Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a pack of cards; thus study the history of the four kings, to play cards.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Rabelais I xxii: After supper were brought in upon the place the fair wooden gospels and the books of the four kings, that is to say, many pairs of tables and cards.
1760		Foote The Minor 32: Come, shall we have a dip in the history of the four kings this morning?
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: history of the four kings, or child’s best guide to the gallows a pack of cards; he studies the history of the four kings assiduously, he plays much at cards.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1838		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 20 Oct. 66/2: The History of the four Kings substituted for the vespers of the Gospel.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 42: history of the four kings A pack of cards, ‘The bloke’s skin is lathy, he studies the history of the four kings closer than the autum-bawler’s patter,’ the man’s purse is thick; he studies a pack of cards more than the parsons’ sermons.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.