The Devil's Bedpost
I’ve recently been doing some research to improve a script for a classic Max Maven card routine called “Wagers of Sin”. It’s a fantastic story trick about a magician who loses his soul to the Devil in a game of cards. Obviously, this is Bizzare Magick territory, but I plan to present it in a somewhat lighthearted manner.
FREE Card Trick Tutorial
There is a hidden link to a card trick tutorial on this page somewhere. If you find it, you’ll be rewarded with a new version of “Wagers of Sin” called “A Swindle of Souls”, which has an additional kicker ending!
Hint: Try clicking on things that you might not normally click on!
In Max’s script for the trick, he mentions that the Four of Spades is “The Devil’s Card” and is also known as “The Devil’s Bedpost”. As this card is key to the presentation, I thought I’d do a little research into this ominous nickname.
♣️ Is It the Four of Clubs or Spades? ♠️
Through my research, I discovered that the Devil’s Bedpost is not the Four of Spades, as many online sources suggest. It is actually a term used for the Four of Clubs. However, while watching a presentation by Eugene Burger, a close friend of Max Maven who also performed the trick, I noticed he also referred to the Devil’s card as the Four of Spades.
Unfortunately, I do not have access to the original write-up of the trick, which was first published in The New Invocation (issue 35, October 1986, pages 416-419). This publication is quite difficult to obtain these days. Nonetheless, the trick was included in Joshua Jay’s excellent book for beginners, Magic: The Complete Course, which I happen to own. Josh included “Wagers of Sins” in a chapter entitled “The Ten Greatest Card Tricks of All Time”—high praise indeed! 1 In this book, the Four of Spades is also used, so I can only assume that Max’s original write-up also mentioned this particular card.
The two cards may have both been known, at one time or another, as the Devil’s Bedpost. Alternatively, Max, Eugene or some other magician before them may have made a mistake and swapped the suit of the card. As any magician would attest, the design of the two symbols, in shape and colour, is so similar that they are often confused with each other.
The earliest reference I could find to a playing card known as the Devil’s Bedpost was in a book published in 1836 called The Saucy Arethusa by Captain Frederick Chamier:
“The cards are called “good books” (they are called elsewhere the “devil’s books,” and as far back as memory can trace, the four of clubs has been called “the devil’s bed-post”)” 2
— Captain Frederick Chamier, The Saucy Arethusa: A Naval Story
The book is available on the Internet Archive. It names the Four of Clubs as the Devil’s Bedpost. A search of the entire digitised books collection stored in the Internet Archive shows that most sources identify the Four of Clubs as the correct card (except for one fictional book written in 2006):
“He pulled the devil’s bedpost, the four of spades. Not a face card on the table. Next, Dave, a music teacher from Iowa who kept humming and singing show tunes, was on the receiving end of the eight of spades. I turned up another spade, the queen, and dealt the first hand.” 3
—Terry W. Lovaas and Mark Neuman-Scott, Lady Luck’s Smile (2006)
However, there are many early references to the Four of Clubs being the Devil’s Bedpost. Here’s one taken from another book written by Captain Chamier:
“It was now midnight—which one of the crew mentioned—adding, that a church at that hour was generally inhabited by the dead, who walked about the long aisles, or sat listlessly on the chairs. The girl heard voices, and warned the crew that the captain was approaching. ‘Once more,’ said Carlos, ‘my all— here—on board—my share of tonight’s plunder.’ I agreed, and dealt the cards. The first, was a nine—the second, the four of clubs—which last card, you know, has always been with us called the devil’s bedpost.” 4
— Captain Frederick Chamier, The Spitfire: A Naval Romance
According to trusted dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary, Green’s Dictionary of Slang and Brewster’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the Four of Clubs is called the Devil’s Bedpost, not the Four of Spades. These same sources also confirm that Captain Chamier first used the phrase in the early 19th century. However, it has been in widespread use much earlier than that and probably originated as a superstition among sailors in the late 17th or early 18th century.
By the end of the 19th century, the idea that the Four of Clubs was connected with the Devil and death in general was well established. Below is an image of a French death announcement with a Four of Clubs design motif. (This item is part of Christian Chelman’s Museum of Supernatural History called the Surnateum. Christian has kindly allowed me to include these images in this article.)
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| The front of a French death announcement. Photo Credit: Christian Chelman via Surnateum. |
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| The reverse of a French death announcement. Photo Credit: Christian Chelman via Surnateum. |
In English, the message reads:
Madame De Crumpipen, nee Helman, & Madame De Walckiers, nee De Reul, announce the death of Monsieur JEAN-BAPTISTE VAN SCHOOR, their Uncle & Great-Uncle, who died on March 29, 1785. R.I.P.
