Playthings Of The Private House (Nexus)

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Provide feedback about this page. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us. English Choose a language for shopping. If Tasso is never clear about the possibility of women becoming accomplished gamesters,38 he does attempt—at least theoretically—to shit the discourse of ludic inter- mingling from the realm of love and courtesy to one of competition. It is in this light that consideration must be given to the imagery of cheating in scenes of courtly gameplay.

We might further contextualize this modus ludendi by closing with two historical accounts. For the irst case, see especially Vives, De institutione feminae Christianae, 1: Other authors argued that women were feeble, weak-willed, and intellectually worth no more than children or beasts; see, for instance, Dolce, Dialogo della institution delle donne; and Domenichi, La donna di corte, fols.

On the condemnation of games of chance alea , see Arcangeli, Recreation in the Renaissance, chs. For the English translation, see Brant, he Ship of Fools, — Douce 49, folio LXIII v presents Francis preaching to birds and, on the hook of the Q initial, a dog defecat- ing and disregarding the words of the saint. See also Arcangeli, Recreation in the Renaissance, 41—45, and in the present volume essays by Andreas hermann Fischer and Manfred Zollinger. Phyllis or Campaspe Riding Aristotle of ca. Such drawings should be understood on a number of levels: However, in such otherwise apt interpretations, the narrative engine—indeed, the ostensible subject—of the igural composition is ignored.

Rather, it can be largely attributed to the fact that the drawing was cut down along its right side, where the truncated reaching gestures of the igures at the center and far right conirm the act of palm reading that originally transpired at the center right margin. But the diiculty of reading the composition is not only an accident of history; rather, visual trickery and lack of recognition form the real, core interest of the composition, as the written gloss on the verso would seem to conirm.

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In a sort of reverse phrasing, Leonardo also evokes the tru- ism of keeping your friends close but your enemies closer. Although actually late medieval in origin, the subject of the famous philosopher humiliated by his inappropriate but untamable physical desire for a beautiful young woman Phyllis or Campaspe in competing versions of the tale possesses a classicizing pedigree. Florentine circle of Baccio formerly associated with the workshop Baldini? Photo aristocratic courtship Figure 4. Below, a reclining nude earth mother with swollen belly, a symbol and talisman of fertility familiar from the inner lids of painted cassoni marriage chests , cavorts with her two small children in a leafy landscape denoting natural increase.

A Satire of Aged Lovers Leonardo again approached the subject of aristocratic courtship some ten to iteen years later in a drawing, A Satire of Aged Lovers, commonly referred to simply as a Grotesque Couple Figure 4. In this drawing, Leonardo substitutes a decrepit pair of grotesque lovers for the traditional late medieval chivalric image of a young couple en promenade, the noble knight and his lady familiar from Garden of Love imagery.

A grimacing old man turns to address his lover and ofer her a lower, the schematic circular bloom of which is legible just above the line of his shoul- der. In her other hand, the old woman, disigured by a smashed nose, tooth loss, and dramatic underbite, delicately raises her voluminous skirt to signify perambulation. More pointedly, Leonardo has translated the subject of Death and the Lovers from the same corpus of secular imagery he drew on for Phyllis or Campaspe Riding Aristotle. A Florentine engraving of ca.

The engraving features an extravagantly costumed pair of young lovers who are warned by Death as he approaches with his wooden cart a stretcher for transporting corpses: It is worth remembering that the endgame of youthful court- ship—and the range of imagery and objects associated with it, even the most playful and humorous—was socially sanctioned marriage, the adoption of an adult moral code of behavior, and the production of legitimate ofspring.

By having Death inhabit the bodies of the lovers, which become abject through his virtuosic agency, Leonardo unleashes the moralizing intent of the image type to fully subsume the comforting visual celebration of sensual and material delights still available in the earlier engraving and related imagery. The drawing satirizes a saturated domestic visual culture associated with elaborate self-fashioning and highly orchestrated romance, of which much does not survive, although the Otto prints provide one rich if under-examined source of information.

