Quadrille is a four-player trick-taking game of the Ombre family, played with a forty-card pack. Its lowest contract creates a concealed partnership between the declarer and the holder of a called King; its higher contracts are played alone against the other three players. Every deal is played, six of the ten tricks are required for victory, and the game uses permanent trumps headed by Spadille, the Ace of spades.
The form ordinarily called Quadrille in English corresponds to the later French game called Médiateur. The older French game named Quadrille was its direct ancestor, lacked both the favourite suit and the King-exchange contract, and is now chiefly of historical interest. The later form is therefore treated as the ordinary English game throughout this article; the older form and its differences are described at the end.
Quadrille developed in France at the end of the seventeenth century and became fashionable at the French court and among the British upper and middle classes, particularly women.M.V.D. (1752), p. iv.
History and reception A contemporary account dates the introduction of Quadrille to the southern provinces of France to about 1695 and states that it reached Paris and most other provinces several years later.Jordan et al. (1722), pp. 398–399. The earliest known English rules appeared in 1720 as The Game of Quadrille; or Ombre by Four, a work presenting the game as a recent French import and the favourite game of the French court.The Game of Quadrille (1720). A French treatise, Les Jeux de Quadrille et de Quintille, followed in 1724 and remarked that no one had yet collected the rules despite the game's rapid spread.Les Jeux de Quadrille et de Quintille (1724), pp. 1–2.
The later form was published in 1752 as Les Règles du Médiateur.M.V.D. (1752). It retained the ordinary structure of four-handed Ombre but added the favourite suit and the intermediate solo contract in which a called King is exchanged. English writers continued to use the older name Quadrille for the game as a whole; the exchange contract was also called Dimidiator or Commutation.
Quadrille appears repeatedly in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century diaries and literature. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her guests play it on several occasions. Thomas Vernon recorded frequent games while exiled in Rhode Island during the American Revolution, and James Woodforde also mentioned it often in his diary. In Ireland, a Dublin pamphlet ostensibly proposing new rules caused controversy in 1736 when it proved to be a political attack by Archbishop Josiah Hort upon Richard Bettesworth MP.
The game requires strict silence from players and spectators. Because the partner in a simple call is initially unknown, a word, gesture, or conspicuous movement may reveal allegiance or alter the choice of card. The rule is especially important when the declaring side is considering the vole.
The central device of the called King used in Quadrille is an almost exact parallel to that used in Königrufen; the method of account is much like Grosstarock; and cards rank as in L'Hombre, of which this is a variation.
Rules
Scope and terminology Unless otherwise stated, the following rules describe the later form known in English as Quadrille and in the French source as Médiateur. Rules peculiar to the older French game are placed under Historical Quadrille.
Four players receive ten cards each. The player who wins the bidding is the Taker, traditionally the Hombre. In a simple call, the player holding the called honour becomes the Taker's concealed partner, also called the Friend; the other two players are the defenders. In the Médiateur contract and in sans-prendre, the Taker plays alone against three defenders. Except where a rule depends specifically upon the card being a King, a reference to the called King also covers a non-trump Queen legally called by a player holding all four Kings.
Six tricks win a contract. Five tricks by the declaring side constitute a remise; four or fewer constitute a codille. A player or side that takes all ten tricks makes the vole. A beast is the stake penalty incurred for losing a contract or for certain irregularities.
The historical sources use relative positional expressions such as above and below the Taker. These refer to the order of play, not to a fixed diagram of the table. The term en cheville is retained in a few examples where the original positional expression has no exact modern English equivalent.
Silence is a rule of play rather than etiquette alone. No player or spectator may disclose the state of the cards, suggest a play, identify a partner, or influence a decision about the vole.
Equipment and stake
Quadrille traditionally uses the same type of European gaming counters as Ombre, Piquet, Nain Jaune, Grosstarock, and Trictrac à écrire. The ordinary denominations are round jetons or cents, fish-shaped counters known as fish, and square markers. Sets may be distinguished by colour or by the four suit signs, although the distinctions are not necessary to play. Some sets add a fourth, smaller round counter called a mil; it is not needed for the standard reckoning described below. (A mil is one-tenth of a cent, hence its name.)
+Value of the countersCounterValueJeton1 jetonFish10 jetonsMarker10 fish = 100 jetons
A common set contains ten jetons, ten fish and five markers, representing 610 jetons. An alternative set contains ten jetons, nineteen fish and five markers, representing 700 jetons. Seven fish, or 70 jetons, form a reprise; a loss of one or two reprises therefore means a net loss of seven or fourteen fish. (In the event mils are used, one of the jetons is replaced by ten mils, with the total being 6,100 or 7,000 mils.)
Before play begins, the players agree upon the monetary value of a fish and upon the number and value of the rounds. A sitting is the complete agreed game during which the players retain the same seats.
