Lourche was a French

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

that was played in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was played, like

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

, on a

tables board Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called point (tables game), points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tab ...

. The rules of the game have been lost, Furetière (1727) describing it simply as a "kind of

trictrac Trictrac (also tric trac or tric-trac) is a French board game of skill and chance for two players that is played with dice on a board (game), game board similar, but not identical, to that of backgammon. It was "the classic tables game" of Franc ...

game", trictrac being the name given to the board used for tables games. The game is referred to in the English expression 'left in the lurch', parallel to the French ''demeurer lourche'', referring to the hopeless losing position a player of the game could end up in.

Names

In English the name is variously spelt Lurch or Lurche. In French it is the ''jeu du Lourche'', ''l'Ourche'' or ''Ourche''. In German it was called ''Lorzen'', ''Lurz'', ''Lurtsch'' or ''Lurtschspiel''

History

The game was listed by Rabelais in his work, ''

Gargantua and Pantagruel ''The Five Books of the Lives and Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel'' (), often shortened to ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'' or the (''Five Books''), is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It tells the advent ...

'', in 1534. In 1586, the ''English Courtier and Country Gentleman'' says that "In fowle weather, we send for some honest neighbours, if happely wee bee without wives, alone at home (as seldome we are) and with them we play at Dice and Cards, sorting our selves according to the number of Players, and their skill, some in Ticktacke, some Lurche, some to Irish game, or Dublets." Shakespeare also alludes to Lourche, both in

Coriolanus ''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same ...

and the

Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

. Addison (1892) notes that the game is also recorded as ''Ourche'' which "suggests that ''lourche'' stands for ''l'ourche'', the initial 'l' being merely the definite article," and that ''ourche'' may have meant the 'pool' i.e. the pot into which the stakes were placed and thus may have an origin in the Latin ''urceus'', a "pitcher" or "vase". Godefroy (1888) confirms that the game was known in French as ''Ourche'' and distinguished from

Trictrac Trictrac (also tric trac or tric-trac) is a French board game of skill and chance for two players that is played with dice on a board (game), game board similar, but not identical, to that of backgammon. It was "the classic tables game" of Franc ...

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

, citing Skinner, says that Lurch derives from l'Ourche, "a game of draughts much used among the Dutch", and that l'Ourche in turn comes from the Latin ''orca'', "box" or "corner".Johnson (1765), "Lurch".

H.J.R. Murray Harold James Ruthven Murray (24 June 1868 – 16 May 1955) was a British educationalist, inspector of schools, and prominent chess historian. His book, ''A History of Chess'', is widely regarded as the most authoritative and comprehensive his ...

simply records that 16th century works "often refer to a game of tables called ''lurch'' ... though none describes it."Murray (1952), p. 124.

References

Literature

Addison, Joseph Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 May 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with w ...

(1892)
"Rural Manners"
in ''Selections from The Spectator'', London/NY: Macmillan, pp. 177–179. * Brand, John and

William Carew Hazlitt William Carew Hazlitt (22 August 18348 September 1913), known professionally as W. Carew Hazlitt, was an English lawyer, bibliographer, editor and writer. He was the son of the barrister and registrar William Hazlitt, a grandson of the essayist ...

(1870)
''Customs and Ceremonies''
London: John Russell Smith. * Furetière, Antoine, Abbé de Chalivoi (1727). ''Dictionnaire Universel''. Vol. 3 (L–P). * Godefroy, Frédéric (1888). ''Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe Siècle''. Vol. 5 (Liste–Parsomme). Paris: Vieweg. *

Grimm, Jacob Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

and

Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author, philologist and anthropologist. He was the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1 ...

(1885). ''Deutsches Wörterbuch''. Vol. 6. Leipzig: S. Hirzel. * Irving, Henry and Frank A. Marshall, eds. (1889). ''The Works of William Shakespeare''. Vol. VI. NY: Scribner & Welford. * Johnson, Samuel (1765). ''A Dictionary of the English Language''. Vol. 2 (L–Z). London: Johnson etc. * Murray, H.J.R (1952). ''A History of Board-Games Other than Chess''. Oxford: Clarendon. * Rabelais, Francois (1534). ''

'' in ''Oeuvres de Rabelais: éd. variorum, augmentées de pièces inédites...'', Volume 1. Paris: Dalibon. * Skeat, Walter William (1893). ''A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language''. NY: Harper. {{Tables games Historical tables games Traditional board games