hist-games: Commit/Manille card game history?

[webmaster at historicgames.com]

Commit, (aka Comette, or Manille according to Davib Parlett) is a  
"stops" card game that is an ancestor to the game Pope Joan that also  
features the nine of diamonds (or "manille") as a special card. It is  
also somtimes spelled Comet (Comet is also the name of a later 18th  
century variant).

 From what I've read, stops games such as this became most popular in  
the seventeenth century. But there are webpages that I have read that  
suggest that:

1) Mary Queen of Scots introduced the game to the Scottish court after she
returned from France, or...

2) That it was introduced to Scotland by the queen of James V, Mary of  
Lorraine (also Mary of Guise, 1515 - 1560).

But nothing I've seen gives a reference to where this informaton comes  
from. Does anyone have more info on these possible early references?

I've seen a couple websites with the reference to Mary Queen of Scots  
that seem to mis-spell the name of the game as "Cornette" with and "r"  
but I've suspected for a while that it's a mis-spelling that is being  
spread and preserved by the web. I recently found this web page  
http://www.cardtabletalk.com/ninedia.html that seems to confirms that  
the mis-spelling originates from the book "The Official Encyclopedia  
of Bridge"

Chas
-- 
MacGregor Historic Games
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