Subject
Re: J. Rea on Knaves and Jacks
From
Date
Body
Jack (J.A.R) wrote: "Americans...for whom the phrase is, "King Queen, Jack" (and no "dames" please)... our non-American friends need to know that the term "Knave" is a non-American usage...
Jansy:I had already wondered about the "Knave" in the English title ( and its depreciatory meaning). Following the criteria of the Nabokocenterd L-test, I promise to show in the end why I selected this long reference from an internet search:
Wikipedia informed me that as early as the mid-1500s the jack was called the knave. A knave is a male servant of royalty. Throughout the 1400s, 56-card decks containing a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet were common. Books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century evidently still referred to the "knave", initially the lowest court card in an English deck.However, from the 1600s on the Knave had often been termed the Jack, a term borrowed from the game All Fours, where the Knave of trumps is termed the Jack. All Fours was considered a low-class game. Nevertheless, jacks are the highest possible cards in the German game Skat...
In some countries/cultures, the jack is ranked above the queen.As the lowest face (or "court") card, the jack often represents a minimum standard - for example many poker games require a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, often called simply "Jacks or better".
An Indian origin for playing cards has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Indian statues.
NC-L test Link: Nabokov insisted that we should pay attention to "a game of cards" in KQK by mentioning "shuffled buildings in a landscape" and ( in the Montreux 1967 foreword, absent in the CCC's and which I haven't got in English ) mentioning hands with lucky arrangements such as a "Royal Flush".
We cannot be certain that, as readers, we are invited to join a Poker game.
The "All Fours" reference called my attention because we often find references to "plus-fours" (cf. page 770) and later, we come across the blue jacket that, in a dream, "lay at the bottom of the boat...She saw the thing trying to rise on all fours, and grabbed it," (cf. page 925). Are our Jack-the-Knave lowly, as in All Fours, or the highest, as in Skat?
Then there is the question of a certain "Hindu Student" ( a story about a Heidelberg nobleman in disguise, a movie, oriental gymnastics, erotic contorsions, decoy for the lady's absences - similar to Lolita's piano classes and Flaubert's Emma ). If the original playing cards did indeed stem from India, we must pay attention also to "ring", "sword", "cup" and "baton" ( I didn't) siding along sausage-shaped or shell-form cigarette cases, brooches, keys, emerald rings...
Frankly, I pass. No talent for poker games...
But perhaps a talented player might get interested and reveal some of KQK's mysteries. The character Franz ( who might be considered for the "Jack") is almost always "lowly". There are other possible Jacks, valets, or page-boys. We have maid servants, chauffeurs, gardeners, clerks and an outsider, the Inventor. Where do these fit in?
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Jansy:I had already wondered about the "Knave" in the English title ( and its depreciatory meaning). Following the criteria of the Nabokocenterd L-test, I promise to show in the end why I selected this long reference from an internet search:
Wikipedia informed me that as early as the mid-1500s the jack was called the knave. A knave is a male servant of royalty. Throughout the 1400s, 56-card decks containing a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet were common. Books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century evidently still referred to the "knave", initially the lowest court card in an English deck.However, from the 1600s on the Knave had often been termed the Jack, a term borrowed from the game All Fours, where the Knave of trumps is termed the Jack. All Fours was considered a low-class game. Nevertheless, jacks are the highest possible cards in the German game Skat...
In some countries/cultures, the jack is ranked above the queen.As the lowest face (or "court") card, the jack often represents a minimum standard - for example many poker games require a minimum hand of a pair of jacks, often called simply "Jacks or better".
An Indian origin for playing cards has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Indian statues.
NC-L test Link: Nabokov insisted that we should pay attention to "a game of cards" in KQK by mentioning "shuffled buildings in a landscape" and ( in the Montreux 1967 foreword, absent in the CCC's and which I haven't got in English ) mentioning hands with lucky arrangements such as a "Royal Flush".
We cannot be certain that, as readers, we are invited to join a Poker game.
The "All Fours" reference called my attention because we often find references to "plus-fours" (cf. page 770) and later, we come across the blue jacket that, in a dream, "lay at the bottom of the boat...She saw the thing trying to rise on all fours, and grabbed it," (cf. page 925). Are our Jack-the-Knave lowly, as in All Fours, or the highest, as in Skat?
Then there is the question of a certain "Hindu Student" ( a story about a Heidelberg nobleman in disguise, a movie, oriental gymnastics, erotic contorsions, decoy for the lady's absences - similar to Lolita's piano classes and Flaubert's Emma ). If the original playing cards did indeed stem from India, we must pay attention also to "ring", "sword", "cup" and "baton" ( I didn't) siding along sausage-shaped or shell-form cigarette cases, brooches, keys, emerald rings...
Frankly, I pass. No talent for poker games...
But perhaps a talented player might get interested and reveal some of KQK's mysteries. The character Franz ( who might be considered for the "Jack") is almost always "lowly". There are other possible Jacks, valets, or page-boys. We have maid servants, chauffeurs, gardeners, clerks and an outsider, the Inventor. Where do these fit in?
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm