OMBRE

By A. H. N. GREEN-ARMYTAGE

" HER favourite poem," says Elia of Mrs. Battle, "was The jj Rape of the Lock. She often played over to me, with the cards, the celebrated game of Ombre in that poem."

This being so, it is something of a shock to find Thomas Love Peacock, in Gryll Grange, saying: " Pope had many opportunities of seeing Ombre played, yet he has not described it correctly." He

goes on to explain that although, in The Rape of the Lock, twenty- seven cards are played (as in Tredrille), no fewer than eleven of

these are trumps. This argues a pack of forty cards, as in Quadrille. In other words, the game described by Pope is an impossible mix- ture of Ombre and Quadrille, and therefore the feat ascribed to Mrs.

Battle is an impossibility.

Now Pope, one feels, is a man well able to look after himself. To convict such a man of charlatanry is fair sport. But here the repu- tations of Mr. Elia and Mrs. Battle are involved as well. Can Lamb be a liar? Worse still, can Mrs. Battle herself, perhaps, be a fictitious personage, like her contemporary Mrs. Harris? It is a horrible thought, yet a first reference to the poem confirms it. There are three players, Belinda, the Baron and a Tertium Quid. Nine tricks are taken, five by Belinda, four by the Baron, and nine threes are twenty-seven.

Now count the trumps. In these ancient games the aces of Spades and Clubs (Spadille and Basto) are always first and third trumps respectively. The second trump, Manille, is the card that would normally be lowest in the suit declared. In Pope's game Spades

are trumps and Manille is therefore the deuce. Belinda leads:

Spadillio first, unconquerable lord, Led off two captive trumps and swept the board. As many more Manillio forced to yield, And marched a victor from the verdant field, Him Basto followed, but his fate, more hard, Gained but one trump and one plebeian card.

Eight trumps are out already. Belinda next leads the King, " The hoary majesty of Spades," and

The rebel Knave, who dares his prince engage, Proves the just victim of his royal rage.

That makes ten, yet the baron still holds the Queen, with which he takes Belinda's King of Clubs and proceeds to make three tricks in diamonds.

Eleven trumps it is, arguing a pack of forty. Yet we found (and PeacOck found) that only twenty-seven cards were dealt in all. Alas for Elia. Alas for Mrs. Battle.

And yet—. Remember that Ombre was a game often seen and probably played by Pope ; seldom, if ever, seen or played by Peacock. Remember Pope's jealous contemporaries, lynx-eyed for

any chance to quiz the author of the Dunciad. Remember that " Ombre " is a Spanish name and that the Spanish pack is a pack

of forty cards. Remember, too, that Peacock shows an almost venomous dislike for all poets but those of Italy or the ancient world. Remember, finally, that in a score of games—from Poker to Penny Nap—more cards are used than are actually dealt and played. And it then appears that Peacock is nothing but a cap• tious pedant and we rejoice to find him wrong.

The truth is, as usual, simple. From a pack of forty, nine cards are dealt to each player. The remainder form a stock or talon from which, as in Piquet, the eldest hand may draw or not at will. Belinda elects to play in Spades sans prendre, and this, in Ombre, debars the other players from drawing. It is by sheer chance (mischance for Belinda) that all eleven trumps are in play.

She might reasonably hope, after ten trumps have fallen, that the suit has been cleared. But no. Having trumped " the Clubs' black tyrant," The Baron now his diamonds pours apace.

Th' embroidered King, who shews but half his face, And his refulgent Queen, with pow'rs combined Of broken troops, an easy conquest find . .

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 and the Baron are level, with four tricks each.

And now (as oft in some distempered state) On one nice trick depends the general fate.

Each player has only one card left, and all depends upon the Baron's next lead. Here again we see that Peacock is at fault. If, as he supposed, only those cards which were dealt were used at all, then there is no reason for Belinda's livid paleness. She must

in that case have known what cards her opponents held, and, there-

fore, whether the game was lost or won. But with thirteen cards still hidden in the talon she cannot guess what the Baron's lead will be.

In fact, it is the Ace of Hearts. Red aces rank below the court cards at Ombre. Belinda plays the King and wins. The Baron, in revenge, stealthily chops off her favoinite curl, and the poem proceeds to its ostensible subject-matter.

For those who would emulate Mrs. Battle, however, and linger in this by-way of the poem, the author gives fairly abundant data. The Baron's hand is given us complete, except for the identity of his lesser trumps. He holds: Spades: Q, J. x, x, x.

Clubs : Nil.

Hearts: A.

Diamonds: K, Q, J.

Belinda's hand contains:

Spades: A, K, 2.

Clubs: A, K.

Hearts : K, Q, and also, perhaps, Diamonds: x, x.

What song the sirens sang or what cards the third player held are

not, perhaps, beyond all conjecture. Pope gives us only three. The Knave of Clubs ("Pam "), and two small trumps. Why he discards that Knave (almost, if not quite, the highest card in his hand) on the fourth round of trumps, is something of a puzzle. It may have been sheer stupidity, or defeatism, or possibly a signal of some sort to the Baron, with whom he is in partnership to defeat the declarer. Of the rest of his hand we know nothing. Of the com- plete pack of forty there remain nineteen unaccounted for. Almost any six of these will do to complete the poor fellow's hand.

It does not greatly matter. Let the reader remove the eights, nines and tens from a pack of fifty-two, distribute the remainder in the manner shown above, prop open a copy of the Rape of the Lock

before him, and he has all the information necessary for following the eminent example of Mrs. Battle.