Trictrac, a board game of skill and chance similar to backgammon that was played with dice on a game board, was very popular in France at the royal court and in aristocratic circles in the 17th and 18th centuries. It experienced a renaissance during the Restoration before almost disappearing at the end of the 19th century. It was one of a family of games of skill and chance that included backgammon, then known in France as toutes tables,Its rules are given in the Suite au Jeu du Trictrac (1699), Paris: Charpentier. and jacquet, which was much simpler and did not appear until around 1800.Lepeintre (1818).
H. J. R. Murray notes trictrac's resemblance to the Spanish laquet in that neither game features captures of opponent pieces.Murray (1951), p. 124 [s.v. 6.2.29]. The oldest treatise on trictrac was written in 1634 by Jollivet, a lawyer at the Parlement of Paris, in order to standardise its rules which had hitherto been handed on by oral tradition.de Jollivet (1634). Since then, the rules have remained very stable as evinced by the treatises in the bibliography, only minor changes having been made. One author noted this as early as 1818: "It is common knowledge that it has been played as it is now being played for 150 years, without its rules having undergone significant variations."
The last major treatise was published in 1852.
Origin The main sources for determining the origin of trictrac are the treatises published since the 17th century:Jolyvet (1634)._ (1698, 1701, 1715).
Jollivet (1634), in the earliest treatise on the history of the game knew nothing about its age or country of origin:
The anonymous author of the second book on trictrac, published by CharpentierRecord of printer-bookseller Henri Charpentier at the BNF website. (1698, 1701, 1715) cites two possible countries, France and Germany (in fact, Vienna in Austria) as its origin and comes down in favour of France:
Soumille (1738) and Fallavel (1776) do not tackle the subject nor do Guiton (1816) or Lelasseux-Lafosse who wrote the last major treatise in 1852.Soumille (1738).Fallavel (1776).Guiton (1816).
Lepeintre (1818), without providing a source, advances the proposition that trictrac was introduced into France at the beginning of the 16th century:
The treatises on the game do not go back before the early 17th century and searches of the literature are hampered by the fact that the word trictrac was also given to the board used for all table gamesSoumille (1756), p. 1: "we call it 'Grand Trictrac' to distinguish it from 'Tous tables' which is a kind of game, like Coquimbert. The word 'trictrac' is also used for the board on which we play. Coquimbert was a way of playing that is today called Qui Perd Gagne. and modern versions of ancient texts have the word trictrac when it did not exist in the originals. Any search on the word trictrac in its different spellings must be accompanied by that of expressions specific to the game.A poem entitled La Friquassée crotestyllonnée, des antiques modernes chansons, the preface of which is dated 1557, notably takes up, sometimes playing on words, a large number of expressions of children's games, practised at the time in Rouen, three of which are also typical of the game of trictrac:Sidredoulx (1878).
However, these expressions were very common at that time (the first two refer to a deceived husband, the last a prostitute), so the reference to trictrac is not certain. In addition, in 1907 a book was published bringing together in particular group games still played in the Normandy bocage, including the one entitled "Petit jean, Gros Jean, et Margot la fendue" which was played with three counters of wood, one small, one longer and another fork-shaped, and which could well correspond to the one quoted in La Friquassée crotestyllonnée of 1557.Madelaine, A., Au Bon Vieux Temps: récits, contes et légendes de l'ancien Bocage normand, jeux, Vieilles chansons, Delesques, Paris, 1907, pp. 348–349.
Tic-tac Tic-tac or tick-tack is a game very close to trictrac, using some of its characteristic situations and features. The movement rules for the men are less restrictive, and points are not scored. As soon as a player achieves a winning game situation that player wins the partie. It is thus a very fast game, a few minutes to a quarter of an hour of playing time, favouring bets and raising.See the definition of the word referred on the lexical portal of the CNRTL.
Jollivet gives it the name of petit Tricque-trac and in contrast that of grand Tricque-trac to trictrac. He also writes that the former was not played by the French.Jollivet (1656), p. 41. It appears to have been played mainly in England where two authors give rules for it in the middle of the 17th century.Cotton (1674) and Willughby (c. 1665–1670). Despite the obvious family link between the two games, no source confirms that tic-tac is either the precursor of trictrac or its successor.
Spelling and etymology
The French word trictrac has been variously spelt: tricque-trac, trique-trac,Jollivet uses both spellings, tricque-trac and trique-trac, in L'Excellent Jeu du Tricque-trac, widow Jean Promé, Paris, 1656. triquetrac,Nicot (1606), p. 644. trictracCharpentier, Soumille, Fallavel, Guiton, Lepeintre, Lelasseux-Lafosse. and, more rarely, tric trac or tric-trac. Nowadays, only the last three spellings are used, the others having long ago fallen into disuse.Féraud (1787–1788): "We wrote Trictrac or Trique-trac; now we only write the former; they are pronounced the same, the e of the second being very silent".
As for etymology, today it is widely believed that the word trictrac is an onomatopoeia, but this is not universally accepted. Jollivet (1634) considers that the word trictrac is an onomatopoeia before asking the reader to be satisfied with this linguistic origin since "the subject is a game and not a science":
The anonymous author of the second treatise, published by Charpentier (1698, 1701, 1715), prefers a Greek origin, more noble and learned:
Soumille (1738 and 1756), quoting the leading lexicographers, affirms that the word "trictrac" is an onomatopoeia:
Fallavel (1776) is the most direct: "the game draws its name from the noise we make while playing it."Fallavel (1776), p. 1.