It is one he Figure 4. Based on the Medici property inventories of the s and s and other documented examples of comic prints and paintings hanging on the walls of Renaissance palaces and villas, I am inclined to argue for the circulation of such drawings not just as fodder for further invention among artists a relatively closed network , but as intimate conversation pieces passed informally by hand in urban palaces and at court, as sources of didactic amusement across overlapping networks of artists, patrons, and their social circles.

In this type of study—based on the ancient topos that outward appearance relects inner character—Leonardo seeks to capture the moti mentali, emotions or motions of mind, as registered in the active, highly articulated physiognomy of ive typologically dif- ferentiated faces, which he referred to as visi mostruosi. As mentioned, Martin Clayton irst identiied the subject of the drawing as a scene of fortune telling in which the central igure, a goitrous old man in right proile crowned with oak leaves—the corona civica, the second-highest ceremonial honor an ancient Roman citizen could receive—is tricked and robbed by a pair of highly masculinized female gypsies to his let and right.

Before the drawing was cut down along the length of its right side, one would have seen the right hand of the central figure, who reaches out to his right, and that of the Simian-lipped gypsy positioned on an acute right angle before him, where they touched or perhaps almost touched near the right edge of the paper. Here the second old crone in the tightly wrapped and fringed headscarf—positioned at left directly opposite her partner—reaches surrepti- tiously around the back and under the right sleeve of the unsuspecting victim to steal his purse, which he wears around the waist.

Although Clayton does not much discuss them, in such a reading the two male igures at the upper let and right become witnesses, com- mentators, and potential accomplices to the deception and crime, as does the viewer. The composition is set up as a classic Florentine beffa, or mockery, the type of popular comic narrative in which one character or set of characters gets the upper hand over another through means of deception, usually gaining some form of finan- cial or sexual advantage in the outcome.

Of course, one could argue that the drawing is uninished, but Leonardo has already lavished meticulous, reiterative attention on the heads. Further, the sense of a narrative unfolding in and across space, as, for example, in Phyllis or Campaspe Riding Aristotle, becomes compressed into a tight circular composition against a blank ground, producing an overlapping network of care- fully angled, ofset poses, curving counter-clockwise circular movement, and misaligned gazes that ire of unreturned in ive diferent directions: I would also tentatively relate this igure to the character type of the ancient worthy Caesar, great hero, poet, or philosopher tricked and humiliated by the powers of women.

In the case of Cicero, it was conferred because he detected and punished a major conspiracy during his consulship. I would instead argue that the composition ridicules ancient learning and intellectual pretension in a broader sense. Titled De viribus quantitatis On he Power of numbers , it includes card tricks, number puzzles, and language and science games, like how to make an egg walk or wash your hands in molten lead.

Staring resolutely forward into space, the old man at the center of the composition fails entirely to register the presence of the other igures. Leonardo does not ofer the old man to our gaze as a igure of sympathy then, but rather as a cautionary tale about attention and good judgment in the type of people you allow close to you. Yet, as mentioned, we still have to work to see what is going on. Vasari, Le vite, vol.

And Bambach in Bambach et al. Likewise, Ede, Leonardo da Vinci, cat. On the medieval origins of the tale and its representation in art, see Smith, he Power of Women. See he Complete Works of Aristotle: Jonathan Barnes, 2 vols. It consists in some blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster, an obvious example being the comic mask which is ugly and distorted but not painful.

See the entry in Bambach et al. See Baratto, La commedia del Cinquecento, 72— It is also possible that such engravings were hand-colored and pasted directly to the exterior and interior lids of boxes, although we have no historical evidence for this practice. Or, as Musacchio suggests, the engravings could have functioned as independent artworks that merely relect the box form and ornament.

Such early Florentine engravings were likely adapted from illustrated manuscripts and domestic luxury objects. HG and thus probably to a broader international one presumes also Burgundian and netherlandish tradition, which would in turn help to explain the type of northern courtly imagery found in the Florentine Otto prints. Milnor, Graiti and the Literary Landscape, discusses the literary context for such imagery.

On Roman satiric visual culture more broadly, see Clarke, Looking at Laughter. In a list of expenses, he lists six soldi as set aside for fortune telling. For a modern edition, see Pacioli, De Viribus Quantitatis. On the lost book more generally, see Kwakkelstein, Leonardo da Vinci as a Physiognomist, 63— Contemporary familiar letters were used as a slate for literary experimentation, espe- cially in recording introspective thought, not least because this genre had no rigorous form.

