reveal their cards and the one with the best set of cards takes all the bets.
Price of drawn cards (starting with the highest):
- Five cards of the same suit (five kings, five hearts, five diamonds, etc.);
- Five cards of the same value (five fives, five threes, etc.);
- Four cards of the same value;
- Three cards of one value and two of another ( full house);
- Three cards of the same value;
- Two cards of the same value.
Basset to contents
Gambling game for any number of players. Probably appeared in the middle of the 15th century in Italy.
The number of cards is determined by the number of participating players according to the following principle:
- 1 standard deck of 52 cards for 2-3 players and the dealer;
- 2 decks for 4-7 players and the dealer;
- 3 - 8-11 players and dealer;
- 4 - 12-15 and the dealer;
- 5 - 16-19 and the dealer, etc. For every four new players, one deck should be added.
The dealer deals 13 cards face up to each player. The dealer does not take the cards for himself. Each player then decides which of their cards they will bet on. He can bet on any card or on all cards at once. The size of the bet is not limited or regulated (but it may be limited by the rules of the gambling establishment or the mutual agreement of the players). The bet is made as follows: the player places money on the card he has chosen. Each player must place his bet before the dealer begins to reveal cards.
The dealer then reveals the top card, which was face down on the stack of remaining cards.
The dealer wins all bets placed on cards of the same value as the one shown.
The dealer then removes the next two cards. He wins all bets placed on cards of the same value as the first one removed card, and pays all bets placed on cards of the same value as the second card removed. After accounting for all wins and losses, he removes the next two cards, then the next, etc. according to the same scheme. Cards whose bets were lost are eliminated from the game.
If the player wins the bet, he can either remove the card from the game and take the winnings (original bet + dealer's payout), or keep both the card and the bet on it (in the original amount). To mark that the winning card and bet remain in play, the corner of the card is folded over. If the card remains in play and loses, the dealer takes back the original bet and the card is eliminated from the game.
If the card remains in play and wins a second time, the bet on it is paid seven times. A card that wins twice may be removed from the game or left with the original bet size. The second corner of the card is bent. If the card remains in play a second time and loses, the dealer takes back the original bet and the card is eliminated from the game.
If the card remains in play and wins a second time, the bet on it is paid 15 times the amount, etc. (the third win in a row is paid 30 times, the fourth - 60 times). A card that wins 4 times in a row is eliminated from the game.
School of Lucas van Leyden, "Card Players" (c. 1550/59)
Bone-ace to contents
The game is first mentioned in the dictionary " The World of Words" by Florio in 1611. Just like the previous one, she is considered one of Black Jack's ancestors. The game is designed for a standard 52-card deck and two to eight players.
The dealer deals each player 3 cards - the first two face down, the last face up, while all three cards are dealt at the same time, and not one to each player in a circle.
The game consists of two parts.
Part One (The Bone): The player whose face-up card gives large quantity points. The winnings - one coin or bets previously agreed upon by the participants - are paid by each player. If the number of points is equal, the player who is closest to the dealer in a clockwise direction wins. The highest value card is the Ace, and the Ace of Diamonds wins over all cards.
Part Two: All three cards are revealed and the player whose cards are worth the closest to 31 points (but not more than 31) wins.
In both parts, points are calculated as follows: ace - 11 points, king, queen, jack and ten - 10 points each, the remaining cards give the number of points according to their value. Winnings are also paid by all players.
Karnöffel to contents
German card game with a deck of 48 cards and four players.
Karnöffel is one of the oldest card games described. The earliest known version of her description dates back to 1426.
In the original, Karnöffel was played with a "German" deck of 48 cards, consisting of cards of values from two to ten, a jack (Untermann), a knight (Obermann) and a king (Köning). The lowest card is a two, the highest is a king. Although it is believed that early versions of the German deck may have included a one (ace), no actual evidence of this has been found. However, after the ace became the highest card in the French deck, the same thing happened with the two in the German one. In many later German games, the two is considered the highest card. Please also note that there is no Queen in the deck. It is curious that the Knight is often confused with the Lady, although the image depicted is a man.
Since a German deck is not easy to find these days, you can play a French one by removing the Aces from it and playing the Queens as Knights.
Karnöffel is played in pairs, with players on the same team positioned diagonally from each other.
