THE THEATRE OF VARIOUS AND DIFFERENT SOCIAL BRAINS
by Tomaso Garzoni da Bagnacavallo
And other renaissance documents by Anonymous, Pietro Aretino and Giovan Batista dell'Ottonajo
To understand the mentality of the men of the Renaissance concerning gambling, it is useful, to us the work of Tomaso Garzoni da Bagnacavallo Il Teatro de' vari, e diversi cervelli mondani (The Theatre of various and different social brains) (Venice, 1585), where in fifty five chapters the author treats a wide variety of "brains" (from the inconstant and lazy ones to the determined and serious ones) investigated in the most varied fields of the knowledge and the professions (astrologers, alchemists, scientists, lettered, etc..) equipping this great typology with anecdotes derived essentially from the classical antiquity.
In the "Discourse XLI" which title is De’ Cervellazzi dissoluti in giochi, crapule, e dishonestà del mondo (About brains lost in games, crapulence and dishonesty of the world), the author illustrates the opinion of the time regarding the gambling and its estimators, furnishing us a secular vision that coincides for many aspects with the religious one that is offered to us by the anonymous monk author of the Sermo perutulis de ludo (useful Sermon on the game) of the beginning of the XVI century.
The sentence of the Church against the gambling had already been pronounced much time before: one of the most ardentpreachers in such sense was St. Bernardino da Siena who just in Bologna held a famous sermon during Lent in 1425.
For a comparison of the two attitudes, secular and religious, here I quote entirely the section about players written by Garzoni and some extracts from the Sermo perutilis de ludo, with the addition of a carnival song composed by a certain Batiste or Giovan Batista dell' Ottonajo, from Florence.
ABOUT BRAINS LOST IN GAMES,
CRAPULENCE AND DISHONESTY OF THE WORLD
Discourse XLI
Usually the worst brains are the ones that show their dissolution in games, in crapulence, in dishonesty of the world. About dissolute games speaks that passage of Exodus Sedit populus manducare, & bibere, & surrexerunt ludere. This dissolution causes thousand sins; as immodest laughs, vain, useless chats, clownish words, & wicked swearwords. This after that Isaiah, inferring the people of the game has said Super quem lusistis? He added Super quem aperuistis os, & eiecistis linguam? We are not talking about pleasant & civil games: because these are a honest amusement, & a pleasure for our minds; & they are approved by the Philosopher's sentence, he who, quoting the opinion of Anacarso Scitha, said, that sometimes it was necessary to have fun with games, so that the mind could rested a little; and resuming vigour, it could then interpret more slightly the high & difficult things of the Philosophy.
But let’s talk about forbidden games, of dice, cards, and of all the divinations, and likewise of all the joys full of luxury, & of lasciviousness; in which enter thousand sins the day and hours. Here comes in cupidity, root of all the evil, rather the robbery, that wants to strip the neighbour; the ruthlessness toward him, that wrings his shirt, if it is possible; the deception that often runs together with theft; the swearword against God, the contempt towards the Church, the corruption of the neighbour, the sin of anger, the insult against brothers, & the rudeness; the inobservance of festivities, & sometimes the murder. Here happen oaths, the perjuries, often the iniquitous witness thick, the unfair desire of other people's things. Here happen all the foolishness and the poppy crocks, to be imagined. A player becomes servant of the game, rather enslaved, and he is not able to detach from that in anyway; he gets lost in vanity, and knows the illness of the game, and doesn't run away from it, he receives damage by it, & turns the anger against God, prefers the beloved dice to the divine praise; not to be idle, he will be idler. This said St. Bernard Pro vitando otio, otia sectari, ridiculum est. He consumes the time more precious of gold; plays game, while walking nevertheless to death. Whence it said Job Ducunt in bonis dies suos, & in puncto to inferna descendunt. He’s not a child, & pretends to be, dedicating to vain and childish things. Oh foolishness, oh great crocks of gamers, Cabilone Lacedemonio, Ambassador, sent to Corinth to make league; finding the principals, & the oldest ones of Corinthians, who played dice, left scandalized, without doing other saying, since he didn't want to stain the glory of Spartans with this infamy, they were said of have done league with players. Of the King of Parthia it can be read, that he sent gold dice to King Demetrio, only to blame his frivolity. Sarah, daughter of Raquel, in Tobias at the third one, showing, that had away from all the dissolutions of games, told toward the Lord a prayer Numquam cum ludentibus me miscui: neq; cum his, levitate ambulant (1).
