62

ETYMOLOGICAL

CHAP. V.

DESCRIPTION OF THE

GAME, PIECES, &c. AND EXPLANATION

OF THE TERMS MADE USE OF.

CHESS.

THE game of Chess, according to Sir William Jones, has been immemorially known in Hindostan, by the name of Chaturanga, or the four members of an army, viz. elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers.

By a corruption of the pure Shanscrit word, it was changed by the old Persians into Chatrang; but the Arabs, who soon after took possession of their country, having neither the initial nor the final letter of that word in their alphabet further altered it into Shatranj, which found its way into modern Persia, and at length into the dialects of India, where the true derivation of the name is known only to the learned; and thus has a very significant word in the sacred lan

guage

of the Brahmins been transformed, by successive ages, into Axedrez, Scacchi, Echecs, Chess.

Sarasin, who wrote in 1683, has a treatise expressly on the different opinions of the ori ́gin of the Latin word Scacchi, from which is derived the French word Echecs and our Chess.

Leunclavius supposes it to come from Uscoches, famous Turkish Robbers. Sirmond from the German Scache (theft), and that from Calculus. He, as well as Vossius and Salmasius, supposes Chess to be the Ludus Latrunculorum of the Romans; and imagines the word Calculus may have been used

for Latrunculus.:

Fabricius, as before remarked, derives the name from Schatrenscha, a Persian astronomer, whom he takes to be the inventor. Tolosanus from the Hebrew Scach, valavit, and mat, mortuus; whence our check and check-mate.

Nicod derives it from Schecque, or Xeque, a Moorish word for lord, king, or prince. Bochart adds, that Scachmat signifies the King is dead. Scriverius follows this opinion.

THE KING.-This piece seems always to have been so called by every writer, and in every country.

THE QUEEN-is as uniformly so called by the moderns, except the Poles and Russians, who, according to Dr. Hyde, give it also the name of the the old woman, or nurse.

The French, and after them the English, during the middle ages, called it fierce, fierges, feers, derived from the Persian pherz or phirzin, a minister, vizier, counsellor, or general; for it is clear that the game, however since corrupted, was originally a military one. The military spirit of the Asiatic game is still preserved in the method of playing; but the warlike characters of the actors have been almost entirely converted into those composing the principal classes of a well-regulated society-such as kings, queens, knights, bishops, fools, and peasants.

Unless the similarity in sound between the words pherz and vierge (virgin), occa

sioned the introduction of the latter term among the Europeans, it is difficult to account for it; it is, however, probable,

that the mere sound of the word might have given rise to the whole change of the game ; for the extravagant veneration of the times towards the Holy Virgin, would naturally lead to the introduction of a queen, and the rest followed of course. In an ancient Latin poem, the queen is called virgo.

Monsieur Freret says, " Men were soon persuaded that 'the picture of human life would be very imperfect without a woman: that sex playing too important a part not to have a place in the game, accordingly the minister was changed into ferz, or queen. The similarity of the words fierge and vierge facilitated the change; which appeared to be the more reasonable, as the piece is placed by the side of the king, and in the beginning could not move above two squares from him." He observes, that the romantic spirit of the times disdained this contracted motion, as rather resembling the slavery of the Asiatic females, than the privileges enjoyed by those of Europe, on which account it was rendered as free as possible, by being made it the most important of all the pieces. Although the title of queen cannot be

F

traced so far back as that of fierce, it is of considerable antiquity, as it is to be met with in the French MSS. and stories of the 13th century it is there called regina.

M. Freret believes it is not possible to trace the term fers, in the English language, beyond the time of Chaucer.

In the reign of Henry VII. and indeed long before this time, the piece was called queen.

This change in the title of the piece occasioned an absurdity which still exists. When a pawn, or common soldier, has penetrated the enemy's battalions as far as the last line of the board, he is not allowed to return back, but is honoured with the

step and prerogatives of the queen. If the ferzin or the fierge be a vizir, a first minister, or a general of an army, it is not unnatural that a common soldier should be elevated to their rank, in recompense of the valour with which he has pierced through the enemy. But if the fierge be a lady, a queen, or the king's wife, it is absurd to make the pawn change his sex, and become a woman.

This may be reconciled by considering,