The phrase “The Devil’s Bedpost” was well established, especially among card players, by the early twentieth century and appears as an entry in The Underworld Speaks by Albin J. Pollock (1939) as well as Secrets of Winning Poker by George Sturgis Coffin (1976).
Confusingly, the same phrase also refers to the thirteenth card of the suit led when playing Whist. This definition also appeared in regular use among card players during the late 19th century.
One of the most interesting entries I found was in The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang, which states that the Devil’s Bedpost is also occasionally called “The Old Gentleman’s Bedpost”. This might be a good alternative nickname for the card if you want to avoid mentioning the Devil in your magical presentation.
The Four of Clubs. Photo Credit: tomograf via iStock.
Based on the weight of evidence in printed literature, I believe that the Four of Clubs is the Devil’s Card. Any reference to the Four of Spades as the Devil’s Bedpost is likely a case of mistaken identity.
Link to Cartomancy and Fortune Telling 🔮
Many books suggest that the Devil and the Four of Clubs are associated due to the card’s meaning in cartomancy, as the following quote demonstrates:
“Colloquialism for the four of CLUBS which first appeared in 1873 in A Dictionary of Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words. The card has long been considered unlucky - in cartomancy (which is the use of standard playing cards to read fortunes), the four of clubs represents a serious misfortune.” 5
— Elkan Allan, The Poker Encyclopedia: The Definitive Poker Book
In A Handbook of Cartomancy (1891), the meaning of the Four of Clubs is defined as “cautiousness against inconstancy or change of object for the sake of money”. However, the same book mentions that the Four of Spades represents sickness, so it is understandable why some people also view this as an unlucky card.
Spanish Sailor Slang ⛵
Given that the earliest reference to the Devil’s Bedpost originated from a novel about sailors and the sea, it is most likely that the term was common sailor slang for the Four of Clubs. For this reason, I’ll be altering my script to have a nautical theme. Instead of a gambler or magician playing cards with the Devil, I’ll make him a sailor on shore leave.
Although this is only a personal theory, the nickname “The Devil’s Bedpost” might have originated in Spain. In early Spanish decks, the suit of clubs was depicted as long wooden sticks. The photo below displays the Four of Clubs, or more accurately, the Four of Batons, from a deck of Moroccan Spanish playing cards dating back to 1890. The batons in the picture could easily be imagined as the wooden posts of a bed, although they look more like the severed tentacles of an octopus!
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| A Spanish Four of Clubs. Photo Credit: Whiteway via iStock. |
This card belongs to a Baraja española, which is a traditional Spanish deck of cards. The deck consists of four suits: Oros (gold coins), Copas (cups or trophies), Espadas (swords), and Bastos (clubs or batons, shown here). Unlike other decks, there are no eights or nines, and the first court card counts as ten, not eleven, making a full deck of forty cards. These decks have been around since the 15th century and are based on the Italian card system. Therefore, the term’s birthplace could also be Italy (it is thought that Italian sailors were the first people to bring playing cards to Europe, either from China or Eygpt).
Despite their appearance, the clubs represent knobbly wooden clubs akin to Irish shillelaghs. In medieval society, the batons were thought to represent the peasant class. Spanish decks are often used for fortune telling, cartomancy, and divination, similar to tarot cards.
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| The Four of Swords from a Spanish pack of playing cards. Photo Credit: Whiteway via iStock. |
This theory further proves that the Devil’s Bedpost is the Four of Clubs and not the Four of Spades. In the deck where this card comes from, the suit of Spades is depicted by swords. It is difficult to comprehend how anyone could associate this card with the posts of a bed.
Who is Ned Stokes?
During my research on the origin of the nickname for the Four of Clubs, I came across another peculiar nickname for the Four of Spades. In the February 1791 edition of The Gentleman’s Magazine, the card is given the strange nickname of “Ned Stokes”.
“The Queen of Clubs is here called Queen Bess, perhaps because that Queen, history says, was of a swarthy complexion; the Four of Spades, Ned Stokes, for why I don’t know; the Nine of Diamonds, the Curse of Scotland, because every ninth monarch of that nation was a bad king to his subjects.” 6
Despite spending a considerable amount of time searching, I have been unable to find a reason for the name “Ned Stokes”. Initially, I thought it might refer to the infamous New York businessman who murdered his business partner and love rival, James Fisk, in 1872. However, this event occurred almost a century after the publication of the original text in The Gentleman’s Magazine. The name might be associated with Edward Halesworth Stokes, the father of the aforementioned businessman, who owned a cloth business in New York. However, this seems highly unlikely because the company was founded by his own father, Thomas Stokes, in 1798 when he emigrated from England to America. The scandal involving his son’s love affair and the resulting murder is a fascinating true-crime story, well worth reading about, though!
