Curse of Scotland on the eve of the Battle of Culloden (1746). However he went on to remark that the book claims that "The curse of Scotland must be something which that nation hates and detests. The Scots held in the utmost detestation the Pope." In the card game Pope Joan, very popular in the 19th century, the 9 is the most powerful card, and it is called the "Pope". The game is played on a special board on which the middle is marked "Pope Joan", and it is used in association with this card. The game uses 51 cards (the 8 is
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