CAHSS Faculty Articles
Title
The Erotics of Backgammon in Provençal and Irish Poetry
Department
Department of Literature and Modern Languages
Publication Date
1992
Publication Title
Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium
ISSN
1545-0155
Volume
12
First Page
29
Last Page
42
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...
NSUWorks Citation
Doan, J. E. (1992). The Erotics of Backgammon in Provençal and Irish Poetry. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 12, 29-42. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_facarticles/481
ORCID ID
0000-0002-4966-1251
