Kenny, C. Tomlinson,
Captain Kennedy, Staunton and Professor Bland all combined fail
to supply our wants, besides which there is no summing up of them
or their parts, or attempt to blend them into one harmonious
whole, and each writer has appeared too well satisfied with his
own conclusions to care to trouble himself much about those of
anybody else.
The Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French writers who refer
to chess, and in our own country Chaucer, Lydgate, Caxton,
Barbiere, Pope, Dryden, Philidor, and the Encyclopaediasts deal
mainly with traditions, each having a pet theory; all, however,
conclude by declaring in words, but slightly varied, that the
origin of chess is enshrouded in mist and obscurity, lost in
the remote ages of antiquity, or like Pope pronounce it a problem
which never will be solved.
The incomparable game of chess, London, 1820, says, under
"Traditions of Chess." Some historians have referred to the
invention of chess to the philosopher Xerxes, others to the
Grecian Prince Palamedes, some to the brothers Lydo and Tyrrhene
and others, again, to the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindus,
the Persians, the Arabians, the Irish, the Welsh, the Araucanians,
the Jews, the Scythians, and, finally, their fair Majesties
Semiramis and Zenobia also prefer their claims to be considered
as the originators of chess.
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