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Reading Laura Frost¡¯s review of?Vibrator Nation?(¡°Happiness lies in your own hands¡±, Books, 7 September), which I very much enjoyed, I was reminded of such literary greats as Thomas Nashe¡¯s poem?Choice of Valentines, which rapidly became known as?Nashe¡¯s Dildo, as well as the reference to ¡°Madam with a dildo, writ o¡¯ the walls¡± in Ben Jonson¡¯s play?The Alchemist.

Shakespeare refers to ¡°the delicate burdens of dildos¡± in?The Winter¡¯s Tale. One wonders if the brand name for such a device might, in the case of the Bard, have been ¡°Arden Fast¡±?

Peter J. Smith
Reader in Renaissance literature
Nottingham Trent University

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