His task was to negotiate an exemption of the Florentine Franciscans from the rest of the Tuscan congregations. Between and , during the years of forced political inactivity, Machiavelli had written the two texts that would come to define him for posterity: Especially so in his Discorsi II, 2 , Machiavelli adopted one of the most explicit anticlerical stances during the entire sixteenth century and well beyond , denouncing Christianity in general and blaming the papal government for the failure of Italian politics.

Magnifice vir, major observandissime—only to shift in the first sentence from high style to coarse facetiousness. Machiavelli writes that he had just come to the conclusion—presum- ably in the act of defecating—that he would prefer to appoint a priest with an expertise in teaching the road to hell. During the period of leisure he now enjoys, Machiavelli promises to create as much mischief among the Franciscans as he possibly can, for the friars have now gathered in Carpi to elect their general and his assistants.

The grim physicality of this account of the fraught relationship between Machiavelli and the politics of his hometown—whose citizens he wishes to show the road to hell—is palpable, in the truest sense of the word, from the very beginning. Yet one also has to take into consideration that during and before the Renaissance, letter writing was understood as a substitute for face-to-face communication. In a crucial shit of tone, Machiavelli then asks Guicciardini if he could send more letters of advice—and on a daily basis; and he asks that these messages be delivered with great reverence.

And I can tell you that on the arrival of this arbalester with the letter, and making a bow down to the earth, and with his saying that he was sent specially and in haste, everybody rose up with so many signs of respect and such a noise that every- thing was turned upside down, and I was asked by several about the news.

In this way, Machiavelli makes clear that he will continue to communicate with a facetious tone and in a mendacious vein. Yet he also introduces a new element, for he makes the very act of sending the letters a game in and of itself. To that end, Machiavelli requests that Guicciardini send a messenger as oten as possible to alleviate the boredom of the arbalesters and to rescue them from having to sleep in uncomfortable beds and eat bad food. What emerges here is not merely an exchange of lettere facete, but the record of a dense social interaction that encompasses a variety of reactions to these texts: As with the prior use of facetiousness in connection to politics, this is, of course, a probate literary strategy used to create a decidedly anti-metaphysical sense of immanence.

It is the necessary precondition for the immersion of the players into their activity. When viewed from this perspective, the letter game is a playful enactment of the corruptness of contemporary Italian politics. For these would-be letters of state not merely refer to the stratagems that Machiavelli had recommended in his most notorious passages of Il Principe; they also—written in a decidedly mirthful mood and in the lan- guage of carnival—point to the futility of politics in general. But he also writes that, unlike Machiavelli, he is too busy to reply with a long and witty letter; Guicciardini, thus, seems to express some hesi- tation about his level of involvement in the letter game.

For not only has he sent the present letter with an arbalester, who he expects will arrive in such a great hurry that his shirt will hang out of his trousers, but he has also sent a bundle of diplomatic dispatches from Zurich, which, he suggests, Machiavelli should show to his host, or at least hold in his hand. A One-and-Only Victory and the Game-as-Game In his reply from Carpi of May 18, ,45 Machiavelli communicates the irst and only victory in the letter game in hyperbolic terms. Machiavelli reports that, in order to demonstrate his gratitude to the host, he showed him the bundle of let- ters from Switzerland and from the French King;46 he also told the visibly impressed Santi absolutely trivial stories about the troubles of the Emperor Charles V and his plans to conquer parts of France.

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Yet in the absence of deinitive proof, the host inds himself cautiously questioning his guest without ever making any headway. In fact, Santi seems to be desperately looking for a chance to talk to Guicciardini in person in order to clarify this last matter. In the letter game, the stake is as real as the bundles of papers from which the messages are being read. While the text of the novella or the performance of a play tend to make the reader forget the material basis of the narration, the letter game is geared toward the physicality of the world: In an unexpected turn, Machiavelli then expresses not only his gratitude to Guicciardini for his support, but he also promises to reciprocate the hospitality received from Santi in the event that his host should come to Florence, and, to this end, he asks Guicciardini to intercede on his behalf.