SERMO PERUTILIS DE LUDO CUM ALIIS
Extract
An anonymous monk at the beginning of the XVI century in this writing of his on the games attacked furiously the Triumphs that he considered, together with cards and dice, a game of chance created by the devil, according to the sayings of Saint Thomas amd many others (Genera ludorum fortunae. Que omnia secundum Thom. & c. et multos alios a dyabolo inventa sunt). He justified his declaration affirming that the inventor of this game, to drag the men to the vice, had deliberately used solemn figures as the Pope, the emperor, the Christian virtues and even God. Beyond this examination on the gambling, the writing results important for the history of tarots as the good monk brought in it the ever first list of Triumphs known. (About this read The Celestial Harmony into the essay The History of Tarots. We remind to the reader as well the essay Symbolic Seeds in which there are the meanings of the four seeds as described in the manuscript).
These are his words: “Nam in primitiva ecclesia per omnes civitates fuerunt hedificati episcopatus, ecclesie parochiales, et capelle, et ordinaverunt episcopum et sacerdotes parochiales et capellanos et sacristas retinentes reliquias sanctorum et altaria et calices et hostias. Et omnes fideles concurrebant ad ecclesias et maxime in Navitate Domini. Et tanta erat laus divina cum canticis organis &c. quod totus mundus et aer replebantur laudibus. Et exinde demones fugerunt ad infernum. Quos interrogavit magnus Lucifer qua de causa fugissent. Tunc surrexit quidam dyabolus nomine Azarus et dixit totum ordinem dicte fuge parabolice. ' Sed si tu vis mihi obtemperare, ego faciam pervertere quicquid illi fecerunt in contumeliam dei et tui ipsius amorem' . 'Et quid facies,' inquit ille? ' Constituam' ait, ' in civitatibus et castris et villis episcopatum seu baratariam, et episcopum baraterium verum. Et in nocte Navitatis Domini plus veniret ad ecclesiam nostram quam ad ecclesiam Dei. Et ecclesie nostre parochiales erunt taberne. Et sacerdotes erunt tabernarii, et capelle nostre erunt apothece, et capellani erunt apothecarii. Et sacristie nostre erunt domus macellariorum ubi stabunt reliquie nostre, seu taxilli, ossa nostrarum sanctarum bestiarum. Et carte erunt ymagines. Altare erit banchum. Lapis consecratus erit tabulerium. Calix erit cyathus vini. Hostia erit ducatus aureus. Missale nostrum erit taxillus: carte hujus missalis erunt cartule et triumphi” (For in the early church the Bishop of a community formed parish churches and chapels, so that each community had its bishop and parish priests and chaplains and collected holy relics of the Saints and consecrated the altars and the chalices and the hosts. And all the faithful congregated together at the churches in large numbers to celebrated Christ’s birth. And of such magnitude was their divine praise, that by their songs and organs the air and the whole universe was filled with praises. And from thence the spirits fled to the lower regions where the great Lucifer asked them why so many had fled the light. Thereupon a demon named Azarus arose and explained why they had fled. But”, he added, “If you have the strength to obey me, I shall overturn them to forswear God and love yourself”. “And what will you do?" Lucifer asked. “I shall set up”, Azarus replied, “in the towns and the encampments and the villages the bishopric of the gambling house, and for bishop a true cheat. On the night of the Nativity more people will come to our church than to God’s. Our parishes will be the tavern, the tavern keeper our priests, the wine cellar our chapel, the cellar man our chaplain. Our sacristy will be the house bank, dice made of animal bones our holy relics, the cards our images, the bench our altar, the playing table our holy paten, the goblet of wine our chalice, a gold coin our host, the dice will be the Missal, whose pages are the cards and triumphs) (2)
For the good religious man the points number on every face of the dice are as many rooms created by the devils, in which they put infernal games.
