I was never exactly sure why Rook got a pass, but in my own circles, among those who looked on card-playing as something evil, Rook may not have been sacred but at least it wasn't vile. The pass Rook got--for whatever reason--made it much beloved.
My own family was not unmercifully righteous. Even though I don't remember anyone ever playing cards around the family table, I don't believe that my dad (a preacher's kid) ever laid down the law about such things. Nobody in my earshot ever called a deck of cards the duivels prentenboek (literally, the "devil's picturebook") as some people did. No one ever huffed and puffed about card-playing anyway. And we all loved Rook.
But I grew up with a dad who was quite adamant about games of chance. Hence, even though he served as the village mayor, he refused to participate in the annual Fourth of July raffle under the grounds that it simply wasn't good for the soul to get something for nothing. And about the soul my dad could be adamant.
Brueghel's marvelous wisdom canvas includes a few visual reminders about card playing and games of chance, and, as you might expect of the moral character of the time, there are warnings. Ready yourself for a sermon or two from the upper left of the painting.
First, you can't help but see the cards falling. This red-coated guy (not exactly a trending fashion statement in 16th century Low Countries) is sitting precariously in the window, his hands over both the duivels pretenboek, as well as a pair of dice--double jeopardy. Some of them are falling on the gable's roof below, suggesting--you guessed it--that luck is all in the fall of the cards ("het is maar hoe de kaarten vallen"), which may not be the voice of the Godly prophet Jeremiah exactly, but is not necessarily a truth to be brushed away (like the cards). "It's all in the cards" is always a kind of cosmic concession, but rarely meant as a joke.
Anyway, that the joker in the red coat has a pointy, multi-colored stocking cap is not happenstance either. He's a fool, officially and publicly, which, seeing the cap, every last Brueghel viewer would have seen and understood.
The dice don't just happen to be there either. They remind all who subscribe to Brueghel's wisdom that "de teerling is geworpen," or, as we might shudder to admit: "the die is cast." Be warned--once those die are rolled, there is no return. You can't help but feel sorry for the bloke, but then he's a fool, a kind of moral idiot (more about that soon).
And, lest you begin to believe Brueghel is a puritan's puritan, that like some old-line Calvinist preacher he loved stomping on fun, note the fool's gaity, something for sure of a blessing. The man is playing the cards he's got and sometimes--just sometimes, but sometimes nonetheless--he happens to have the right ones, luck being what it is, fickle as heck. Check out the guy's confidence. As opposed to raffles and bingo as my dad was, he would still have had to admit, grudgingly, that "de gekken Krijgen de beste kaarten," which is to say, as did the psalmist time and time again, sometimes in life the fool gets dealt the best cards.
But then, even a good hand, doesn't redeem the guy's behavior. After all, as we all know, luck comes goes. It's two-faced--sometimes sheer beauty, sometimes deadly horror:
And those who rely on it, those who do it all the time--I've got enough of my dad in me to say it--are those who deny themselves the blessings of honest work for honest pay. That's what he'd say, and he's not wrong. The fool is sometimes fun to be around, but morally he's an idiot.
After all, such people, Brueghel claims, op de wereld schijten, as is the fool as we speak, if you look closely. See the globe beneath him? Now look up. The mad hatter seems unclothed because he is, and that stream beneath his bum?--you guessed it: he schijtening on the wereld (once again, please excuse Dutch earthiness).
It's all there in Peter Brueghel's catalog scrapbook of timeless folk wisdom. And there's lots more.
Thinking of the casino this weekend? Don't. Stop over for a hand or two of Rook.
2 comments:
Random thoughts on this post but give me a grin.
Oostburg 4th July raffle, my mother won a car, an old cast-off from DeSmith's Used Cars. Sadly, an old Hudson hardly worthy of qualifying as a push, pull or drag option.
Next, in the same raffle, your Uncle Jay won a cement mixer donated by your dad's employer, Gilson. Oops.
Lastly, the CRC funded Pine Haven Nursing Home sanctioned Rook as the card game of choice. I would arrange a visit with my mother which took a four hour ride with four young kids. I had to schedule my visit around my mother's Rook schedule. She thought I had to straighten out my priorities.
:).
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