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JOHN LYDGATE
The earliest English references to chess, are in the works of
Chaucer, Gower, Occreve, Price, Denham, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir
Walter Raleigh, &c.
John Lydgate the English Monk of St. Edmund's-Bury, calls this game, the Game Royal, and he dedicates his book, written in the manner of a love poem, to the admirers of chess, which he compares to a love battle, in the following words: M.S.
JOHN LYDGATE.
To all Folky's vertuose,
That gentil bene and amerouse,
Which love the fair play notable,
Of the Chesse most delytable,
Whith all her hoole full entente,
Where they shall fynde, and son anoone,
How that I not yere agoone,
Was of a Fers so Fortunate,
Into a corner drive and maat.
The old English names in Lydgate, are 1, Kynge, 2, Queen or
Fers, 3, Awfn, or Alfin, 4, Knyght, or Horseman, 5, Roke or
Rochus, 6, Paune.
Although Shakespeare makes no mention of chess in his works, some of his brother dramatists, and other writers who were contemporary with him, were fond of referring to it. Skelton, poet laureate to Henry the Eighth, says:
For ye play so at the chesse,
As they suppose and guess,
That some of you but late,
Hath played so checkmate,
With Lords of High estate,
And again,
Our dayes be datyed,
To be check matyed.
Many other poets and writers of that age, drew similes and
figures of speech from the chess board, including Spencer, Cowley,
Denham, Beaumont and Fletcher, quaint Arthur Saul and John
Dryden.