Tarot History Forum

Of course we have heard of Casanova's Zaïre, but generally we do not know the names of the cartomancers we read about, and then usually it is only because they have been convicted of crimes associated with their activity.

Here is a more romantic, and quite early, exception.

1734, Anna M.

(jk)

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Tarotica wrote:Of course we have heard of Casanova's Zaïre, but generally we do not know the names of the cartomancers we read about, and then usually it is only because they have been convicted of crimes associated with their activity.

Here is a more romantic, and quite early, exception.

1734, Anna M.

(jk)

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Here is the reference -

"1734 Anna M. as cartomancer in The Gentleman’s Magazine: or, Monthly Intelligencer. For the Year 1734 (Volume IV, no. xlvi, October, 1734), p. 568 (J. Karlin)

On a Young Lady’s telling a Gentleman his
FORTUNE on a Pack of CARDS

In mystick leaves, while (1) Anna deals my fate,
And gives me joys of wedlock, wealth, and state:
Her wit and beauty, innocence and art.
Ravish my soul, and rob me of my heart:
My hopes and bliss in her alone remain,
I scorn the world my Sybil to obtain.
Cassandra thus the fate of Troy fore-shew’d.
And raging flames her flying words pursu’d.
(1) Mrs Anna M---- Doncaster. JH (?)

It is here -
http://books.google.com/books?id=I2jPAA ... 22&f=false

and here -
http://books.google.com/books?id=I1c3AA ... 22&f=false

However, she is not the earliest named cartomancer. So far that is Margarita de Borja, who confessed to reading the cards during her trial by the Inquisition in Madrid, 1615-1617.

Ah, thanks Ross - the cards as Sybil's leaves reminds me of the OXONIAN IN TOWN. COMEDY IN TWO ACTS by George Colman - first play at at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden, November, 1767.

Spoken by Mrs. Mattocks

Enters with a pack of cards.

HERE they are, ladies! Should thefe charming packs
Be doubly loaded with a filthy tax?
My card to your's, my lord, a thoufand pound !
Oh, charming fport! oh, might I deal 'em round !
Yet I will ufe 'em; and, oh, deign to lift !
Tho' 'tis no lecture on the game of whift.

The future doom of gamefters to explore,
I, like the Sybil's leaves, the cards turn o'er.
Nor, think, ye fair, thefe books of fate deceive,
Thefe only books 'tis modifh to believe.
Firft, with long ftaff, fhort coat, a fwaggering
fpark,

Some gambler 'prentice, or attorney's clerk,
His fortune afks—what card defcribes thefe cubs-?
Oh ! here I have him—in the knave of clubs.
By clear conftruction of thefe pips I read,
Thus he will play his cards, and thus fucceed:
At hazard, faro, brag, he joins the groupe,
And ends a knave, as he commenc'd a dupe;
And thence his broken fortunes to repair,
At Hounflow firft, then Tyburn, takes the air.

Here, in the king of diamonds, piclur'd ftands
An heir, juft warm in his dead father's lands.
Now hey for cards and dice ! his elbows fhake ;
The fympathizing trees and acres quake.
His cooks lament, dogs howl, and grooms regret
Their fate depending on each defperate bet.
Now dup'd, the bullet whizzes thro' his head,
And fhatters duft to duft, by lead to lead.

Lo ! next to my prophetic eye, there ftarts
A beauteous gamefter, in the queen of hearts.
The cards are dealt, the fatal pool is loft,
And all her golden hopes for ever croft.
Yet ftill this card-devoted fair I view,
Whate'er her luck, to honour ever true :
So tender there, if debts croud faft upon her,
She'd pawn her virtue to preferve her honour.

Thrice happy were my art, could I foretell.
Cards would be foon abjur'd by each fond belle!
Yet I pronounce, who cherifh ftill this vice,
And the pale vigils keep of cards and dice,
'Twill in their charms ftrange havock make, ye fair!
Which rouge in vain fhall labour to repair.
Beauties fhall grow mere hags, toafts wither'd jades,
Frightful, and ugly as the queen of fpades!

from "The Dramatick Works of George Colman" (1777)