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A jack or knave is a playing card which, in traditional French and English decks, pictures a man in the traditional or historic aristocratic or courtier dress, generally associated with Europe of the 16th or 17th century. The usual rank of a jack is between the ten and 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 ('jacks or better') in order to open wagering.
History[edit]
The earliest predecessor of the knave was the thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy) in the Mamluk card deck. This was the lowest of the three court cards and like all court cards was depicted through abstract art or calligraphy. When brought over to Italy and Spain, the thānī nā'ib was made into an infantry soldier or page ranking below the knight card. In France, where the card was called the valet, the queen was inserted between the king and knight. The knight was subsequently dropped out of non-Tarot decks leaving the valet directly under the queen. The king-queen-valet format then made its way into England.
As early as the mid-16th century the card was known in England as the knave (meaning a male servant of royalty). Although jack was in common usage to designate the knave, the term became more entrenched when, in 1864,[1] American cardmaker Samuel Hart published a deck using 'J' instead of 'Kn' to designate the lowest-ranking court card. The knave card had been called a jack as part of the terminology of the game All Fours since the 17th century, but this usage was considered common or low class. However, because the card abbreviation for knave was so close to that of the king ('Kn' versus 'K'), the two were easily confused. This confusion was even more pronounced after the markings indicating suits and rankings were moved to the corners of the card, a move which enabled players to 'fan' a hand of cards without obscuring the individual suits and ranks. The earliest deck known of this type is from 1693, but such positioning did not become widespread until reintroduced by Hart in 1864, together with the knave-to-jack change. Books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century still referred to the 'knave'. (Note the exclamation by Estella in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations: 'He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!'
Representations[edit]
In the English pattern,[2] the jack and the other face cards represent no one in particular,[3] in contrast to the historical French practice, in which each court card is said to represent a particular historical or mythological personage. The valets in the Paris pattern have traditionally been associated with such figures as Ogier the Dane (a knight of Charlemagne and legendary hero of the chansons de geste) for the jack of spades;[4]La Hire (French warrior) for the Jack of Hearts; Hector (mythological hero of the Iliad) for the jack of diamonds; and Lancelot or Judas Maccabeus for the jack of clubs.[5][6]
A jack or knave is a playing card which, in traditional French and English decks, pictures a man in the traditional or historic aristocratic or courtier dress, generally associated with Europe of the 16th or 17th century. The usual rank of a jack is between the ten and 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 ('jacks or better') in order to open wagering.
History[edit]
The earliest predecessor of the knave was the thānī nā'ib (second or under-deputy) in the Mamluk card deck. This was the lowest of the three court cards and like all court cards was depicted through abstract art or calligraphy. When brought over to Italy and Spain, the thānī nā'ib was made into an infantry soldier or page ranking below the knight card. In France, where the card was called the valet, the queen was inserted between the king and knight. The knight was subsequently dropped out of non-Tarot decks leaving the valet directly under the queen. The king-queen-valet format then made its way into England.
As early as the mid-16th century the card was known in England as the knave (meaning a male servant of royalty). Although jack was in common usage to designate the knave, the term became more entrenched when, in 1864,[1] American cardmaker Samuel Hart published a deck using 'J' instead of 'Kn' to designate the lowest-ranking court card. The knave card had been called a jack as part of the terminology of the game All Fours since the 17th century, but this usage was considered common or low class. However, because the card abbreviation for knave was so close to that of the king ('Kn' versus 'K'), the two were easily confused. This confusion was even more pronounced after the markings indicating suits and rankings were moved to the corners of the card, a move which enabled players to 'fan' a hand of cards without obscuring the individual suits and ranks. The earliest deck known of this type is from 1693, but such positioning did not become widespread until reintroduced by Hart in 1864, together with the knave-to-jack change. Books of card games published in the third quarter of the 19th century still referred to the 'knave'. (Note the exclamation by Estella in Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations: 'He calls the knaves, jacks, this boy!'
Representations[edit]
In the English pattern,[2] the jack and the other face cards represent no one in particular,[3] in contrast to the historical French practice, in which each court card is said to represent a particular historical or mythological personage. The valets in the Paris pattern have traditionally been associated with such figures as Ogier the Dane (a knight of Charlemagne and legendary hero of the chansons de geste) for the jack of spades;[4]La Hire (French warrior) for the Jack of Hearts; Hector (mythological hero of the Iliad) for the jack of diamonds; and Lancelot or Judas Maccabeus for the jack of clubs.[5][6]
In some southern Italian decks, there are androgynous knaves that are sometimes referred to as maids. In the Sicilian Tarot deck, the knaves are unambiguously female and are also known as maids.[7] As this deck also includes queens, it is the only traditional set to survive into modern times with two ranks of female face cards. This pack may have been influenced by the obsolete Portuguese deck which also had female knaves. The modern Mexican pattern also has female knaves.[8]
Poetry[edit]
The figure of the jack has been used in many literary works throughout history. Among these is one by 17th-century English writer Samuel Rowlands. The Four Knaves is a series of Satirical Tracts, with Introduction and Notes by E. F. Rimbault, upon the subject of playing cards. His 'The Knave of Clubbs: Tis Merry When Knaves Meet' was first published in 1600, then again in 1609 and 1611. In accordance with a promise at the end of this book, Rowlands went on with his series of Knaves, and in 1612 wrote 'The Knave of Harts: Haile Fellowe, Well Meet', where his 'Supplication to Card-Makers' appears,[9] thought to have been written to the English manufacturers who copied to the English decks the court figures created by the French.
