Curse of Scotland Gurney Benham's book about playing cards, in describing the game of Pope Joan he gives his own explanation for why this card is known as the Curse of Scotland: "The crown of Scotland contained only nine stones, as they never could afford a tenth". Eric Partridge's "Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang" considers: “the various theories are as interesting as they are unconvincing”. "Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland" says for "Curse of Scotland" "This is usually taken to be the nine of diamonds playing card, though explanations differ". The 19th century Tarot of Marseilles is one of the standard designs for tarot
Curse of Scotland cards. It contains a "Pope" card (and, indeed, a "Popess") but there seems to be no connection with the Pope Joan card game, even though the popess may have derived from the mythical Pope Joan. The expression "Curse of Scotland" is sometimes used simply to refer to an occasion of bad luck at cards and can also refer to generally unwanted situations in Scotland, such as swarms of midges. There is a theatrical superstition, sometimes called the "Scottish curse", that speaking the name "Macbeth" in the theatre brings bad luck. Hence "the Scottish Play" is used to refer to Shakespeare's