It is not a rude carnivalesque befa, but rather a pastime, one in which nobody will be put to shame or shall sufer material loss. Moreover, such playfulness is in stark contrast to the acrimonious remarks made by both correspondents on the actual state of contemporary politics and religion. Machiavelli reports that he tried to console the preacher with various comments on the nature of big cities and the rapidity with which they change their laws, and he maintains that he had been so successful that he almost persuaded the friar to change his mind.

Machiavelli adds that that very night he will have to appear before the Franciscans, who, he reports, have elected Paolo Soncino—not, he opines, a bad choice. In light of these events, Machiavelli expresses hope that on the following day he will inally be able to visit Guicciardini, whom he salutes with a Latin theological formula typically reserved for God: Feasting while Keeping up Appearances In his reply from Modena dated probably erroneously May 18, , Guicciardini compares Machiavelli to Lysander, the brave Spartan oicer who ends up with the lowly task of having to divvy up the meat among the soldiers he once commanded and led to victory.

On the surface, Guicciardini seems here to have changed from the playful mood that characterizes the preceding letters to the genus grave. But this impression is quite deceptive in that the story is actually about the sharing of meat with soldiers. Keep in mind that sutlers are traditionally renowned for their corruption and for the distribution of bad food.

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Accordingly, the story of Lysander serves for Guicciardini as an example of how all things change on the sur- face but not necessarily in substance, and, thus, it elucidates the idea that those who are prudent will realize that history repeats itself under the ever-changing guise of diferent names and appearances. Guicciardini, in fact, knew that Machiavelli had been commissioned by the Medici, in , to write the Florentine histories, a task which Machiavelli knew to be as futile as the current mission, drated by these very same patrons.

Indeed, Guicciardini immediately returns from these purportedly loty remarks on the methodology of writing history to the letter game itself. He once more urges Machiavelli not to lose time in this auspicious historical moment, when Fortune shows herself favorable. Guicciardini, therefore, surmises that the host will suspect his visitor to be an impostor and believe himself to be the victim of a ruse, even as Santi has no deinitive proof of his hunch.

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Machiavelli must endure the embar- rassment of the situation for as long as Santi continues to feed him well, thereby enabling him to act in his role as a parassita, or glutton. Again, Guicciardini frames the letter and the game by inviting Machiavelli to come to Modena as soon as possible, thereby re-introducing the playfulness of the letter game. Francisco de Guicciardinis etc. Santi has inally realized the ruse. For the irst time in their correspondence, direct speech is used, obviously with the intent to dramatize the event and to describe the concluding episode in terms of a severe diplomatic crisis with potentially terrible consequences.

On his retreat, Machiavelli seeks to appease Santi by explaining to his host that he did actually ask Guicciardini to oversee some afairs for him back in Florence and that this was the cause of the correspondence. He begs Guicciardini to stop sending messages, for otherwise the innocuous joke might cause much bitterness. Machiavelli then describes the prize that has been won in the letter game and states that whatever happens: Machiavelli then writes in diplomatic style that he will bring this matter to a close by the next day.

He therefore asks Guicciardini to send them a couple of verses to excuse his failure. Machiavelli reassures Guicciardini that he has learned many important lessons from his mission to the Republic of the Wooden Slippers. To play this game is to explore the nature and the potential of the letter medium through the highly conscious use of diferent literary registers in a decidedly jocular mood. What is at stake here is the medium itself and its power to fascinate audiences; in such ways, the letter game parallels metaleptic techniques often employed in Renaissance plays, such as the staging of a play within the play.

Deceived by appearances, the spectators become the subjects of the sly Principe. Bundles of letters have to be shown to the audience. This letter game is to be played with amazingly innocuous intentions: Above all, a sense of self-irony about the futility of the mission to Carpi and a leisurely mood prevail. These messages are not some disembodied basis for the transmission of texts. Rather, the material letter embodies some of the spatial and temporal constrictions, as well as a sense of urgency, that are inherent in carnivalesque performances.

Yet, and aside from the direct communication essential to the carnival procession, the sense of elation caused by reading a hilarious letter is triggered, in the case of the letter game, from a distance—at least some of the amusement is still available to readers of posterity even though they will not win a free lunch. In other words, body language is translated into written text.

