Backgammon: Space and Scopic Dominance

The anonymousArden of Faversham(c. 1592) ends with a backgammon game during which the eponymous character—who has managed to pre serve himself despite almost a dozen murder attempts—is finally taken out.¹ The backgammon setting is instrumental to the scene, as Arden’s game opponent and antagonist Mosby cannot call out the cue to the waiting murderers “‘Now I can take you’” (14.229) until he rolls a number on the dice that enables him to capture one of Arden’s game pieces. Readers of the play have often been confused about the game being played in his climactic scene, mistakenly