First printed in 1474, the English printer William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse says little about the game of chess, despite its title. Instead, both Caxton's Middle English translation and its Latin source, a thirteenth-century treatise by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Cessolis, use chess as an allegory for a political community whose citizens serve the common good. Assigning each chess piece to a real-world counterpart and a corresponding moral code, this example of the speculum regis, or "mirror for a prince," genre envisions a kingdom not bound together by kinship, but organized by professional ties and governed by moral law. Moral exempla and maxims drawn from classical sources, which illustrate these principles while engaging the reader, comprise the bulk of the work until its final chapter finally introduces the playe of chess, using rules largely unchanged since the game's introduction to Europe in the tenth century.



Jenny Adams, Associate Professor, holds a PhD and an AM in English Literature from the University of Chicago, and a BA in English Literature and French Language and Literature from UCLA. She has taught a wide variety of courses including: Chaucer, Arthurian Legends, Major British Authors, Medieval Dream Poetry, Medieval Travel Narratives, Utopian/Dystopias, Old English, and Society and Literature.



Acknowledgments



Introduction



The Game and Playe of the Chesse



1. Preface and Table of Contents



2. Book One



3. Book Two



4. Book Three



5. Book Four



Explanatory Notes



Textual Notes



Bibliography



Glossary