Article
The Erotics of Backgammon in Provençal and Irish Poetry
Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium
ORCID ID
0000-0002-4966-1251
Publication Date
1-1-1992
Abstract
In medieval Provençal, and later English and Irish, literature we find references to tables, a game played on a table consisting of two boards usually hinged together, with men whose moves are determined by the throw of dice, and akin to modern backgammon. These often contain sexual innuendos or double entendres, dating as early as a twelfth-century poem by Guillem IX, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, "first" troubadour and Eleanor's grandfather, who includes in the final three strophes of his Provençal canso, "Benvuelh que sapchon li pluzor" ("I would well like it that many knew this"), an erotic wordplay on tables:1...
Disciplines
Citation Information
James E. Doan. "The Erotics of Backgammon in Provençal and Irish Poetry" Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium Vol. 12 (1992) p. 29 - 42 ISSN: 1545-0155 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/james-doan/195/