Doyle Lonnegan: Mr. Shaw, we usually require a tie at this table… if you don’t have one we can get you one. Henry Gondorff: That’d be real nice of you, Mr. Lonniman! Doyle Lonnegan: Lonnegan. [Gondorf nods and burps in response]
The French invented the suit designations we use today. Each supposedly indicates one of the principal divisions of medieval society: the heart, coeur, the clergy; the club, trefle, the peasants; the diamond, carreau, merchants and tradesman; and the sword, pique, the nobility.
Espada, the Spanish equivalent of the French pique, has become our present day spade.
The symbolic significance of the nobleman’s sword is obvious enough, but some of the other associations are a little obscure.
Clubs can be interpreted into two ways: as walking-sticks or cudgels, the characteristics weapons of the lower class, who were frequently forbidden to own swords; or as cloverleaves, indicating agriculture.
Hearts symbolize courage and virtue, which presumably would pertain to the clergy, the highest level of society.
The diamond apparently was originally a paving tile, indicating the artisan-tradesman group, purveyors of material goods. Alternatively, there is the obvious connection between diamonds and money.