Recall that it was his spe- ciic physical appearance that gave Machiavelli the idea of setting up the game in the irst place. Yet one must be careful to historicize this igure of the messenger, for the function of medieval and early modern couriers was then quite diferent. His credibility was an important issue in high medieval literature, and his authentication was usually brought about by signs that refer to the social position of the sender.

In this period, for instance, papal messengers were to appear dressed almost like the pope himself, or at least bearing his coat of arms. In our letter game, we see an intensive exchange between Machiavelli and Guicciardini about the courier. It is again interesting to note that already in high medi- eval literature the messenger himself sometimes becomes the subject of correspondence. Especially so in important matters, the letter was purely a for- mality, whereas the text of the actual message was delivered orally by a messenger who served as a substitute for face-to-face communication between the correspondents this practice is due, of course, to the belief that some messages were thereby best kept secret.

In sum, these letters of accreditation were made part of the ceremonial communication, with the oicial letters being read aloud in order to communicate their contents to the court and to impart a sense of dialogue between sender and receiver. Yet this is not quite the case. As apprentices to scholarly culture, they oten themselves became the subject of humanist correspondence. Yet in the case of the present letter game, just the opposite has happened: The mistrust of Santi, which played such an important part in the letter game, is again to be seen as a marker of the low, comical, and satirical style that characterizes the correspondence of Machiavelli and Guicciardini.

It is this infringe- ment of conventions that ends the game, which again evidences the importance of the material letter; even when Santi transgresses the boundaries of decorum, his knowledge of what was actually going on remains fragmentary. Even though clearly asymmetrical, the letter game is amazingly inofensive, and, thus, the playing of the game is a true pastime. For all that is at stake is respectful treatment during a short holiday, some rich meals, and a comfortable bed—or, to put it diferently, a few days of in a boring, remote village illed with hypocrites and despicable friars.

For brief, useful introductions to Machiavelli, see Skinner, Machiavelli; and on his philosophy, see Copenhaver and Schmitt, Renaissance Philosophy, — Ridoli, Vita, —92, gives the most detailed account of the circumstances of the letter game and reproduces the entire exchange; see also Rebhorn, Foxes and Lions, 1—2 and — For lexicographic data on these letters, see Larosa, Una meta- morfosi ridicola, 21 and — It perhaps goes without saying that Machiavelli, as a republican with a pronounced anti-Medici stance, was not overly enthusiastic about this particular commission, which he nevertheless had to accept for lack of other options.

Machiavelli, Discorsi, bk. Actually, the use of this term is less jocular than might be expected from a modern perspective. On this last aspect, see Larosa, Una metamorfosi ridicola, In all probability, Machiavelli is here alluding to Domenico da Ponzo, a Dominican preacher at Santa Maria del Fiore, who, with his apocalyptic visions, preached against the Medici and other powerful families; or, perhaps, to Simone da Gaeta, ambassador of Pope Alexander VI in Florence in and an enemy of Savonarola. See Larosa, Una metamorfosi ridicola, —17, for more detailed biographies.

Machiavelli perhaps alludes to Francesco Roberto di Martelli, an adherent to the Medici; see Larosa, Una metamorfosi ridicola, Yet even the historical igures mentioned in these texts are so stereotypical that it is possible to play games with them, as though they were kings or other igures in a card game or on a chessboard. Stasera io ne guadagno quattro. Ligurio is not only the mastermind of the many ruses in that comedy: For a recent discussion of that passage and the conlicting opinions of Machiavelli and Guicciardini on the role of patterns in history the former strongly in favor of comparisons between Roman and Florentine politics, the latter against them , see Najemy, Between Friends, Najemy, however, does not discuss Gilbert.

Basically, the evaluation and perception of a game in terms of prestige are forged by various media and institutions ranging from legislation to art and literature through the very materiality of gaming paraphernalia. I will focus on a late Renaissance poem dedicated to a particular game played by Dido and Aeneas, interpreting it as a contribution to the framing of contemporary ludic culture. Beyond its literary claim, the text provides the reader with practical advice for a game regarded to be honest yet points no less to the importance of behavior in order to make the playing of that game an acceptable practice.

