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Monday
Today I will be teaching the card game “ombre” as one of Sewanee’s “Friends of the Library” events. I’ve written in the past about teaching the game to college classes, but this will be slightly different as the participants will not have previously spent a week studying Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock (1714), in which the card game is played. Many of them will have attended last year’s event featuring the card game Speculation, played in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, and so may come expecting a similarly simple game. Ombre is more complicated, unfortunately, but I’ve modified the rules somewhat to make it easier to play.
Here is the lecture I will be giving, along with the rules for ombre and the game as it is played in Rape of the Lock:
Alexander Pope was born in 1688 into a wealthy British Catholic family. Although you may not be familiar with his poetry, you will recognize some of the lines that he wrote, such as:
–A little learning is a dangerous thing.
–Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
–To err is human. To forgive, divine.
–Charms strike the sight but merit wins the soul.
–Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
–Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is man.
Pope first made his mark in his early twenties with the dazzling Essay on Criticism, which he then followed up with the even more dazzling Rape of the Lock.
The poem is based on an actual incident involving two Catholic families. The young Lord Petre, with a pair of scissors, had cut a ringlet from the head of Arabella Fermor. This serious breach of etiquette—we would call it sexual assault today—caused great commotion and led to a seemingly irreparable feud between the families. Pope’s friend John Caryll, who was also a friend of both families, came to the young poet and suggested that a comic poem might help the warring parties move past their quarrel by laughing the incident off. Pope, who would later make his fortune by translating the Iliad, decided to write up the incident as though it were an epic battle, with Arabella and Lord Petre as warriors. Their field of battle was the card game ombre.
In the late 17th century and early 18th century, ombre was the most popular card game in Europe. Its name comes from the Spanish word for man, and its popularity lay in the fact that it was the first card game where players bid for trump. It was brought over to England from France when Charles II was restored to the monarchy, and Matthew Mitchell of Sewanee’s history department informs me that Charles’s queen, Catherine de Braganza, was a great fan. By 1674, it had become so popular in high society—and people were losing so much money over it—that there were discussions in Parliament to either pass an act against playing it or at least to limit the stakes to 5 pounds. Ultimately the issue became moot as ombre was surpassed first by quadrille, then by whist, and finally by bridge, all of which also involve bidding.
I can assure you that no one will lose any money in today’s demonstration. Nor will any locks of hair be cut.
In the poem we first see Belinda, the star of our show, dreaming of a possible encounter with the Baron. Then we see the Baron resolving that he will do anything he can to possess her. Then we see Belinda at her dressing table. and the beautification process is compared to a knight preparing for battle: “Now awful Beauty puts on all its arms;/ The fair each moment rises in her charms,” Pope announces.
Throughout his poem, Pope satirizes the glam culture and the materialist consumerism of his day. While he’s sympathetic with and even a bit dazzled by Belinda, he also thinks she takes herself far too seriously.
Belinda next takes a boat to the royal palace of Hampton Court, where the ball is being held. Once she gets there, she plays cards with the Baron and an anonymous third player who has come to be called Sir Anonyme. She wins a tightly played hand and taunts the Baron with her victory, upon which he, in revenge, sneaks up behind her when she’s bending over a cup of coffee and snips off one of her two curls. At that point everyone starts shouting while Belinda first bursts into tears and then throws a pinch of snuff into the Baron’s face. A woman named Clarissa steps forward and advises her to laugh the whole thing off but no one listens to her. In all the commotion, the lock disappears but Pope assures Belinda that it has flown off into the heavens and become a constellation.
In other words, Belinda—and by extension Arabella Fermor—has just been immortalized.
When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,
This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,
And ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name.
Although he originally wrote the poem for private purposes, Pope realized that it was so good that he had to publish it, which he did. Reports are that, in the short run, Arabella Fermor was not amused, figuring that her dirty laundry was being aired in public. As she grew older, however, she came to appreciate that she had in fact been immortalized. After all, literary aficionados still know who Arabella Fermor is.
When the poem came out, the first thing that ombre players all over England did was lay out the hand as it is played in the poem. At the end of our session, I will walk you through it. But to fully appreciate Pope’s brilliance, it helps to know how to play.
I’ve promised participants that, after seeing how Pope describes the cards, they’ll never look at kings, queen and jacks the same way again. Look at a deck to check out the accuracy of the following:
Behold, four Kings in majesty rever’d,
With hoary whiskers and a forky beard;
And four fair Queens whose hands sustain a flow’r,
Th’ expressive emblem of their softer pow’r;
Four Knaves in garbs succinct, a trusty band,
Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;
And particolour’d troops, a shining train,
Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.
We get even more detailed descriptions of the kings. First up is the king of spades. Everything that Pope says about the cards of his time still applies to today’s pack except for the fact that our kings do not have legs:
With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,
The hoary Majesty of Spades appears,
Puts forth one manly leg, to sight reveal’d,
The rest, his many-colour’d robe conceal’d.
The rebel Knave, who dares his prince engage,
Proves the just victim of his royal rage.
