Exploring the Cary Sheet

[Rosanne]

Thank you Kwaw- I have been watching the news and the tears flow for the flood damage in England. I think of all those precious books and files on computers that are now lost. I am glad I have regularly put all stuff to disk in updates. I had my cards in cases, which I put in the car, but I have no idea of a complete list of books that lined the walls. Maybe an inventory for people like us that think books are important would be a good idea. My tarot journals are wrecked. Please give my heartfelt condolences to your friends and colleagues that are dealing with this, and tell them someone from the otherside of the world understands the grief and thinks of them.
There is joy, I have Kaplan Vol 2, 3, 4 as they were sitting on the desk under a tarpaulin along with my ancient works of Shakespeare! I have a crystal monkey, whom I talk to by my computer- and for some strange reason he did a trick and landed swimming in my coffee cup- I am looking for a tiny turban to place on his head and I think I will call him Cary as he too is an odd survivor. I love these threads- and I notice that lots of lurkers seem to check them out, but do not post...so please if you are reading this take the plunge and ask questions, or post comments about this wonderful world of Tarot History- it is not just a dry old subject!! Speculation is fun and as Kaplan says at the front of his Encyclopedia The Origins of Tarot remain obscureso nothing is set in concrete and we can speculate away to our hearts content. (we might even find a surprising monkey ) ~Rosanne

 

[Debra]

Hi, all. I'm lurking. Haven't a thing to say except that I appreciate the chance to see the wheels turning in your brains and always find these historical threads interesting, and oh, Rosanne, I'm glad you have your decks ok!

 

[firemaiden]

I have always been wary of french-english dictionaries.

Here is a french definition and etymologie for "bateleur".

http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/bateleur

Étymologie: De l'ancien français baastel (« tour de passe-passe »).
bateleur /bat.lœʁ/ masculin, bateleuse /bat.løz/ féminin

1. Celui, celle qui faisait des tours de passe-passe.
2. Ceux qui montent sur des tréteaux dans les places publiques, comme les charlatans, les danseurs de corde, les joueurs de scènes bouffonnes, etc.

Il s’amuse à regarder les bateleurs.
Une troupe de bateleurs.

3. (Figuré) (Familier) Homme qui fait le bouffon en société.

Il fait le bateleur, c’est un bateleur.

Synonymes

* saltimbanque

translation:
Etymology: from old French: "baastel" meaning "sleight-of-hand trick" (magic tricks)
1) someone who does sleight-of-hand tricks (magician)
2) someone who performs on platforms in public places - like charlatans, tight-rope walkers, actors performing comic scenes, etc.
3) man who plays the buffoon in company

synonyms: saltimbanque.

 

[kwaw]

Randle Cotgrave A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1611) :

Baste: f. A wily sleight or subtiltie, a craftie pranke; an odde tricke, or shrewd turne; also, the skirt of a doublet, &c.

Basteler. To iugle, or tumble; also, to play the buffoone, or foole; to talke verie much, and verie idly; also, to tosse, or wander vncertainely vp and downe.

Basteleur: A iugler, tumbler, puppet-player; one that professeth any of those arts; also, one that leades bears, apes, baboones, or dauncing dogges about the countrey, and gets a scuruie liuing by them.

Bastelerie: f. Jugling; tumbling; puppet-playing; any such foolish pastime, or legerdemaine; also, buffoonisme.

Bateleur. as basteleur

Batteler. To iugle, &c. as basteler

 

[kwaw]

tour de passe-passe

Passe-passe was one of the more common 'magic words' of the iugling art:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1147105&postcount=188

 

[kwaw]

The word bagat, in Breton and Welsh bagad (meaning a herd, tumultuous assembly, troop), has several speculative etymologies ascribed to it.

According to some the colonists and the slaves of Paris and Meraux formed a league under the leadership of two rebellious Christians, which was called in Celtic bagad. The word bagad in the Celtic language meant seditious or riotous assembly: and bagaudes was a name given to the Gallic militia that revolted against Roman oppression and lived in the forests and mountains as brigands. Salvien describes the bagaudes of the Vth century as wandering bands in perpetual rebellion against an iniquitous society and giving an asylum to the oppressed: "The unhappy ones", he says, "flee sometimes among barbarians, sometimes among the bagaudes, and they do not repent it. They prefer freedom under the appearance of slavery to slavery under the appearance of freedom." So while it was a term of abuse applied to them by their enemies it came to mean a sort of freedom fighter who with great courage resisted tyranny and despotism. Nonetheless for all the heroic connotations one imagines such degenerated into wandering brigands trading in crime and vagrancy. So it is some derive it from Greek to mean wandering tradesmen (like the baal shem) and vagrants. Bocha derives it from the Hebrew baged, to revolt or to be perfidious. In the Basque regions the word Bagaude referred to people who lived in the forest and made and traded baskets and some say the 'b' in the Gallic word operated as in Hebrew as a prefix meaning 'in' or 'of' and derive gad from the old Gallic Gau meaning forest so that bagad meant people in or of the forest, or more simply 'forest people', in similar vein it has been said to mean 'living wood'.

Kwaw

 

[Rosanne]

Bastelerie: f. Jugling; tumbling; puppet-playing; any such foolish pastime, or legerdemaine; also, buffoonisme.

Bateleur. as basteleur

Batteler. To iugle, &c. as basteler

Kwaw Can you tell me what was the common term back then? bateleur or Basteleur? Does Basteluer come from a regional or older source? Could it have just been common usage to drop the 's' ? The reason I ask is that in English from the 1500's the word 'baste' meant Card playing from the Old French term 'bastire' to put together or sew together loosely. The beat or thrash use of the term 'baste', came via the spanish word 'bastinado'. They they both came together to mean a low life saddle bag child and the term bastard. Interesting whatever term we take- these entertainers were considered on the low side of life- yet in the Cary-Yale sheet- our man at the table looks well dressed- with stylish shoes, stylish table etc, which makes me think more of the Jongleur the troubadour's apprentice and sidekick.(who became an outcast because he tried to steal the show and became too cocky with his politics and offended the church) ~Rosanne

 

[jmd]

I do not have access to the dictionary, but would suggest that 'Bateleur' is likely 'Bâteleur' = 'Basteleur'.

 

[firemaiden]

Passe-passe was one of the more common 'magic words' of the iugling art:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1147105&postcount=188

Ah, so the expression "tour de passe passe" probably comes from juggling then. But the expression in French usage refers to a a very slick sleight of hand trick creating the illusion of magic, and ususally involves pulling something over on someone (see tour de passe-passe). (Juggling could be included in those kinds of tricks, I suppose.) -- it suggests to me the bateleur (bâteleur, basteleur etc) was more than a juggler or a saltimbanque street performer however, he was also a skilled (important) conjurer/ "magician" and trickster, capable of duperie.

 

[firemaiden]

I do not have access to the dictionary, but would suggest that 'Bateleur' is likely 'Bâteleur' = 'Basteleur'.

The "s" would likely have gotten "added back in" during the 16th century (there was a spelling reform to make French look more like its Latin roots) and then removed again and given a circumflex to show the "s" had been there historically. You will see the French words with and without s's and with and without circumflexes, and with and without double a - old French was not one uniform language with one spelling.