I shall discuss the destiny of both the poem and the game against the background of shiting conditions in the relationship between texts and gaming practices. In , the irst edition of Lorzius aleae ludus descriptus by Karl Leuschner, until recently unknown to scholars, was printed. All we know about the author is that he was from Meissen in Saxony, became a student at the university of Wittenberg in , and contributed to occasional poems printed in , , and in that town. It is most improbable that Vida should not have been a source of inspiration for Leuschner.

In the lyrics of the Troubadours, backgammon-like games were said to represent vulgarity. The poem by Leuschner describes the game of lurch, a board game akin to backgammon. However, due to the condition of the manuscript, it is not clear what it takes to achieve such a win. A player was lurched when seven of his men were hit, which made it impossible to re-enter them all a precondition for moving the other pieces within the board.

In this case, the winner needs not to have borne of his checkers from the board. According to other sources, this happens also if six men are hit. By that time, lurch was also the name of a game. Traditionally, this could prove problematic because still in the thirteenth century the use of dice was the line of demarcation between permitted and illicit games. Despite several prohibitions, they came to be tolerated, even regarded as legitimate.

While chess is the most noble sedentary game, backgammon-like games represent the dialectical synthesis of skill or intelligence and luck, of Reason and Chance or Fatalism. Dice are not condemned but are necessary for the game, like feet for the body, because the checkers, unlike chessmen, have no intrinsic value to determine their moves. Hans Sachs refers to Plato when he compares the vicissitudes of human life with such board games. It could nevertheless prove critical to the status of a game that the above-mentioned synthesis could also mean ambiguity.

For example, an early sixteenth- century wall painting on a house in Vienna shows a wolf Protestant playing against a cow Catholic Figure 6. In fact, they were practiced not only among cratsmen but also among the highest ranks of society.

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From the sixteenth century, boards for backgammon-like games were oten artfully manufactured and combined with boards for chess and morris. In this regard, the dedi- catory lines are problematic. But even they need rest. Moreover, since the weather is inclement, the board game is proposed: Leuschner states that excess is bad in all things. Gaming should not become a kind of commerce or profession.

What follows is a description of lorzius. It is said to be widespread in Germany, where the youth competitively and artfully practice it ater their duties. Anachronistically, some are playing cards, others the noble chess, while Dido asks for a game board, which Leuschner describes in detail. Love and faithfulness, however, are also represented in connection with Dido, as these two virtues are the themes of the two sets of illustrated tokens.

As with this example, game history can also be told through the materiality of its objects. In this respect, Leuschner did not need to invent much. Precious gaming paraphernalia decorated with iconographic programs were part of princely and noble collections. Dido, Pyramus, and hisbe pointed to the moral commandment of truth until death. One game board and its tokens made in Augsburg in , probably for King Ferdinand I, are entirely based on Ovid and can be read as a humanistic program. Some of these games were representative playthings not to be played with, others instead were used for play.

Like Vida, Leuschner describes the game as a combat between two armies. Seemingly, the game of tables had been compared to war only once before. But there is more. Since every reader knew what happened with Dido and Aeneas and maybe also with Pyramus and hisbe , the question arises why Leuschner chose Dido and Aeneas for playing the game. Neither Virgil, nor Ovid, nor any other author mentions ludic practices when telling the story.

Alea sive de curanda ludendi in pecu- niam cupiditate by the philospher and physician Pascasius Justus whose full name was Pascasius Justus Turcq , himself a passionate gambler. Printed in in Basel, the book is a medical analysis of gambling addiction and provides methods to cure oneself. Clearly, there are parallels in some respects. The ultimate authority for Pascasius is no less a person than Virgil: As Toon van Houdt has shown, Pascasius follows a long hermeneutical tradition as he focuses on the conflict between Passion and Reason, incarnated by Dido and Aeneas.

Aeneas is the model to be followed. Although on the edge of forgetting his calling, he eventually follows the imperative rule of Reason and the counsel of the gods and leaves Dido, who, instead, is swept away by the loods of passion. Pascasius had judged his subject worthy of poetic treatment but had not found any piece of literature dealing with it. Leuschner seems to accomplish this mission but does so in a quite twisted way. It is Dido who launches the game and instructs Aeneas how to play it.