Example cards[edit]
The cards shown here are from a Paris pattern deck (where the rank is known as the 'valet'), and include the historical and mythological names associated with them. The English pattern of the jacks can be seen in the photo at the top of the article.
Jack of spades: Ogier
Jack of hearts: La Hire
Jack of diamonds: Hector
Jack of clubs: Lancelot
Trickster figure[edit]
One Eyed Jack Playing Card Meaning
The jack, traditionally the lowest face card, has often been promoted to a higher or the highest position in the traditional ranking of cards, where the ace or king generally occupied the first rank. This is seen in the earliest known European card games, such as Karnöffel, as well as in more recent ones such as Euchre. Games with such promotion include:
One Eyed Jacks Playing Cards
See also[edit]
- 'The Jack', a song by AC/DC, in which the playing card is a metaphor for an enthusiastic sexual partner with expertise-level 'hand stuff' skills.
- The Knave of Hearts, a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- The Jack of Diamonds, a group of artists founded in 1909 in Moscow
- 'Jack of Diamonds', a traditional folk song
- Jack of Diamonds, the title used by George de Sand in the 1994 anime Mobile Fighter G Gundam
- Knave of Hearts, a 1954 film directed by René Clément
- The Jack of Hearts (Jack Hart), a Marvel Comics superhero
- The Jack of Hearts, a 1919 short Western film
- 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts', a song by Bob Dylan
- Pub (trans. The Jack), an album by Đorđe Balašević.
- King, Queen, Knave, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov first published in Russian under his pen name, V. Sirin
References[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jacks (playing cards). |
One Eyed Jack Card Meaning
- ^Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society, p. 290, Rodney P. Carlisle - Sage Publications INC 2009 ISBN1-4129-6670-1
- ^English pattern at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^Berry, John. (1998). 'Frequently asked questions'. The Playing-Card. Vol. 27-2. pp. 43-45.
- ^Games and Fun with Playing Cards by Joseph Leeming on Google Books
- ^The Four King Truth at the Urban Legends Reference Pages
- ^Courts on playing cards, by David Madore, with illustrations of the English and French court cards
- ^Tarocco Siciliano, early form at the International Playing-Card Society. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^Scotoni, Ralph. Mexican Pattern at Alta Carta. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^The Knave of Harts: Haile Fellowe, Well Meet, where his Supplication to Card-Makers by Samuel Rowlands (1600)
Good card-makers (if there be any goodness in you), Apparrell us with more respected care,
Put us in hats, our caps are worne thread-bare, Let us have standing collers, in the fashion;
If you have played cards for any length of time you will have encountered the 'one-eyed' cards. There are two one-eyed jacks in a standard deck of cards, and (less known) there is a one-eyed King as well: Diamonds. There is something unmistakably significant about these cards, and that's why they are most often regarded as the intuitive choice when selecting 'wild' cards for a variety of different poker games.
The obvious reason why the cards are referred to as 'one-eyed' is because they are shown in profile, so there is literally only one eye visible on the card face. The esoteric reasons are much more interesting.
Odin: The One-Eyed King
If you ask any gambling aficionado, they will probably tell you that the King of Diamonds is supposed to represent Julius Caesar. However, the real gamblers out there who collect stories from the Old World know the real truth behind this particular tale: the one-eyed king symbolism is in reference to Odin, one of the major gods in Norse mythology. That's right: the King of the Diamond Kingdom is also the King of Asgard.
Why Odin? According to legend, Odin sacrificed one of his eyes in exchange for secret wisdom of the 'runes,' a system of magic that employs special symbols and shapes for the purposes of divination and otherworldly effect. This is precisely why the King of Diamonds is shown, on nearly every deck of cards (see above), with his hand offering the diamond symbol to the viewer with one eye facing away: the eye is actually missing because it was sacrificed to attain the type of power that is only found buried in the mythological past—or, you know, World of Warcraft.
This is all to say that the King of Diamonds is no normal ruler. He is a practitioner of the dark arts. There is one reason, and one reason alone why aces will beat out a king: the King of Diamonds allows it. It's all part of his plan written in the (red) stars.
The Crazy Magic Floating Spear
In our previous article looking at the King of Hearts, we talk about the choice of weapons employed by the different lords of the playing card kingdoms. In a true homage to Odin, who traditionally carries a spear, the King of Diamonds opts out of the sword carried by the King of Spades, Clubs, and most likely Hearts, in favor of what looks to be either a spear or an ax with a long handle.
But the main thing to take note of here is the following: he's not holding the spear. If you look at all the other kings in a deck of cards, they all have their swords firmly grasped in their hands, and but the King of Diamonds has evolved his runic power to the point where he can control objects with his mind. Why use your hands to hold things when you can use the untapped power of the diamond shape? Take note of his other hand, solemnly offering up this jewel of the occult to any gambler who might take notice of what lies beyond. If you prove yourself worthy, some have said that the Diamond King will occasionally bestowing special powers on his disciples, like the ability to summon a full house, post-flop, on command.
The diamond might be the least powerful suit in the deck, but when you see the One-eyed King in your hand, just remember that he is a god who chooses to inhabit a physical body and live among mortal men. The next time you consider folding, think again. You just might witness some magic.
Check the rest of our series, the Secret Histories of the Four Kings.
Simon
Simon is an overactive gambler and the Staff Writer here at Silver Oak. He loves casino bonuses, online slots, and using the em dash too often. Currently, he rests his typing hands in Vancouver, Canada.
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