The Viol da Gamba as a Sexual Metaphor in Elizabethan Music and literature

Abstract

UNGERER 1 he best-known reference to the viol da gamba in Elizabethan literature is likely to be Sir Toby Belch's ironical eulogy of Sir Andrew Aguecheek as an accomplished gambist.Sir Toby claims that his boon companion "plays o'the viol-de-gamboys, and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature" (1.3.23-5).*His irony is so clear that modem editors of Shakespeare's romantic comedy Twelfth Night do not deem it necessary to draw attention to the sexual innuendo of the musical instrument.The purpose of this article is to trace part of the European history of the sexual joke.It will be shown that, under the impact of some English satirists, the expression "playing on the viol da gamba" took on a disparaging meaning.In Shakespeare's time it was a stock phrase with which to heap derision on amateur musicians who, when playing the viol, assumed what was ironically taken to be an indecent posture.

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