No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Dice in an Old Czech Passion Play
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2017
Extract
In an Old Czech Fragment of a passion play, written toward the end of the fourteenth or at the beginning of the fifteenth century (the John Hus period, —1369–1415 —), published by K. J. Erben in Výbor z literatury české od počátku XV do konce XVI století (Prague, 1868), II, 30–38, under the title Úlomek hry divadelné na umučení Pánê, there is a scene where four Roman soldiers are casting dice for Christ's tunic.
This would be nearest to John, XIX, 23–24: “The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose shall it be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith,
They parted my garments among them,
And upon my vesture they cast lots.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1941
References
1 Psalm XXII, 18.
2 In Greek the readings are: 
; cf. The New Testament in the original Greek (the text revised by Brook Foss Westcott D.D., Fenton John Anthony Hort, D.D.) London, 1895.
3 Gebauer, Historická mluvnice, III, 138: saducz. There should be a comma after this word, in order to avoid a misunderstanding, unless saditi means here vsaditi se, ‘to bet,’ ‘set the price on’.
4 Class. Latin: tesserae<
; DuCange, Glossarium, VIII, 42: Taxilli, Lusoriae tesserae, Dez.
6 Class. Latin: tesseras jacere; cf. also, Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Enzyklopädie, s.v.
6 Patera-Sreznevski, Češskija glossy v Mater verbvrum (St. Petersburg, 1878) p. 33: (scorne), ocreas, tybialia, que suras tegunt.
7 P. Ovidii Nasonis Opera, e textu Burmanni (Oxford, 1825), II, 213:
Sunt aliis scriptae, quibus alea luditur, artes:
Haec est ad nostros non leve crimen avos.
Quid valeant tali; quo possis plurima jactu
Fingere; damnosos effugiasve canes;
Tessera quot numeros habeat: distante vocato
Mittere quo deceat, quo dare missa modo:
… … … … … … …
Quique alii lusus, neque enim nunc persequar omnes,
Perdere, rem caram, tempora nostra solent.
8 Dante, Purgatorio, VI, 1–3 (S. A. Sbarbi edition, Florence, 1938):
Quando si parte il gioco de la zara,
Colui che perde si riman dolente,
Repetendo le volte, e tristo impara.
This game was played with three dice; cf. L. Zdekauer, Il giuoco in Italia nei secoli XIII e XIV, pp. 7–9:
Longfellow's translation, 1867:
Whene'er is broken up the game of Zara,
He who has lost remains behind despondent,
The throws repeating, and in sadness learns.
Louis How's translation, 1938:
Finished a game of hazard with the dice,
The loser stays dejected in his place,
Repeats the throws, from sadness gets advice.
Bulgarian zarŭ, through Turkish; likewise Roumanian zar.
9 Karl Thams, Deutsch-bömisches Nationallexikon (Prague and Vienna, 1788), has the terras: kostkami metati, w kostky, w kůtky, w koty hráti. Dobrowský's Deulsch-böhmisches Wörlerbuch (Prague, 1821), has: kostka, krychle; kostky, w kostky hráti, o nêco kostky wrhnauti; hra w kostky; tauš, žíž.
10 Lusatian Serbian: kóstka; w kóstku, w kóstki hrać.
Polish: kostka; gra kostek, grać w kostki, grać w kości, losem kości; O suknię, moję, motali kostkami.—Fr. L. Čelakovský, Všeslovanské počátečni čtení (Prague, 1850), p. 5: kiedy by opat kostek przy sobie nienosit, tedy by mnisi w nie niegrali.
Russian: kosti; igrat’ v kosti, brosat', metat’ kosti (kost'mi).
Bulgarian: igrata na kosti, but more usually: zarŭ, xvŭrlianie zarov; vamŭ le redŭ da xvŭrlite zara.
Slovak: kocka (kostka); ná (v) kocki sa hrat', kocku uhodit', kockovat'.
Slovene: kocka, v kocke igráti.
Serbo-Croatian: kocka (kostka); igra na kocke, kockanje, baciti kocku, metati, bacati kocku, kocke vrgoše.
Lettish: kaulins; kaulinus mest; Lithuanian: wérpelis; wérpelieis záisti, sspieliúti; wérpelius mèsti; kauleliais lošti.