Guiton (1816 and 1822) does not address the subject, while Lepeintre (1818) initially distances himself from the name being an onomatopoeia before adopting it:
Lelasseux-Lafosse (1852), lecturer at l'X and author of the last important treatise of the 19th century, quotes the two hypotheses previously put forward without taking sides:
In conclusion, there is nothing to support either thesis. While the one on Greek origin appears complex, that of onomatopoeia, although attractive, appears equally uncertain. However, another old meaning of the word trictrac tends to reinforce the onomatopoeia hypothesis, it being also a 17th-century name for a driven hunt:
Poetry A number of verse works treat trictrac as a direct referent; bar one work in Latin, all known examples are in the French language. The first such poem, Les élémens du trictrac by one M. [Monsieur] Cassan, appeared the 1698 anthology, Le Mercure galant; it takes an extremely direct approach, going through the scoring combinations listed above in Alexandrine couplets, and remains the standard work for anyone wishing to explore the game through verse.
Another example, Le jeu du tricque-trac rendu à ses maximes, by an Estienne de Jollyvet, is often found in newer editions of the first trictrac rulebook by Euverte de Jollivet; it serves as a pastiche of the quatrains of Nostradamus, and once again takes a direct approach in explaining not only the rules of the game, but also its equipment. Notably, it references modification (drilling) of the backgammon board by the player himself, implying that many boards sold in France at the time were not so drilled (an unmodified board would serve for verquere or for backgammon, which were played at the time largely as they are today):
The sole Latin work is entitled Trictracus carminibus elegiacis illustratus by Jacques Robbe, appearing in an 18-page booklet in 1710; this poem takes the form of traditional elegiac couplets, with a dedication to the "Bignonids" (the family of Jean-Paul Bignon). Humorously, the poem complains of the difficulty in rendering many of the distinctive terms of trictrac in any language but French, and begs the reader to hold back in his criticism on these grounds.
The last such work is that of one Deshayes; it was printed as part of a trictrac glossary in 1834.
Drama In Jean-François Regnard's comic play Le Joueur, the character Toutabas is named for the tout à bas move in trictrac (that is, using a roll of the dice to move exactly two men from the talon), as described in its rules above. In Act I, Scene 10, mistaking Géronte, compulsive gambler Valère's father, for Valère himself, Toutabas introduces himself as a "master of trictrac", though in a way that suggests his mastery is that of prestidigitation and the use of two pairs of loaded dice, rather than that of trictrac proper:
Attentive readers will note the use of the technical terms sonnez (double six), plein (fill), as (ace), and enfiler (to string together, to enfilade).
Toutabas then offers to teach Géronte how to "palm a die like me" ("Je veux, par mon savoir extrême, / Que vous escamotiez un dé comme moi-même") and demands a month's wages in advance, at which point he is forcefully rebuffed.
(A modern equivalent might be to use magnetic dice; these are manufactured to force 1 or 6 via the strategic use of a magnetic finger-ring, eliminating the need to palm and switch loaded dice. The compliance of such devices with the rules of trictrac as commonly construed may, however, be open to doubt, at least in contexts involving wagers.)
These practices were recognised and condemned with some force in much of the literature. One of the quatrains hereabove described notes:
Social class of trictrac players and the game's popularity by period
Ancien Régime
Trictrac does not seem to have been played, or was played only very little, outside the salons of high society, where it was practised by both sexes.
The full title of Euverte Jollyvet, sieur de Votilley's treatise, L'Excellent Jeu du tricque-trac. Très Doux Esbattement és nobles compagnies, would by itself suffice to justify this supposition regarding the seventeenth century. A quotation from this book, first published in 1634, is unambiguous:
At the end of the reign of Louis XIV, trictrac still retained all its popularity in the salons, as is attested in the treatise Le Jeu de trictrac, comme on le joue aujourd'hui, published in 1698, 1701, and 1715:
Under Louis XV, in 1738, Abbé Laurent Soumille, in the preface to his treatise Le Grand Trictrac, published in Avignon, bears witness to players' loss of interest in trictrac and attributes the cause to the complexity of the rules and to the scarcity of good masters:
Soumille's book probably helped revive the game of trictrac, and the period that followed was that of the elegant trictrac tables that came to furnish drawing rooms. Until then (and since), hinged boards (i.e. attaché cases, with chess or draughts on the outside and trictrac and backgammon when opened) had been used.
Under Louis XVI, Fallavel, in his treatise Le Jeu du trictrac, ou les Principes de ce jeu, is optimistic about the popularity of the game, but indirectly expresses his fears for its future:
Restoration After the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, with the restoration of the monarchy, the families of royalist émigrés returned to France; and Lepeintre, in 1818, in his treatise entitled Cours complet de trictrac, avec un abrégé du gammon, du jacquet et du garanguet,Garanguet is a tables game close to jacquet but requiring three dice. By gammon, Lepeintre means backgammon. gives an account of the situation regarding the game of trictrac: