For the Tudors, love was an elaborate game
And sometimes a deadly one, as Sarah Gristwood’s history shows
As “The Edifying Book of Erotic Chess” shows, chess once carried a more thrilling charge than it does today. The pages of this 15th-century manual, which mingle poetry with lechery and a touch of hard-core pawn, also make something else clear. If chess used to be more erotic, then the erotic used to be more chess-like, too.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Not so gentle knights”
From the January 7th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Culture
Ovation inflation has spread from Broadway to London’s West End
Why do dud plays get standing ovations?
Are mystics kooks or valuable disrupters?
A realist’s refreshing take on mysticism
Sex and Snow White: how Grimm should children’s books be?
The German authors suggest very, but today trends run the opposite way
Jimmy Lai’s trial is a headline-worthy example of injustice
A new biography aims to keep the public’s attention on the pro-democracy tycoon
Millennials and Gen Z are falling hard for stuffed animals
Plushies are cute, cuddly and costly
Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo attack, satire is under siege
Public support is waning for the right to offend