"Ombre" in The Rape of the Lock

       

The Rape of the Lock, is a poem, that by now, we all know about. It is divided in five cantos, and I am going to talk about the third one. Throughout the beginning of this canto, the poet shows the reader the political situation of the country and the social conditions of it.

However, in line 18 the game of cards starts, and finishes in line 100. The poet, in line 25, sets his attention on Belinda. The ability that the poet has to make a game of cards sound like a battle is impressive. He introduces the battle presenting Belinda and two other “Knights”, ready to fight. Thanks to the clarity of the text, we can see their card playing skills easily. This game of cards is called “Ombre”, and it comes from a Spanish game of cards. It is very similar to the game of cards of Spades and Hearts that we play nowadays. The people of the highest social class played this game very frequently, because it became very popular very fast. Not only that, it is in the 19^th century when we see it stops been so popular, because it doesn´t appear as much in literary works. The last literary work, that I know of that mentions it is an essay in Texas Studies by Mr. Case published in 1944. The game that Pope describes in his long poem follows the rules by the book.

                This game is played with a Spanish deck of cards. It has kings and queens, and the 8´s, 9’s  and 10´s are removed. Every player has nine cards, and the other thirteen cards are placed in the talon. The game starts with a bet; each player has to bet on who will be able to take the majority of tricks- you can take five of nine- and the one who wins the bet becomes the “declarer” or “ombre”, and has to play against the other two players. The advantage of being the “ombre” is that the player is allowed to choose which suit will be trump. In the poem, Belinda is the one to choose it, like we see in line number 46: “Let spades be trumps” she said, and trumps they were. To win the hand, the ombre has to take five tricks. 

It is said that with the representation of a battle what Pope is trying to do is to make a point about his society, because at that time all what the elite did was play cards and gamble, which in a way were instruments to flirt, instead of using that energy and passion and dedicate them to brave and serious purposes.

Also, the fact that the Queen of Hearts falls, might be an anticipant of the misery Belinda is going to go through soon after the game is over. So, the poet might be making a connection between the card and Belinda, and suggesting that their fates are the same. In contrast to this, the victory of the King of Hearst might suggest the victory of the Baron himself at the end of the poem. He ends up doing what he wants to and, in a way, destroys everything else.