The dealer deals each player five cards at a time (rather than one card at a time), the first card face down, the rest face down. The youngest of open cards(or, if a match, the first one shown) becomes the trump card for that round, after which the players take all five cards for themselves.
The player to the left of the dealer lays out a card. Each subsequent player clockwise also lays out one card; the sequence of suits, as in other games, does not matter. The player who plays the highest card (or highest trump) wins the hand, sets aside the cards, and begins the next hand. The game continues until all cards have been laid out. The team that wins the most hands out of five wins the set. The player who played the card first deals the cards in the next round. Teammates are not prohibited from consulting with each other.
Unlike most other card games, in this one some trump cards have “special properties” in a number of situations:
- Jack of trumps: beats all other cards;
- Trump Seven (Devil): beats all other cards except the jack, but only if it was played first. Otherwise it’s not the devil, but just a seven. It cannot be placed on the first hand;
- Trump Six (Pop): beats all cards except those mentioned above;
- Deuce of Trump (Kaiser): beats all cards except those mentioned above;
- Three of trumps: does not beat the king or any of the above cards
- Trump four: does not beat the king, queen or any of the above cards;
- Trump Five: Does not beat the King, Queen, Jack or any of the above cards.
Thirty and one to contents
The game dates back to at least 1440. This year Bernadine of Sienne mentioned this game in his anti-gambling instruction. The described game, popular in Spain and Ireland, is one of several games that existed in the 15th-17th centuries. and became the progenitors of modern Black Jack.
Any number of players can participate, starting from two. Each player is dealt three cards from standard deck of 52 cards, face down, starting with the player sitting to the left of the dealer.
After the deal, players look at their cards and each player, starting with the same player to the left of the dealer, can discard one card, placing it face up. Instead, he can take the top card from the remaining deck or the previous card from the discard pile. Players continue to discard one card in a circle and take new ones for themselves until one of them knocks twice on the table. After this, everyone except the knocker must discard one more card for the last time, and then the cards are revealed. The player who has three cards of the same suit in his hands, giving the closest number of points to 31 (but not more than 31), wins. The one who scores exactly 31 points wins automatically: he does not have to wait for someone else to knock on the table or knock himself. The cards are shuffled and the next rounds are played.
Points are calculated as follows: 11 points for an ace, 10 points each for a king, queen, jack and ten, 9 for a nine, 8 for an eight, etc. Three cards of the same rank, but of different colors, give 30.5 points.
Caravaggio, "The Sharpie" (c. 1596)
Dice games to contents
The game of dice has been popular throughout the world since early times. There were hundreds different options games. Here we will consider only those games that do not require anything from players except the six-sided dice that are the most popular in our time (and, of course, money to place bets).
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| Dice players, from a German manuscript, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. No. 3049 (1479) | Slam the lid to the table of contents
Such a brilliantly beautiful and nicely designed Ballroom Dancing game for girls! A simply magnificent task awaits the participants today. After all, the best and most talented couple, who dance unforgettably, have an incredibly important performance ahead of them. The heroes, of course, know a lot about dance costumes, but today they cannot concentrate on anything. They had never had the chance to perform in such a prestigious hall. Now they are asking for help, since each of them needs to have the most beautiful image, and besides, their two outfits will have to fit perfectly together. Well, so maybe someone will be able to provide them with quick and quality help? The sound and melody in the game are very easy to turn off. At the top of the game screen there are two special icons for this. There are many hairstyle options. We must not forget that it is necessary to select a hair shade and hairstyle for each of the characters of this beautiful game. So, why not make one of this talented bara have blonde hair and the other have darker hair? Or should they both be given the same hair color?
There will be something to puzzle over. This performance is so important that the dancers should not look ridiculous compared to the other couples. They will have to give people a great mood, but at the same time, each of the heroes of the game should shine, and not make them laugh. After all, this is not a circus and these beautiful dancers are not clowns at all. Their talent has a completely different coloring. The choice of dresses for girls is striking in its diversity, as well as great amount outfits for performances in the wardrobe of the hero of this glorious game. By the way, by dragging the beautiful scarlet rose to the bottom or up, after selecting a category, it is possible to view the full costume options. Everything in this game is extremely easy! All you need to control is a computer mouse. Game screen everything flickers, making the entire entertainment process even more enjoyable.
Everyone knows that the outfits worn by real dancers look very beautiful, and even if we're talking about When it comes to ballroom dancing, the costumes not only have a lot of interesting elements and look amazing, but they are also very expensive. Thanks to this game, it is possible to admire all this splendor, completely free of charge. Dresses for the heroine of the game will definitely please every little girl. Just when choosing the right outfit and shoes for this queen, you must also not forget about the handsome young man from the game of ballroom dancing. Wow, what a huge wardrobe for performances these two talented individuals have! There’s just a ton of clothes, even if you can swim in the shine of these expensive stones. By clicking on the button that says “Done,” you have the opportunity to admire the result and even change the background against which the star dancing couple will move in the glare of the spotlights.
Publications in the Traditions section
Games for adult companies
In the secular salons of the 19th century, people not only read poetry, talked about economics and politics, but also spent time playing games. Kultura.RF tells what leisure activities were popular in times when there was no television, no Internet, or even electricity.
Card games
In the 19th century, cards were very popular, but were considered not the most decent entertainment. They were called “the disgrace of drawing rooms,” “corruption of morals,” and “a brake on enlightenment.” Culturologist Yuri Lotman noted that gambling met with “strong moral condemnation”, and at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century it was formally prohibited as immoral. At the historian Nikolai Karamzin’s evenings, for example, they never played cards. However, in many other parlors, card games flourished. Decembrist Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin recalled that the owners of the salons often cheated during games: they discussed gestures in advance and “pulled” a hundred rubles from the players.
Books on social etiquette, for example “Rules of Social Life and Etiquette: Good Form” by Yuriev and Vladimirsky, warned young people against gaming addiction, which led to debt and bankruptcy: “We have seen many examples when this sad passion was the cause of the death of an entire family; when it, this passion, finally killed all moral principles in a person".
But despite this, cards were played everywhere: “...everyone: ladies, girls, and boys, preferring the green field to dancing. This is of course a sad phenomenon, but what to do: “live with wolves, howl like a wolf”, stated the compilers of the collection of social manners.
In society, it was customary to distinguish between gambling card games, in which chance dominated, and those where winning depended on the ingenuity and attentiveness of the players.
Yuri Lotman, in a book about the history of Russian culture, wrote that in Russia in the 19th century the most popular games there were pharaoh and stosse (shtoss), in which victory was determined by chance. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s brother Andrei recalled that his brother’s card parties always ended gambling in shtoss.
The popularity of this card game found its reflection in Russian literature. Stoss was played by Hermann and Chekalinsky in “The Queen of Spades” by Alexander Pushkin, Arbenin in “Masquerade” by Mikhail Lermontov, Khlestakov in “The Government Inspector” by Nikolai Gogol, Nikolai Rostov in “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy and other characters.
Rules of the game of shtoss (based on the book by Yu. M. Lotman “Conversations about Russian Culture”)
The players are divided into a banker, who throws cards, and a punter (pont - “increase the bet”). The game can be played one-on-one or with the participation of several punters. Each player receives a deck of cards. Punters choose one card from the deck, on which they bet an amount equal to the one announced by the banker. Next, cards from the banker's deck are revealed one by one, and a match with the hidden card brings victory to the punter. As a rule, the banker and punters are located on opposite sides of an elongated rectangular table covered with green cloth, which is used for recording bets and debts. All calculations are made on the same green cloth.
Outdoor games
In many homes, it was customary to have fun with “innocent games” between dancing and music, as they called petits-jeux(from the French “little games”), short-term outdoor entertainment. Most of these games were copies of street games folk entertainment. For example, the young gentleman Alexei Berestov - the hero of Pushkin's story “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman” - played burners with the girls - a traditional folk pastime.
Henryk Semiradsky. Chopin playing the piano in Prince Radziwill's salon. 1887. Private collection
One of the most popular petits-jeux- forfeits - has survived to this day. According to the rules of the game, each player puts forfeits into a hat. After the presenter with eyes closed takes out the forfeit and gives the owner a variety of tasks: singing like a cock, jumping on one leg, and the like. In the book “Rules of Social Life and Etiquette: Good Form. A collection of advice and instructions for various occasions in home and social life” contains examples of several more popular outdoor games for adult groups.