Qui quidem taxillus habet 21 punctos dyabolo consecratos. Qui quidem puncti 21 sunt gradus unius scale descendentis in inferum. Et nota quod quilibet taxillus habet 6 stantias: in quibus collocati sunt isti gradus; qui designant 21 ludos fortunae quibus utitur lusor, et sunt nomina demonum.
Each dice has twenty one points consecrated to the devil. These twenty one points are the twenty one steps that descend to hell. We have to notice that every dice has six rooms (the six faces of the dice) where there are these steps, that connote the twenty one games of chance and they are names of the demons.
Nam in prima stantia est unus punctus quod dicitur As nomen dyabolicum. Et quando vocat "as," vocat dyabolum ut adjuvet se frangere spatulas.
In the first room there is a point, said As, demonic name. When someone calls “As” the devil is called to help you to break your back.
In secunda stantia sunt duo puncti, designantes duos ludos quorum primus dicitur Scartago, secundus Assobini, duo nomina demonum.
In the second room there are two points, which connote two games; the first is called Scartago, the second one Assobini, both are two names of devils.
In tertia stantia tres sunt puncti, quorum primus dicitur Sozo (vel ydiomate nostro Scartabellare, ludus cartularum valde damnosus), nomen illius demonis sic vocati. Et quando barateus potest, dicit "Tra a quilli" Et tunc socius ait, ' Sozo, diavolo' honorando auctorem suum. Et socius respondit ' Chel te possa portare et cavarte uno ochio, et strascinarte per questa scala' .
In the third room there are two points, the first one called Sozo, (in our language Scartabellare, a very dangerous cards game), from the name of their demon. And when the banker can, he says “Tra a quilli”. So the companion says, respecting his master “Sozo, devil” (both Italian phrases in quotation marks are not translatable into English). And the companion answers “Could it take you and tear your eye away, and drag you down this stair”.
Secundus punctus dicitur Azaro (vel potius, La Basseta, ludus cartularum qui ponit lusorem al basso). Tertius Sequentia. Iste ludus fit cum tabulis.
The second point is called Azaro (or better, La Bassetta, a cards game that put down the player). The third Sequenza. This game is to be played with the table game.
In quarta stantia sunt quatuor puncti qui significant quatuor ludos. Quorum primus dicitur Menoretto curto, id est, ad furchas ante senectutem. Secundus dicitur Menoretto longo, id est, ad hospitale toto tempore vite sue. Tertius dicitur Sbaraglio, id est tutta la roba. Quartus Sbaraglino, id est, lain en lo corpo.
In the fourth room there are four points that signify four games. Of which the first is called Menoretto corto that means to the gallows before the old age. The second one is called Menoretto lungo, that means in the hospital all life long. The third is called Sbaraglio, or all the stuff. The fourth Sbaraglino, or you’ve got it in your body.
In quinta stantia sunt quinque puncti figurantes quinque ludos. Quorum primus dicitur Perdi o vinci. Secundus dicitur Sette o sey. Tertius Buffa Aragiato, aut Ronfa, id est desconza hay la borsa (del buffa aragiato). Et est crudelis ludus, quia multos ducit ad paupertatem. Quartus dicitur Scarga lasino, id est quicquid habet in domo. Et remansit nudus et levis. Quintus A uno tracto e mezo.
In the fith room there are five points representing five games. The first one is Perdi o vinci. The second is said Sette o sei. The third one Buffa Aragiato, or Ronfa, that means you have a broken bag (del buffa arrabbiato). It is a cruel game that has made many people lose their shirt. The fourth is called Scarica l’asino that means everything you’ve got in your house. And you remain naked and light. The fifth A un tratto e mezzo.
Aliter in quinta sunt Ronfa, ludus cartularum, Crica ludus trium cartularum. ('Cruca' melius sonaret. Nam in lingua sclava dicitur panis; quia ludit panem filiorem. Et ludit hoc ludo dando cartulas a 3 a 3.) Milaneso; vel al 50, (ad quem numerum qui citius pervenerint cum cartulis lucrantur), ludus cartularum novus. Falcinelle (sive, A la terza a la quarta) ludus cartularum. Fuxo, volve cartam in principio. (Ludus cartularum noviter inventus. Sed interpone l post f, quid est fluxus. Et significat instabilitatem denariorum, quia sicut fluxus emittat sanguinem hominis sic ludus, & c.)