Additionally, the author of the comment was residing in Threekingsome, Lincolnshire, England, which suggests that the name “Ned Stokes” could have been a regional oddity that was only known in that area. As a result, the name’s origins will remain a mystery, for now at least. If you have any information about this nickname, please let me know in the comments.
The Devil and the Card Players
The Devil’s Bedpost is often featured in a popular European folk tale, which involves a group of young men who unwittingly play cards with the Devil. Here’s how the story usually goes:
Back in the olden days, any recreational activities on a Sunday, especially gambling, were strictly forbidden. But one Sunday afternoon, some rambunctious young men in a small Scottish village secretly gathered to sing, drink beer, and play cards, as they often did.
As the cards were being dealt, a finely dressed stranger suddenly appeared and asked to join their game. Eager to win the newcomer’s money, the men agreed to let him play.
The dashing stranger proceeded to have an extraordinary run of good luck, winning hand after hand. This quickly annoyed the men and dampened the mood. When it came time for the stranger to deal, he accidentally dropped the Four of Clubs on the floor. As one man bent down to pick it up, he saw a cloven hoof under the table!
The startled man shouted to his friends. Realising they had been playing cards with the Devil himself, panic seized the room—some of the men even began praying aloud! At being discovered, the stranger revealed his true diabolical form, disappearing in a giant fireball up the chimney and setting the house ablaze.
The terrified men fled the burning house, deeply shaken and vowing never again to break the sacred rules of the Sabbath. After that harrowing encounter, the Four of Clubs became forever cursed as “The Devil’s Bedposts.”
Throughout history, the story of the Devil and the card players has taken various forms, with specific details connected to the cultural and religious practices of the origin country. Early examples can be found in Scottish, Irish, English, German and Danish folklore.
In the earlier versions of the story, the identity of the card that was dropped was left unspecified. This implies that the addition of the Four of Clubs to the story is a relatively recent development and probably propagated by the tale being shared online.
In Summary
The term “The Devil’s Bedpost” appears to be ancient sailor slang, and it may have originated from Europe, possibly Spain or Italy, where batons were used on the Four of Clubs. These long sticks more closely resemble the posts of a bed. However, the nickname for the card might instead be rooted in cartomancy (fortune telling with regular playing cards) because it often signifies misfortune in a reading.
Furthermore, the Four of Clubs has been linked to various folk tales involving the Devil and playing cards, particularly one that appears in Scottish, English, German and Danish folklore. These stories usually involve a cloven-hooved gambler who turns out to be the Devil in disguise.
My Thoughts on Wagers of Sin by Max Maven
If you’d like to learn more about “Wages of Sin”, I’ve written a short article about the trick, including some suggested modifications to the method to make the routine more impressive. As I talk about the secret of the effect in the article, it is password protected. To read the article, you’ll need to answer a simple question about Max Maven. The answer is readily available online, so if you really want to read the article, you’ll need to do a little research yourself! 😉
Read Thoughts on Wagers of Sin by Max Maven
Footnotes
Joshua Jay, “Wagers of Sin,” in Magic: The Complete Course, (New York: Workman Publishing Company Inc., 2008), 111.
Frederick Chamier, “Weasel’s Mistake,” in The Saucy Arethusa: A Naval Story, (London: J Ogden and Co., 1867), 226. https://archive.org/details/10755715.1832.emory.edu/page/n233/mode/2up.
Terry W. Lovaas and Mark Neuman-Scott, Lady Luck’s Smile, (Baltimore: PublishAmerica LLLP, 2006), 23. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781413795813/page/22/mode/2up.
Frederick Chamier, The Spitfire, (London: Henry Colburn, 1840), 272. https://archive.org/details/spitfireatalese00chamgoog/page/n277/mode/2up.
Elkan Allan, “Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw,” in The Poker Encyclopedia: The Definitive Poker Book, (London: Portico, 2007), 122. https://archive.org/details/pokerencyclopedi0000alla/page/122/mode/2up.
Sylvanus Urban, The Gentleman’s Magazine, (London: John Nichols, 1791), 159. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hw290z&seq=159.
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