The mention of a comedy shown before the Queen at Windsor by the children of her Majesty's Chapel, naturally suggests the recollection of John Lyly's Court Comedies, which were wont to be shown by the same children, as well as by the "children of Poules;" and as in one of those comedies,--Alexander and Campaspe,--Lyly has committed an anachronism with respect to cards,[148] an opportunity is thus afforded of here introducing the pleasantly conceited song that contains the error,--a song, which Elia would have encored, and which even Mrs. Battle herself would have allowed to be sung at the card table during the intermission of the game at the end of a rubber, when cutting in for new partners.[149]
"Cupid and my Campaspe play'd At cards for kisses; Cupid paid: He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows, His mother's doves, and team of sparrows; Loses them too: then down he throws The coral of his lip, the rose Growing on's cheek (but none knows how); With these the chrystal on his brow, And then the dimple of his chin: All these did my Campaspe win. At last he set her both his eyes: She won, and Cupid blind doth rise. O Love, has she done this to thee? What shall, alas, become of me!"
Before taking leave of the reign of Elizabeth, it seems proper to insert here what Philip Stubbes says about Cards, Dice, Tables, Tennis, and other games, in his 'Anatomie of Abuses.'[150] "As for Cardes, Dice, Tables, Boules, Tennisse, and such like," says the moral dissector, speaking in the person of Philoponus, "thei are _Furta officiosa_, a certaine kind of smothe, deceiptfull, and sleightie thefte, whereby many a one is spoiled of all that ever he hath, sometimes of his life withall, yea, of bodie and soule for ever: and yet (more is the pitie) these be the only exercises used in every mans house, al the yere through. But especially in Christmas time there is nothyng els used but Cardes, Dice, Tables, Maskyng, Mummyng, Bowling, and such like fooleries. And the reason is, thei think thei have a commission and prerogative that tyme to doe what thei list, and to followe what vanitie they will. But (alas) doe thei thinke that thei are privileged at that time to doe evill? the holier the time is (if one time were holier then another, as it is not) the holier ought their exercises to bee."