In the fifth room there are Ronfa, cards game, Cricca, game of three cards (Better say Crucca. Really in Slavic Language it means bread, because the kid’s bread is to play. And the game is to be played giving three cards in one time) Milaneso; or al 50 (the first one who reaches this number wins), new game of cards. Falcinelle (or Alla terza alla quarta), cards game. Fuxo, turn the card at the beginning. (Cards game recently invented. If you out an L after the F the game becomes flux game. And it means money instability, since as the flow spread human blood, so does the game, etc)
In sexta stantia sunt sex puncti, significantes sex alios ludos. Quorum primus dicitur Spagnolo reverso, et est ludus alearum. Secundus dicitur Al trenta per forza. Tertius, Ochaba cha (or da) lasso. Quartus, Lo imperiale. Quintus, Passa el diece. Sextus, A chi non piace la volta la dia al compayno. (Vel. Ha un tracto e mezo). Et omnia ista sunt nomina demonum.
In the sixth rooms there are six points referring to other six games. The first is called Spagnolo reverso, and it is a dice game. The second one is called Al trenta per forza. The third, Ochaba that has (or gives) the Ace. The fourth, Lo imperiale. The fifth, Passa il dieci. The sixth, A chi non piace la volta la dia al compagno (or A un tratto e mezzo). And they all are devils names.
Et ista est ratio quod homines plus blasfemant in ludis quam in aliis, quia tot demones vocant ad sui ruinam quot puncti sunt in dadis. Et quum omnes perdant in ludo, opinio est quod illi denarii - ubi est sanguis viscerum Dei, Christi, et sanctorum - reserventur in manibus dyabolorum, qui eos distribuunt desperatis petentibus pecunias a demonibus.
And this is the reason for which men swear much more while playing than in other circumstances, because all the demons want their ruins so many times as many points are in the dice. And when they all loose, it is opinion that those moneys - in which there is the blood of Christ and of the Saints - go into the devils hands that give them to the desperate one who ask them to the devils ".
THE SPEAKING CARDS
by Pietro Aretino
Elsewhere, talking about the meaning of the seeds of game cards (please read the article Symbolic Seeds) there is a reference to the work The talking cards by Pietro Aretino (Venice, 1543), composed in form of a dialogue between the talking cards, and their painter called Padovano. In this work Aretino even proposes an examine of the meaning of triumphs of tarots in which transpires, with en evident sarcasm, an attitude of respectful homage towards cards and game, if used with the right moderation. His interpretation of triumphs is inspired by the emotions of players ad the consequences that the game induces in its apprentices.
This interpretation is very interesting and has doctrinal contents, as for example we can find about Pulsars (Sun, Moon, Stars), Justice, the Angel, the Tower and the Popess. Regarding the three luminaries and the zodiacal signs in the Florentine tarots, near a valuation coherent with the homogeneity of interpretation of the most part of triumphs (in this case that the game can be played at every hour of day and night), we even find the concept that “no glass can be broken down on earth if the sky up above doesn’t want to”, the reason for which “The Sky takes part on the whole” of cards. The presence of Justice and the Angel is defined as a necessity, the first one to escape from frauds and second as bliss reserved to those who have lived in pain.
Concerning the Tower, here called “The House of Pluto”, the author’s interpretation underlines what I have expressed about this Triumph (please, read the concerning essay), where the God of Hell “drags to a curse house everyone who is not prudent, who has not temperance and strength painted on cards”.
It is very interesting the valuation of the Popess from which results an unequivocal relation with Popess Joanne. Aretino actually writes that she “is there for the shrewdness of those who defraud our being with falsehoods that fake us”. Even if nowadays we give to the Popess card the meaning of Christian faith, referring to the Mystical Staircase that connote the whole 22 triumphs, it is evident that how much present was the myth of Popess Joanne in the collective imaginary of the Renaissance men.
