Note 431 — RAPE OF THE LOCK.

The whole idea of this description of a game at ombre is taken from Vida's description of a game at Chess in his poem intitled Scacchia Ludus.—Warburton.

Pope not only borrowed the general conception of representing the game under the guise of a battle, but he has imitated particular passages of his Latin prototype. Vida's poem is a triumph of ingenuity, when the intricacy of chess is considered, and the difficulty of expressing the moves in a dead language. Yet the original is eclipsed by Pope's more consummate copy.