[2] During the 17th century, the Ombre concept of bidding was incorporated into Triomphe resulting in the game initially called l'Homme ("Man") and, later, la Beste or la Bête (German Labet, Dutch LaBate, English Beast).

[3] It may also have been antecedent to the games of the Rams family although it does not share their characteristic of allowing players to drop out of the current deal if they consider their hand to be too poor.

It is named after the bête, a term that referred to the penalty for failing to take the required number of tricks or for various infringements.

The 1690 edition of Dictionaire Universel calls it "jeu de la Beste" and states that virevole or dévole was a term used in the game to refer to a player who undertook to win every trick, but failed to win any and had to pay a penalty to the other players.

[11] By the 18th century, it had reached England, where it was called Beast (see below),[12] and Austria-Hungary, where it was known as Labet or Zwickerspiel and banned as a gambling game.

[13] Bête subsequently evolved into the games known Mouche or Lenturlu (see also the English game of Lanterloo) - which featured bluffing, 'robbing' (i.e. exchanging with) the talon and winning outright if a player was dealt an eponymous, five-card flush - and Mistigri or Pamphile, which additionally promoted the Jack of Clubs to the top trump.

[14] The English game Lanterloo resembles the latter, but may have crossed the channel at an earlier stage of development and evolved in parallel to its eventual form.

[16] The overall aim of the game is to win counters, known as jetons, which can then be converted into money at a pre-agreed rate.

Within each deal, the player who becomes the declarer aims to win three of the five tricks or at least the first two, if no one else makes three.

Meanwhile the defenders try to prevent the declarer winning, forcing him to pay the penalty known as the bête.

According to Van de Aa (1721), the game was usually played by three or four players, "three being better".

If all pass, players may opt to stake another jeton and turn the next card of the talon as trumps.

Only if they have no cards of the led suit and no trumps high enough to head the trick, may they discard.

The amount paid out in a bête is always the same as the player would have earned if he had won the deal (e.g., with five players, 6 jetons, the value of a fiche, and the amount of the current bête, if present) which he pays into a separate pot to be played for in the next deal.

If the declarer loses every trick, it is a dévole and he pays an additional jeton to each player.

If the declarer ties with another player for the number of tricks won, the round is null.

The King is the name of those additional stakes (one jeton per player) placed on top of their dish or plate.

[19] In 1672, Francis Willughby recorded the earliest rules in English for the game of Beast or "Le Beste", but his work was not published until much later.

Stakes are placed in three heaps called the King, the Play and the Triolet before five cards are dealt to each player as 2+3 or 3+2, as in French Ruff and the next turned as trumps.