Changes in the Text of Whist

(udpated February 13, 2012 to discuss the "thirteenth" edition)
(updated June 8, 2012 to correct errors in discussion of the "twelfth" edition)

Hoyle was generally content with the first version of each of his works. There were no substantive changes to any of his treatises after their initial publication, with the exception of Whist. This essay examines the textual changes in the whist treatise, looking primarily at the addition of new material. The one chapter that Hoyle edited frequently in the earliest editions was on the laws of whist, and those changes are discussed as well. This essay provides a good overview of the most common editions of Hoyle and will help as we look at the propagation of Hoyle's writing to Ireland and to the continent in future essays.

Numbering of editions is always a problem with Hoyle. Through the "tenth" edition, the whist treatise has its own stated edition, whether it was published separately or as part of a collected edition, in which case the stated edition appears on the section title. Beginning in 1756, the section title for whist has no statement of edition, but the collected title page continues the sequence as an "eleventh" edition.

The discussion below omits editions which have no changes in the text from the prior edition, including, for example, the "fifth" and "seventh" editions. Dates are generally from contemporary newspaper advertisements, with the exception of the those for the manuscript and the first edition which I discuss individually. 

Winter 1741-2: Manuscript

As we learn from the first edition of 1742, Hoyle circulated an early version in manuscript form to his private whist students. We can date the manuscript from the title to chapter XIV of the first edition:

Some purchasers of the treatise in manuscript, disposed of the last winter, having desired a further explanation concerning the playing of sequences, they are explained in the following manner. (p74)

Unfortunately, no copies of the manuscript have survived. We know of its existence only from the first printed edition.

November 17, 1742. The first edition printed for the author

The first edition, consisting of 86 pages of text, gives us a clear idea of what the manuscript must have contained. Hoyle noted that "The author of this treatise did promise, if it met with approbation, to make an addition to it by way of appendix, which he has done accordingly." (p1) At the foot of page 46 it a note "what follows in this treatise is the addition promised." Hoyle, then, added 40 pages of new text to manuscript for the first edition. The book was entered at Stationers Hall on November 17, 1742 where nine copies of the book were deposited, giving us the publication date, even though the book was never advertised.

February 19, 1743. London piracies

Francis Cogan bought the whist copyright from Hoyle on February 4, 1743. As I discuss in great detail in "Pirates, Autographs, and a Bankruptcy", Cogan and Hoyle planned a second edition with minor changes to a table of odds for winning a game of whist at various intermediate scores. The planned edition never appeared, and the intended changes first appeared in three pirated editions of February 1743 (here, here, and here).

March 4, 1743. Second edition printed for F. Cogan

To compete against the piracies, rather than published the planned second edition, Cogan arranged for Hoyle to make "great additions" for an expanded second edition. The great additions were actually quite modest, appearing only in the first two gatherings.

Second edition table of contents
(click to enlarge)

They were (1) definitions of two technical terms, “Force” and “See-saw,” crowded into the Table of Contents (pictured at right); (2) a short section called “An explanation and application of the calculations, necessary to be understood by those who are to read this treatise;” (pp4-7) and (3) expansion of the laws of whist from 14 in the first edition to 25 in the second. The table of contents does not match the contents of the first two gatherings, suggesting that they are late additions to the book and confirming the unissued, but planned second edition.

March 18, 1743. Third edition printed for F. Cogan

The third edition contains minor changes to the laws of whist, still 25 in number as in the second edition. The definitions of "force" and "see-saw" are expanded into a new, unnumbered chapter, “An explanation for the use of beginners, of some of the terms or technical words made use of in this treatise.” (pp93-6) Unlike the second edition, the table of contents correctly reflects the early sections of the book, but it still contains the two definitions from the second edition and omits the new chapter.

June 29, 1743. Fourth edition printed for F. Cogan

As noted in the appendix to "Pirates, Autographs, and a Bankruptcy", the fourth edition was printed in part from standing type from the third. Notably, the fourth edition is, along with Backgammon published at the same time, the first to spell Hoyle's first name as "Edmond" rather than "Edmund" although the name briefly reverts in the 1744 treatise on Piquet. The definitions of "force" and "see-saw" are removed from the table of contents, which now includes the chapter "explanation of technical words," though it remains unnumbered. Hoyle edited many of the laws of whist, and reduced the number from 25 to 24. 

November 17, 1743 An Artificial Memory for Whist printed for F. Cogan

Cogan published this least useful of all of Hoyle's works. I include it in this discussion because when Thomas Osborne took over the Hoyle copyright in 1745, he incorporated the work into the whist treatise.

November 9, 1745: Sixth edition printed for T. Osborne.

Dictionary for Whist
(click to enlarge)

The "sixth" edition was published separately and as part of the Osborne collection of Hoyle. It is the first of the whist treatises to to note that the proprietor (Cogan) had obtained an injunction against nine persons for pirating Hoyle, though that announcement first appeared in the backgammon treatise in June 1743. The edition adds "A Dictionary for Whist" (pp62-67) in a question and answer format that has been often copied, as in A Whist Catechism by Mary D'Invilliers Levick, Philadelphia: Lippincott. 1896 (available for download). The title page and contemporary advertisements promise "several case, not hitherto published," but these are cases that were previously published in An Artificial Memory, now incorporated into the whist treatise.

March 7, 1748: Eighth edition printed for T. Osborne.

For the first time, Hoyle was available only as a collected "eighth" edition—the treatises were no longer separately published. The work was reissued a number of times as a "ninth" and "tenth" edition both by Osborne and by William Reeve. As I wrote earlier, these many reissues are difficult to untangle and difficult even to name.

Additional cases in "eighth" edition
(click to enlarge)

Again, the title page and advertisements promise "A whole chapter of thirteen new cases, never publish'd before" and in fact pages 64-9 are the new cases (pictured at right). However, the prior chapter is listed in the table of contents as "Additional Cases, 1747" even though these are the same cases which first appeared in 1744 in Artificial Memory.

December 23, 1760: Twelfth edition printed for T. Osborne.

Additional cases in "twelfth" edition
(click to enlarge)

While the "eleventh" edition contains nothing new, the title page of the "twelfth" edition promises "two new cases at whist, never before printed" which appear in chapter 17 on pages 64-5 (pictured at left). The title page also promises new laws of whist "as played at White's and Saunder's Chocolate-Houses" (pictured below) on pages 66-71. The final chapter keeps "The old laws relating to the game (which are also continued for the use of those who don't chuse to play by the new)."

New laws in "twelfth" edition
(click to enlarge)

pp213-4 Two new cases.

The final two pages, 213-4, contain "Two new cases at Whist, added since this book was printed off." Clearly these cases were a late addition to the book. The cases are not included in chapter 17 where they logically belong. Nor are the listed anywhere in the table of contents. Finally, from a bibliographical perspective, they are an inserted leaf, a single leaf added outside a gathering.

December 13, 1763: Thirteenth edition printed for T. Osborne

New cases in "thirteenth" edition
(click to enlarge)

Like the "twelfth" edition, the title page of the "thirteenth" mentions "two new cases at whist, never before printed." The new cases from pages 64-5 of the "twelfth" edition are compressed into Chapter 17 as Case 1. Cases 2 and 3 are the ones that appear on pages 213-4 of the "twelfth" edition. What is new in the "thirteenth" is case 4, "A case of curiosity, first publish'd 1763" (pictured at right).

Hoyle made no changes in the "fourteenth" (1767) (discussed further here), the last edition to appear in his lifetime and the first to appear after the death of bookseller Thomas Osborne. Unsurprisingly, the title page still promises "two new cases at whist, never before printed," but no new material appears.