Next, the king of clubs:
Thus far both armies to Belinda yield;
Now to the Baron fate inclines the field.
His warlike Amazon her host invades,
Th’ imperial consort of the crown of Spades.
The Club’s black Tyrant first her victim dy’d,
Spite of his haughty mien, and barb’rous pride:
What boots the regal circle on his head,
His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread;
That long behind he trails his pompous robe,
And, of all monarchs, only grasps the globe?
And finally, the king of diamonds:
The Baron now his Diamonds pours apace;
Th’ embroider’d King who shows but half his face
And his refulgent Queen, with pow’rs combin’d
Of broken troops an easy conquest find.
Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, in wild disorder seen,
With throngs promiscuous strow the level green.
In playing the game, the two major things to know are the order of the cards and the possible bids The top three cards, known as Matadors and with each having a special name, are treated as trump:
Ace of Spades (Spadillia)
2 of trump (Manillia)
Ace of Clubs (Basto)
King
Queen
Knave
Ace
7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (if not Manillia)
Because Spadillia and Basto are treated as trump, the other players must follow them with a card in the trump suit, not with a spade or a club (unless spades or clubs is trump).
Nine cards are dealt to each player, which means that a winning hand usually involves winning five tricks. The six possible bids are:
1. Non-spade with a partner – 5 tricks (or a dominant 4) in conjunction with a partner* with diamonds, hearts, or clubs as trump–2 pts each for bidder and partner (only the bidder loses 2 if bid fails)
2. Spade with a partner – 5 tricks (or a dominant 4) in conjunction with a partner* with spades as trump (called “color”) (4 pts each for bidder and partner (only the bidder loses 4 if bid fails)
3. Solo non-spade – 5 tricks on your own, with diamonds, hearts or clubs as trump – 4 pts (or -4)
4. Solo spade – 5 tricks on your own, with spades as trump – 8 pts (or -8)5. Tout non-spade – All nine tricks, with diamonds, hearts, or clubs as trump – 16 pts (or -16)
6. Tout spade – All nine tricks, with spades as trump – 32 pts (or -32)
*The first opponent to play a king is your partner.
Order of play
–Nine cards of the 40 (10s, 9s and 8s having been removed) are dealt to the three players, with the remaining 13 cards set aside into a pool.
–The player to the left of the dealer (Belinda in Pope’s poem) begins the bidding. She either passes or bids “non-color with a partner.” The player to her left (the Baron) says either “will you raise to ‘spade with a partner’?” If yes, that is Belinda’s new bid. If no, the bid passes to the Baron, at which point Sir Anonyme has a chance to push the bid up even further. After the bid is determined, the winner of the bid may raise (but obviously not lower) the bid—say, from “spade with a partner” to “solo non-color” or “solo spade” etc.
–The player who wins the bid is the “hombre” or “ombre” and has a chance to trade in as many cards as desired from the pool, followed by the other two players.
–The ombre begins play first.
–If the bid is “with partner,” the partner will be the first opponent to play a king. The ombre may choose to start play with a low card to bring out a king.
–Play continues until either the bid is achieved or fails. Failure is known as codille.
Sequence of cards played in Rape of the Lock
Belinda’s bid: “Solo spade.” (“Let spades be trumps, she said, and trumps they were.”) As the winner of the bid, Belinda (as ombre) leads.
Belinda Baron Sir Anonyme
ace of spades (Spadillia) four of spades six of spades
two of spades (Manillia) five of spades three of spades
ace of clubs (Basto) seven of spades* two of hearts**
king of spades knave of spades three of hearts
king of clubs queen of spades knave of clubs
six of diamonds king of diamonds seven of diamonds
queen of clubs queen of diamonds four of hearts
queen of hearts knave of diamonds six of hearts
king of hearts ace of hearts*** knave of hearts
*a spade must be played here because Basto counts as a trump
**devoid of trump, Sir Anonyme can throw off anything
***lower than the king, queen and knave
I’ve already read some of the action in Pope’s description of the kings. Here’s his account of the final two tricks. Remember that red aces rank lower than the picture cards:
The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts,
And wins (oh shameful chance!) the Queen of Hearts.
At this, the blood the virgin’s cheek forsook,
A livid paleness spreads o’er all her look;
She sees, and trembles at th’ approaching ill,
Just in the jaws of ruin, and Codille.
And now (as oft in some distemper’d State)
On one nice Trick depends the gen’ral fate.
An Ace of Hearts steps forth: The King unseen
Lurk’d in her hand, and mourn’d his captive Queen:
He springs to Vengeance with an eager pace,
And falls like thunder on the prostrate Ace.
The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky;
The walls, the woods, and long canals reply.
In football, Belinda might be penalized for taunting. That’s certainly how the thin-skinned Baron sees it, and he probably regards her response as a personal rejection as well. But that’s not to excuse what he does, and his society certainly did not.
I can’t think of any other work that sticks so closely to an actual game, with the exception of Alice through the Looking Glass, which is based on an actual chess problem. In any event, Pope blew 18th century audiences away with his poetic wit and flawless couplets.