1. Two trumps and three cards of one plain suit should not be played unless the plain suit is headed by a court card.
2. One trump and a tierce major is too weak, unless the fifth card is a court card. With similar hands weaker in the tierce major suit, accept unless the fifth card is a queen.
3. One trump and four cards of a plain suit is too weak to play.
4. One trump and two queens is too weak, unless both queens are singly guarded.
5. One trump, queen of one suit, and knave guarded of another should not be played unless the queen is also guarded, or the card of the fourth suit is a court card.
6. One trump, a king and a queen, both unguarded, should not be played, unless the fourth suit contains a card as high as an ace.
7. Four court cards without a trump are too weak to play, unless they are of three different suits.
Refuse with three queens, if two are singly guarded; otherwise, accept.
Lead from your guarded suit, and lead the highest.
If the strong suit led is not trumped, persevere with it, unless with king of trumps, or queen (king not having been announced), or knave ace, when lead a trump before continuing your suit.
You should not lead trumps at starting, unless you hold king or queen, knave, or knave ace, with court cards out of trumps.
The score has to be considered. If the dealer is at four, and the king is not in your hand nor turned up, play any cards without proposing which give an even chance of three tricks, e.g. a queen, a guarded knave, and a guarded ten. The same rule applies to the dealer’s refusal.
At the adverse score of four, and king not being in hand or turned up, any hand with one trump should be played, unless the plain cards are very small and of different suits.
If the non-dealer plays without proposing when he is four to three, and the dealer holds the king he ought not to mark it. The same rule applies to the non-dealer after a refusal, if the dealer is four to three.
At the score of non-dealer three, dealer four, the dealer should refuse on moderate cards, as the player proposing at this score must have a very bad hand.
At four a forward game should not be played in trumps, as there is no advantage in winning the vole.
Laws of Écarté.—The following laws are abridged from the revised code adopted by the Turf Club:—A cut must consist of at least two cards. Card exposed in cutting, fresh cut. Order of distribution of cards, whether by three and two, or vice versa, once selected, dealer must not change it during game. Player announcing king when he has not got it, and playing a card without declaring error, adversary may correct score and have hand played over again. If offender wins point or vole that hand, he scores one less than he wins. Proposal, acceptance, or refusal made cannot be retracted. Cards discarded must not be looked at. Cards exposed in giving cards to non-dealer, he has option of taking them or of having next cards; dealer exposing his own cards, no penalty. Dealer turning up top card after giving cards, cannot refuse second discard. Dealer accepting when too few cards in stock to supply both, non-dealer may take cards, and dealer must play his hand. Card led in turn cannot be taken up again. Card played to a lead can only be taken up prior to another lead, to save revoke or to correct error of not winning trick. Card led out of turn may be taken up prior to its being played to. Player naming one suit and leading another, adversary has option of requiring suit named to be led. If offender has none, no penalty. Player abandoning hand, adversary is deemed to win remaining tricks, and scores accordingly. If a player revokes or does not win trick when he can do so, the adversary may correct score and have hand replayed.
See Académie des jeux (various editions after the first quarter of the 19th century); Hoyle’s Games (various editions about the same dates); Ch. Van-Tenac et Louis Delanoue, Traité du jeu de l’écarté (Paris, 1845; translated in Bohn’s Handbook of Games, London, 1850); “Cavendish,” The Laws of Écarté, adopted by the Turf Club, with a Treatise on the Game (London, 1878); Pocket Guide to Écarté (“Cavendish,” 1897); Foster’s Encyclopaedia of Indoor Games (1903).
ECBATANA (Agbatana in Aeschylus, Haňgmatāna in Old Persian, written Agamtanu by Nabonidos, and Agamatanu at Behistun, mod. Hamadān), the capital of Astyages (Istuvegu), which was taken by Cyrus in the sixth year of Nabonidos (549 B.C.). The Greeks supposed it to be the capital of Media, confusing the Manda, of whom Astyages was king, with the Madā or Medes of Media Atropatene, and ascribed its foundation to Deioces (the Daiukku of the cuneiform inscriptions), who is said to have surrounded his palace in it with seven concentric walls of different colours. Under the Persian kings, Ecbatana, situated at the foot of Mount Elvend, became a summer residence; and was afterwards the capital of the Parthian kings. Sir H. Rawlinson attempted to prove that there was a second and older Ecbatana in Media Atropatene, on the site of the modern Takht-i-Suleiman, midway between Hamadan and Tabriz (J.R.G.S. x. 1841), but the cuneiform texts imply that there was only one city of the name, and Takht-i-Suleiman is the Gazaca of classical geography. The Ecbatana at which Cambyses is said by Herodotus (iii. 64) to have died is probably a blunder for Hamath.
See Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Persia (Eng. trans., 1892); M. Dieulafoy, L’Art antique de la Perse, pt. i. (1884); J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse, ii. (1894). See Hamadan and Persia: Ancient History, § v. 2. (A. H. S.)
ECCARD, JOHANN (1553–1611), German composer of church music, was born at Mühlhausen on the Unstrut, Prussia, in 1553. At the age of eighteen he went to Munich, where he became the pupil of Orlando Lasso. In his company Eccard is said to have visited Paris, but in 1574 we find him again at Mühlhausen, where he resided for four years, and edited, together with Johann von Burgk, his first master, a collection of sacred songs, called Crepundia sacra Helmboldi (1577). Soon afterwards he obtained an appointment as musician in the house of Jacob Fugger, the Augsburg banker. In 1583 he became assistant conductor, and in 1599 conductor, at Königsberg, to Georg Friedrich, margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, the administrator of Prussia. In 1608 he was called by the elector Joachim Friedrich to Berlin as chief conductor, but this post he held only for three years, owing to his premature death at Königsberg in 1611. Eccard’s works consist exclusively of vocal compositions, such as songs, sacred cantatas and chorales for four or five, and sometimes for seven, eight, or even nine voices. Their polyphonic structure is a marvel of art, and still excites the admiration of musicians. At the same time his works are instinct with a spirit of true religious feeling. His setting of the beautiful words “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott” is still regarded by the Germans as their representative national hymn. Eccard and his school are inseparably connected with the history of the Reformation.
Of Eccard’s songs a great many collections are extant; see K. G. A. von Winterfeld, Der Evangelische Kirchengesang (1843); Döring (Choralkunde, p. 47).
ECCELINO [or Ezzelino] DA ROMANO (1194–1259), Ghibelline leader, and supporter of the emperor Frederick II., was born on the 25th of April 1194. He belonged to a family descended from a German knight named Eccelin, who followed the emperor Conrad II. to Italy about 1036, and received the fief of Romano near Padua. Eccelin’s grandson was Eccelino III., surnamed the Monk, who divided his lands between his two sons in 1223, and died in 1235. The elder of these two sons was Eccelino, who in early life began to take part in family and other feuds, and in 1226, at the head of a band of Ghibellines, seized Verona and became podestà of the city. He soon lost Verona, but regained it in 1230; and about this time came into relations with Frederick II., who in 1232 issued a charter confirming him in his possessions. In 1236 when besieged in Verona he was saved by the advance of the emperor, who in November of the same year took Vicenza and entrusted its government to Eccelino. In 1237 he obtained authority over Padua and Treviso; and on the 27th of November in that year he shared in the victory gained by the emperor over the Lombards at Cortenuova. In 1238 he married Frederick’s natural daughter, Selvaggia; in 1239 was appointed imperial vicar of the march of Treviso; but in the same year was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. He was constantly engaged in increasing his possessions; was present at the siege of Parma in 1247, and after Frederick’s death in 1250 he supported his son, the German king Conrad IV. His cruelties had, however, aroused general disgust, and in 1254 he was again excommunicated. In 1256 Pope Alexander IV. proclaimed a crusade against him, and a powerful league was soon formed under the leadership of Philip, archbishop of Ravenna. Padua was taken from Eccelino, but on the 1st of September 1258 he defeated his enemies at Torricella. He then made an attempt on Milan, and the rival forces met at Cassano on the 27th of September 1259, when Eccelino was wounded and taken prisoner. Enraged at his capture, he tore the bandages from his wounds, refused to take nourishment, and died at Soncino on the 7th of October 1259. In the following year his brother Albert was put to death, and the Romano family became
