[Ads-l] thoughts on "stacking"/"packing"/"stocking" cards

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2015 at 10:40 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>
> If we allow that "a pair of cards" sometimes meant "a pack of cards" (cf. GB
> 1816 "The Pack of Cards is also continually by our older writers termed a
> Paire, or Pair of Cards," from Researches into the History of Playing Cards...),
> then the following House of Commons speech by Lord Bacon, 17 Feb. 1823
> [Hansard]may be relevant:
>
> So that, to speak plainly, the king had better call for a new pair of cards
> than play upon these if they be packed; and then for the people, it is my
> manner ever to look as well beyond a parliament as upon a parliament; and if
> they abroad shall think themselves betrayed by those that are their deputies
> and attorneys here, it is true we may bind them and conclude them, but
> it will be with such murmur and insatisfaction as I would be loth to see. These
> things might be dissembled, and so things left to bleed inwardly; but that
> is not the way to cure them and therefore I have searched the sore, in hope
> that you will endeavour the medicine." Now, that which lord Bacon had
> discussed as a mere chimera, had actually come to pass. The cards were now
> packed; that House was packed. His hon. friend, the member for Shrewsbury,
> had shown, by the report from that committee, which had been instituted
> upon his motion, that there were 79 members of the House who held offices
> to the amount in value of 180,000l. per annum. These members might be called
> the court cards of the pack, and in all committees of supply there would be
> found the same cards.

The reference to "Lord Bacon" here may be alluding to Bacon's
parliamentary "Speech about Undertakers" from 1615, cited in the OED3
entry for "pack":

1615   Bacon _Speech Undertakers_ in _Wks._ (1879) I. 498/1   Some
shall be thought practisers that would pluck the cards, and others
shall be thought papists that would shuffle the cards... The king were
better call for a new pair of cards, than play upon these if they be
packed.

Text: https://books.google.com/books?id=4YBQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA270

--bgz

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