Pack and rank of the cards Quadrille uses forty cards. A French-suited pack is prepared by removing the eights, nines and tens. A forty-card Spanish pack may be used instead: swords and clubs correspond to the black or historically “long” suits, while cups and coins correspond to the red or “round” suits; the Spanish caballo corresponds to the Queen.
The two black Aces are permanent trumps and therefore do not take their natural places in their own suits. The remaining cards rank as follows when their suit is not trump.
+Natural rank, highest to lowestSuitsOrderHearts and diamondsKing, Queen, Jack, Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7Spades and clubsKing, Queen, Jack, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
After the Taker names trumps, the trump suit ranks as follows.
+Trump rank, highest to lowestRed trump suitBlack trump suitSpadille (Ace of spades)Spadille (Ace of spades)Manille (7 of the trump suit)Manille (2 of the trump suit)Baste (Ace of clubs)Baste (Ace of clubs)Ponte (Ace of the trump suit)KingKingQueenQueenJackJack7263544536—
The Ace of spades, Spadille, is always the highest trump. The Ace of clubs, Baste, is always the third. The card between them is Manille: the two of the named suit when a black suit is trump, or the seven of the named suit when a red suit is trump. A red Ace is called Ponte only when its own suit is trump, in which case it ranks immediately below Baste. There is no Ponte in a black contract. A red trump suit consequently contains twelve trumps and a black trump suit eleven.
Spadille, Manille and Baste are the three true Matadors. When one or more true Matadors are the holder's only trumps, the holder need not follow an inferior trump lead and may discard instead. The privilege is limited in two ways. A player who also holds an ordinary trump must follow trumps, and a higher Matador led to the trick forces a lower one: Spadille forces Manille or Baste, and Manille forces Baste. A higher Matador played after an inferior trump does not force a lower Matador, because it was not the card led.
Cards continuing the unbroken trump sequence below Baste may be counted and paid as additional Matadors. Thus the three true Matadors together with Ponte and the trump King are called five Matadors in a red suit. These additional Matadors have the name and payment value only; they do not share the privilege of refusing a trump lead.
An unbroken sequence beginning with Manille when Spadille is missing is called a sequence of false Matadors. When none of the true Matadors is held by the Taker or declaring partnership, the Matadors are said to be outside.
To duck is to play below a card that could have been overtaken. A player unable to follow the suit led may trump, overtrump, or discard; neither trumping nor overtaking is compulsory. Before trumps are named, the two black Aces are ordinarily grouped with the prospective trump suit that gives the hand its best chance of success.
Seating, favourite, and rounds Seats are drawn before the sitting. One method uses a King, Queen, Jack and Ace: the holder of the King chooses a seat, the Queen sits to the right, the Jack next, and the Ace in the remaining place. Another method uses two cards of each suit, one set laid at the four seats and the matching set drawn by the players. Suit-marked fish may be used in the same way. The last arrivals traditionally draw first.
A favourite suit, also called the preference, is then selected for the whole sitting. Under the first seating method, the holder of the King determines it; under the suit method, the holder of clubs does so. The selected player may have a pack cut and turn up the bottom card of the lifted portion, whose suit becomes the favourite. Alternatively, cards are dealt face up around the table until the first King appears; its suit is the favourite and the player before whom it falls deals first.
The favourite has two effects. First, a bid in the favourite outranks the same class of bid in an ordinary suit, subject to the earlier bidder's right to match it. Secondly, most payments for a contract in the favourite are doubled. The detailed exceptions appear under Scoring and payment.
A round consists of four deals, one by each player. The first dealer normally marks each returning round on a spare card. The length of a sitting is agreed beforehand: ten rounds with the last doubled is common, but eleven or twelve rounds and other arrangements are also recorded. A doubled round is called a round of grand poulans; all four deals in it are played at the agreed double rate.
The deal and preparation of the packs Two prepared packs are ordinarily used so that one may be shuffled while the other is in play. The dealer takes the pack placed on the right, shuffles it, and offers it to the player on the left to cut. The lifted portion is placed beneath the portion left on the table.
Beginning with the player on the right, the dealer gives ten cards to each player in two packets of three and one packet of four. The packets may be dealt in the order 3–3–4, 3–4–3, or 4–3–3, but no other packet sizes are permitted. After the cards have been distributed, the dealer places six fish partly forward on the table; this is putting up the poulans.
The player on the dealer's right, who was first hand in the completed deal, becomes the next dealer and takes the prepared pack from the right. The player opposite the dealer gathers the used cards, shuffles or otherwise prepares them, and places that pack on the left so that it will lie on the next dealer's right. This duty is called doing the housekeeping. Each player should perform the assigned housekeeping personally, because a pack placed on the wrong side may obscure the order of dealing.
The next dealer should distribute the cards and put up the poulans before settling the preceding account. The dealer speaks last in the bidding and can therefore examine the hand and settle payments while the other players speak.