As will be shown, his couple has changed places. To do so, the author draws on a current topos related to the psychological potential of gambling, of which Pascasius was also aware. Leuschner combines history and psychology as well as contemporary stereotypes of behavior at games and thus constructs a morality that could be easily understood. The couple, submitted to the cast of the dice, wages war on the game board. The ongoing game appears as a dramatic staging where the psychological and biographical dispositions of the two protagonists are displayed within the framework of civic humanistic tradition.

Leuschner illustrates this on several occasions. As his situation instead gets worse, he grows angry and is about to throw the game. Dido mildly smiles at him and explains that his anger makes sense, because, ater all the strokes of fate he had experienced before, it would only be just if Fortune would now turn to his side. She gives the example of her husband who, despite being lucky in many other enterprises and of a mild character, otentimes lost his patience and became furious when she luckily won at play against him.

Dido takes this to be a com- mon feature of noble minds and of those experienced at war. Interestingly, Pascasius, drawing on Virgil, Plato, Aristotle, and Galen, stresses the same correlation. She tells him not to surrender too headily to desperation because there will be sunshine ater the rain.

Moments later, Aeneas fraudulently tries to compensate the lack of good luck by moving his pieces a diferent number from that thrown. Dido detects the cheat and con- cedes that such cheating can be let go now and then. Not all would have agreed. Aeneas agrees and, seeking to avoid quarrels, promises to accept whatever the dice will impose. Dido has blocked all the points Aeneas would need to re-enter the tokens hit of the ield. He heaves a sigh and his eyes ill with tears. Asked for the secret cause of his pain, Aeneas makes the game a replica of reality and a mirror of his biography.

As he perceives his checkers not being able to re-enter the playing ield and stumbling around, he recalls how he and his people have been driven from their coun- try, stumbling around with no place to set foot. Dido comforts him and recommends he resigns himself to his fate. Ater all, God will bring him a happy ending. And so she does, but Aeneas commits a tactical error.

And she warns him that he might pay for his faults if Luck stays by her side. Ater a inal attempt at cheating and Dido conceding him another extraordinary cast of dice, Aeneas eventually is lurched the term is not used in the text. Aeneas, feel- ing both the ignominious defeat and the missed victory, grows angry again and prepares the game board for a return game.

At stake was whatever the winner would ask. Dido teaches Aeneas a gaming lesson that turns into a civilizing lesson, in which the game serves as a vector. As Robert Muchembled puts it, sentiments, sensations, joy, and grief are forcefully brewed in games, making the ludic practice an extraordinary school of education and behavior in the face of the other.

In view of gaming as a social and cultural practice, the mythological, martial, and psychologi- cal setting is part of the discourse on the validity of gaming as a pastime. As regards the technical aspects, Leuschner describes the main components and the basic concept and rules of lurch. Still, in this regard, criticisms were leveled against the author. In the course of the Austrian Counter-Reformation, he was forced into exile in Regensburg, where he died in First, although the poet is said to have made the game ornate with beautiful verses, the use of Latin limits the reach of the text.

Still, as regards the practical content the game actually played , Venediger inds it incomplete because the poet had prioritized artful writing. To combine art and practice, Venediger conserves the original text and revises the step-by-step description of the game as it is played. He inserts some technical terms and adds a inal piece of advice for balanced work and diversion.

Then, suddenly, your current school wants to take it? Would it truly have the nerve to ask? That is what you are supposed to do. And now that money is available. That will make residents feel like their taxes have gone up, which will make it harder for states to raise taxes in the future. They might even come under pressure to cut taxes.

Except the tax bill also makes accounts that much more attractive, which means more people in those 35 states with tax breaks will use the accounts more often. Given the benefits wealthy families will now receive on the federal level with plans, it will be tempting for states to put income caps in place on the tax breaks they offer. At the moment, just Montana and Wisconsin penalize people for that quick toe-touch, according to Kathryn Flynn, content director at Savingforcollege. Might more states do that once the word spreads about said fancy footwork?

As for the longer term, one has to wonder how long a big tax break for private school tuition can persist. To people like Richard V. Feirstein, who does not buy the thesis that s were already a plaything solely for the upper classes, agrees with Mr.