Here we report the passages concerning what has been expressed above:
PADOVANO: He says (Padovano’s confessor) that, playing with you, I put on the table swearwords, thefts, frauds, guzzling, luxury, perjuries, falsehoods, lies, troubles, enmity, cruelties, the devil, the enemy, ghosts and tragedy.
CARDS: We would he to say, which are those occupations that have not such sadness and worries? It is due to traffic the murder, to be scoundrel, shrewdness, theft, duplicity, tenacity, to be ass, to behave in an uncivil way, the betrayal, to be inhuman, cowardice, to be heretic, liar and rascal; in spite of all this if merchandising is used in the right way, even honest people desire to practise it.
PAD: Good words.
CAR: Who will deny that prudence is not one of the first virtues? Who is going to affirm that being so, it is the most important among all us, and it starves in other’s precipices? The ones who by playing lose and tear their hearts away are beasts, not noble creatures. When the merchant loses his ship, after having shrugged, he tries to recover with new business if the sea swallows his capital, and he remains patient: such example should be good for everyone who loses everything, thinking that it is possible to lose, even because the one who plays has a good time, the merchant has not fun.
PAD: So you mean that the one who enjoyed once has not ever starved, and that the one who has always starved has never enjoyed.
CAR: You have said right since we want to attack affirming that it would be better to remain a stupid man but playing rather to be a honoured merchant with no importance, because cards have ruined people by giving them good time, instead trading destroy with cruelty.
PAD: You did explain very well.
CAR: Certainly our images comfort the sight, and their matches destroy.
PAD: Is it more useful to play or to trade?
CAR: There is no doubt!
PAD: I’m thinking.
CAR: About what?
PAD: About what I have not thought about you anymore.
CAR: Good.
PAD: This is what I have understood less about you.
CAR: The heart of the one who disputes about important matters exults in the mind effectiveness, which creates thoughts and distinguishes from the language, so the one who listens can understand the senses and concept he expresses.
PAD: Did you take this exquisite language from some well knowing player?
CAR: You guessed.
………
CAR: Going to the cause, the Sky takes part in our whole number, and it is clear that no glass can be broken down on earth if the Sky up above doesn’t want to.
PAD: Why?
CAR: Go and ask to Cancer, Sagittarius, Pisces, Leo, Libra, Capricorn, Gemini, Taurus, Virgo, Aries, Scorpio and Aquarius, well painted in Germini (Florentine tarots) and in tarots, maybe because the brains of those who handle them…..
PAD: Taking from the upper Sky..
CAR: Yes.
PAD: Ah, ah, ah,ah
CAR: Even the sun, even the moon, even the stars wanted to be painted to show that the game can be played during the day or night, and at every side.
PAD: Since you do explain everything, please tell me why Justice and the Angel work in this affair?
……..
CAR: Since Justice and the Angel you’re talking about, are among us in great mystery: Justice means that it is necessary to escape from frauds even in suspicious things, and the Angel means that bliss comes from pain of things submitted to accidents.
Then Aretino, always by the talking cards, highlights as a hermit has not the same physical and mind strength of a gentleman who plays cards from morning to night and from night to morning.
PAD: Do you want me to believe that the martyrdom of the one who whips his own flesh is equal to the one who stays sitting?
CAR: No
PAD: So what?
CAR: You don’t have to judge funny the assiduity of the one who never gets up for weeks; since scabies does not make him scrape and fleas do not peak him, since he does not feel pinching or gnawing (as it happens to the hermit a. e. ). And also we say that they don’t spit or blow their nose not to waste time.
PAD: This is a player’s old habit.
CAR: It would be a new one if I’d tell you to have seen a hermit whipping himself in the same period of time.
PAD: Where is, dears sisters, the blood of the tormented ones by the game?
CAR: Don’t you know that the French ill with inner noun is crueler than the one with external blisters?
PAD: I know.
CAR: So, consider, if you can imagine, the greatest pain of the one who has not time to empty his abdomen or bladder out,
even if he’s going to die.
PAD: It’s not a joke.
CAR: If the hermit had such stimulus in his discipline we are sure that, with no restraint he would put a basket on the floor and would say “Sorry brother, as I do my facts.” But the player would stay there still suffering with no sense as he was a statue, therefore what he would like to let go out of his body cannot come out through the usual ways.