Rhymes
The players sit in a circle. One of the players throws a handkerchief to someone and at the same time says the word, and the other must catch the handkerchief and answer in rhyme - and so on in a circle. The more difficult the hidden word, the more unexpected and funnier the rhyme turns out.
Birds are flying
The players sit around the table, on which they place their index fingers. One of the players begins to list animate and inanimate objects that can fly, and the others must raise their fingers up. If a player raised their fingers when the name of an item that cannot fly was announced, they lost.
Game of mail
Everyone participating in this game is given a piece of paper, on which everyone writes a question. These pieces of paper are placed in a hat and mixed, then, in turn, each of the players takes out one piece of paper and, without reading the question, writes the answer on the back, after which he puts the piece of paper in another hat. When all the answers are written, the papers are taken out and the questions and answers are read aloud - inconsistencies between questions and answers become puns.
Double recitation
One girl sits on the lap of another, who is completely hidden by a blanket, and reads poetry. The second girl tries to stop her with various gestures and make the observers laugh. The game ends if the person reading the poetry laughs.
Toilet
The players are called by different items of clothing, and the leader takes turns calling them. At the command “Entire toilet!” players must quickly get up from their seats and change them. Whoever does not have time to take a place becomes a loser. There is a known case when in the Nicholas Palace the manager of the game was Nicholas I himself, and one of the players took the chair before the empress, but was only encouraged by the emperor for that.
Board games
In the 19th century, it came into fashion Board games: They, as now, had a playing field, figures that players moved, and a die that determined the number of points or “steps.” It is believed that the predecessor of this fun was old game“Gosek”, in which you had to reach the finish line the fastest, collecting more geese along the way.
Games of the 19th century became a kind of travel: for example, in “Journey through Russia” you had to get from Odessa to Moscow by locomotive as quickly as possible, independently developing a route through Kyiv or through Kursk. And the game “To Paris for an Exhibition” had to be in time for the beginning of the world exhibition of economic achievements in Paris.
Often board games were educational in nature. In the historical strategy “Battle of Sinop,” players were asked to role-play a theater of military operations. One spoke for Russia, the other represented the military interests of Turkey. There was also a version of the game "Goosek", which required perfect math skills. The playing field consisted of many cells with tasks: you had to quickly multiply or divide two- and three-digit numbers. For a correct answer, the player received “money” from the common bank; for a defeat, he contributed his own money to the common treasury.
Lotto
Lotto came to Russia from Italy in the 18th century and immediately became very popular. It was played not only at social evenings, but also with family. The heroine of Chekhov's "The Seagull" Irina Arkadina said: “When the long autumn evenings arrive, they play lotto here. Take a look: the old lotto that our late mother played with us when we were children.”.
Over the years of the game's existence, its rules have not changed. Participants receive cards with numbers, the presenter pulls barrels out of the bag and calls out the numbers. The first one to close the horizontal row wins. The game reached its peak of popularity by the 1840s: then lotto was often played for money in secular clubs. The passion of the players reached the point that hundreds of rubles were lost per game. The fashion for gambling lotto led to the fact that playing in public places was declared illegal. However, this did not affect the people's love: lotto is still played.
Puzelya
Puzzles, or as we call them today, puzzles, were invented by the English cartographer and grapher John Spilsbury. He glued geographical map on a board, sawed it into pieces (puzzles) and invited the children to assemble the complete picture from memory. Puzzles came to Russia in the 19th century and became a parlor game. They were called "puzels" in German or "puzels" in French. At that time, it was no longer maps that were collected from the baskets, but small picturesque paintings depicting a landscape or still life. In his book “The Defense of Luzhin,” Vladimir Nabokov wrote about the new hobby of children and adults: “That year, English fashion invented folding pictures for adults - “puzzles”... cut out extremely whimsically... Luzhin felt an amazing excitement from the precise combinations of these colorful pieces, forming a distinct picture at the last moment. Aunt asked: “For God’s sake, don’t lose anything!” Sometimes my father would come in, look at the pieces, extend his hand to the table, say: “This, undoubtedly, should go here,” and then Luzhin, without turning around, muttered: “Nonsense, nonsense, don’t interfere.”.
