the Germans, lauffer, the hound or runner ; the Spaniards and Italians, alfil, alfiere, the standard bearer; and the Russians and Swedes, the elephant.

There is no end to conjecture on the subject of this word, which presents itself under the successive forms of fil, alfil, alfin, elphinos, (Gr.), delphinos, elephas, &c.

What was the original shape of this piece it is also difficult to judge: Damiano, whose book on Chess was printed in 1524, calls it delfino, alfil, and alfino; and gives a cut of it, as does likewise the Italian translator of Ruy Lopez in 1584. In both their representations it resembles an urn. The French, at a very early period, called this piece fol (fool). It is natural to derive the word as a Chess term from the original fîl; for it is unreasonable to suppose, that that nation, till lately, so devoted to ecclesiastical establishments, would have introduced the word as a satire on the clergy, however some few of their writers might be disposed.

From this it is probable, that the ancient term was retained after the change in the form took place. But even if otherwise, to

account for the change is no difficult matter, when it is considered what a favourite personage the fool was in those times. Kings and Queens seldom appeared without their fools. Regnier sarcastically says,—

Les foux sont aux Echecs les plus proches des rois. Sat. xiv.

A further proof that the figure of a fool constituted one of the pieces on the ancient French chess-board, occurs in a curious spiritual romance, intitled Le Pélerin de la vie Humaine, composed in the beginning of the 14th century. In this book the author has described the chess-king, at the head of his pieces, attacking and undermining the foundations of a church. In an edition of the translation, printed in 1504, there is a cut-of a chess-board, with a fool among the pieces. The French yet retain this name.

It is uncertain when this piece was first called an archer, or for what reason. Rabelais, in his allegorical description of the game, has so termed it; and Colonna, the author of Poliphilo, whom Rabelais copied, has called it the secretary. Archers were

formerly the body-guards of monarchs, and might have been thought by some more of Chess than fools, espeproper in the game cially if they were inclined to give it a military turn. Vida, in his poem on Chess, describes this piece as an archer; and Beale, who published a translation of Biochimos's Royal Game of Chesse-play, in 1656, makes the bishop and archer the same, with a cloven head.

It is, perhaps, impossible to trace the first appearance of this piece with a forked or broken head. It is represented something in this manner in Caxton's translation of Jacobus De Cessolis; but his rook is given. as still more so. The English and Danes alone, in modern times, call it the bishop; and the first mention of this term in England is in Saul's famous Game of Chesse-play, originally published in 1640, who says, "The game resembles a well-composed commonwealth; the bishops representing the clergy, with high cloven heads, like a bishop's mitre."

The word cornua was used in the middle ages for a mitre; but whether the cornu

formed a separate piece in the ancient European game, or whether the term was synonymous with the alfin, is not quite clear. There is, however, great reason to think that the alfin, the cornu, and the bishop, were in fact the same.

In a very old Latin poem upon Chess, printed by Dr. Hyde, De Ludis Orient. p. 179, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, the piece next the king is termed calvus; and, if this denotes a monk with a shaven crown, it is another very early instance of the introduction of priests among the chess-men.

THE KNIGHT has been always so called upon the European chess-boards. It is probable that he was represented, in the earliest times, as mounted on his charger: Vida has so described him; and the natives of India, as before remarked, frequently make him so in their large sets. Hence, in modern times it has been termed the horse, and so represented. The Spaniards and Italians have adopted both these names, but give it the form of a horse's head: which is the figure generally used by us.

THE ROOK.-The origin of our rook may be found in the old French term roc, or, as it is sometimes mentioned in old MS. poems, ros; not that this French word denoted, upon this occasion, rock or fortress, but that it was immediately borrowed, together with the Spanish and Italian terms, from ruc, the eastern name of this piece. It is, indeed, difficult to say, what the original form of it was on the European chess-board: the oldest we know of is that represented in Caxton's translation of Jacobus De Cessolis, and which is like a mitre with the points inclining outwards, or like two elephant's tusks diverging from each other. It is likewise to be found, under the same shape, in books of heraldry, under the name of chess-rook.

Dr. Hyde thinks, that its forked head is expressive of the two bunches upon the back of the dromedary, under which figure it occurs upon the eastern chess-boards; and he has given representations of the Turkish chess-men, in which this piece exactly resembles that of Caxton.

M. D'Herbelot informs us, that rokh, in the Persian language, signifies a valiant hero