PAD: The poor.
……………….
CAR: After the image of the Sky that is interested in our things, we would like to talk again about the world.
PAD: Go on.
CAR: The world you do paint on us testify the universality of gamers and the quality of their frenzies.
PAD: Who could think about that?
CAR: Allegorically you do create us into Pluto and his house, but he drags into the curse house everyone who is not prudent, who has not temperance and the strength painted on cards.
PAD: Right.
CAR: The triumphal Chariot denotes the victory that comes from game battles.
PAD: What!
CAR: Death signifies the pain of the one who loses everything by playing.
PAD: So is it.
CAR: The fool means the stupidity of those who despair for this reason.
PAD: It is really foolishness.
CAR: The betrayer attacks the murders of involved people.
PAD: I thought as much!
CAR: The pope represents faithfulness in the game, and sincerity of the one who plays in the right way.
PAD: Good for him.
CAR: The Popess means the shrewdness of those who defraud our being with falsehoods that fake us.
PAD: Maybe they’re neglected.
CAR: The emperor has lows that belong to each other. And even the dignity needed for everyone to take care about himself.
PAD: Sensible interpretations.
CAR: The wheel moved by fortune turns is set with a mystery that many people see and few people understand, and even if we believe it dominates everything, it does not win upon us.
PAD: I see.
CAR: the queen denotes we are the Ladies of gamer souls.
PAD: Reasonable.
………….
PAD: What about the old man?
CAR: he shows with his lantern that it is necessary to see clearly, and with the candle of intellect on, it is possible to play but with the wisdom of the old man.
PAD: What about the empress of Tarots?
CAR: She’s not doing a rhyme as verses do, but she means the importance of other players’ cards.
PAD: What about the Magician?
CAR: The charlatanry he has inside and outside him is a warning for everybody not to leave one’s hand to those who have shuffled and cut in his own way.
PAD: What about Love?
CAR: This prickling arrow pitcher, this scoundrel, this employer is the push of passion that devours the gamer. So people run after us, since we are not ungrateful to them.
THE CHANT OF GAMBLERS
by Giovan Batista dell’Ottonajo
The resultant motivations of the sentence both in the work by Garzoni and in that by the anonymous monk can be found in the verses of the herald of the Signory in Florence, a certain Batista or Giovan Batista dell'Ottonajo (1482-1527), composer of carnival songs. His composition Canto de Giuocatori (Chant of Gamblers) is a real warning against the gambling, a report that shows all the deficiencies in which a player could incur following this vice: against himself, against friends, family and finally against God (3).
Sure is that the game of tarots was too much pleasant to be put aside and the allusion of Giovan Batista to point it out as practiced also by religious, it finds confirmation in the Answer of Vincent Imperiali to the famous Invective against the Game of Tarot by Flavio Alberto Lollio from Ferrara, where in rhyme he turns to his friend, indignant to have lost "three pairs of scudos", exhorting him instead to sing its praises and to appreciate the dignity of its companions of game, the Captain and Giulio Cardinale (4).
THE CHANT
Love, that the Sky, Florence, today brings to you
Has the same clothes and bones we already wear.
And it sees everything of us, that we are lent,
And the infernal door
Where we are dammed forever
And pulled out just for today;
So that we can tell you,
We were all gamers,
And lost our stuff, lives, souls and honour.
We were so blind in this vice,
That the rich respected merchant,
Died desperate, failure, in prison;
He gambled his wealth,
He committed suicide, so he denied and
Betrayed Christ; he was hanged;
Because the end of the game, for bad or good chance
It is misery, desperation and death.
With thousand of dice and false cards
We involved our best friends,
We won, or better sometimes we defrauded
But nothing was worth,
Since every amount was taken by cheats;
And to have money,
We put aside the Sky and virtues
Since dice and cards have always been our God.
Many times we lefts our babies
Upon straw, naked and barefoot
In the wind and in freezing cold,
Our poor wives with no clothes:
We have always been in jerks;
We tied our friends and relatives
With thefts, pledges and deceives;
Ever hidden and unhappy,
We stayed in desperations, cries and noises,
Secrets, swearwords, hate and pain.
Everyone is covered with tar
Each man of every grade, status and condition;
The brokers play with their cashiers
And every worthy Prelate
Is today a professional gambler:
Bishops and Knights
Are the same
And even the Secular, the Priest, and the Friar gamble
And as well the Abbot with his Monks.
Are you ungrateful, you, who are alive
After our example, that has never been
Allowed by the Sky to the mortal man?
Young and old, do you love
The saint virtue and true merchandise?
Since it is useless to regret, then;
It is certain that no game is right,
And there is so much war,
That hell is going to be on earth.
Il CANTO DEI GIOCATORI
by Giovan Batista dell'Ottonajo
(Original Italian version)
L’Amor, che ’l Ciel, Fiorenza, oggi ti porta
Ci ha l’ossa, e’ panni , che quà già portiamo,
Qual vede ognun, per questo dì prestati,
E della infernal porta,
Ove dannati in sempiterno siamo,
Sol per oggi cavati;
Acciò dir ti possiamo,
Ch' al mondo ognun di noi fu giuocatore,
E perdè roba, vita, alma, ed onore .
Noi fummo tanto ciechi in questo vizio,
Che quel di ricco mercante onorato,
Disperato in prigion morì fallito;
Quel giocò il benefizio,
Quel si diè morte, e da quel rinnegato
Ne fu Cristo, e tradito;
Quel là ne fu impiccato;
Chè ’l fin del giuoco, o trista , o buona sorte,
È povertà, disperazione, e morte .
Con mille doppj dadi, e carte false,
Mettemmo in mezzo gli amici più cari,
Vincemmo, anz’ imbolammo qualche volta;
Ma niente ci valse,
Chè più somma, più presto, e da’ più bari
Ci fu vinta, e ritolta;
E per aver danari ,
Ponemmo ogni virtù, e ’l Ciel da parte,
Chè sempre il nostro Dio fu dadi, e carte.
Più volte in sù la paglia nudi, e scalzi
Lasciammo i figliuolini a’ freddi, e a’ venti,
E le povere mogli senza panni:
Sempre stemmo in trabalzi;
Sempre giuntammo gli amici, e parenti
Con furti, pegni, e ’nganni;
Sempre ascosi, e scontenti
Stemmo tra disperati, urla, e romori,
Sagramenti, bestemmie, odj, e dolori.
Di questa pece è ciaschedun macchiato
D’ogni qualità, stato, e condizione;
Giuocano i marruffin co i lor cassieri,
E ogni degno Prelato
Del giuoco oggidì fa professione;
Vescovi, e Cavalieri
Seguon tal gonfalone;
E giuoca il Secolare, il Prete, e ’l Frate;
E ’nfino co’ suoi Monaci l’Abate.
Non dunque ingrati voi, che ’n vita state
A tanto esempio, che mai fu, né fia
Dal grato Ciel permesso all’uom mortale?
Giovani, e vecchi amate
La virtù santa, e real mercanzìa?
Che ’l pentir poi non vale;
Che posto, che non sia
Giusto alcun giuoco mai, vi è tanta guerra,
Che si comincia aver l’inferno in terra.
Notes
1 - Tomaso Garzoni da Bagnacavallo, Il Theatro de' vari, e diversi cervelli mondani, Printed in Reggio in 1585.
2 - The so called manuscript Sermo perutilis de ludo was edited by Robert Steele in «Archaeologia or Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity», London; Second series, vol. VII, 1900, pp. 185 - 200.
3 - Anton Francesco Grazzini, Tutti i Trionfi, Carri, Mascherate, o Canti carnascialeschi, andati per Firenze dal tempo del Magnifico Lorenzo vecchio de' Medici, quando egli ebbero prima cominciamento, per infino a questo presente anno 1559, Florence, 1750, p. 407. The first edition appeared in 1559.
4 - Lollio - Imperiali, Invettiva di F. Alberto Lollio accademico Philareto contra il giuoco del tarocco e Risposta di M. Vincenzo Imperiali, ms. 257, Ferrara, Biblioteca Ariostea, ca. 1550.