The Rosalind Game

This Shakespearean drinking game is based on a sequence in As You Like It in which the love-sick Orlando is writing lots of poems to his beloved Rosalind, on trees. (This was the done thing in the days before literary agents.)  Touchstone makes fun of these, making up some of his own. This is surprisingly easy to do, and gives rise to “The Rosalind Game” - one of the very few decent Shakespearian drinking games. You get a slow rhythm going, and you go round the table in a circle, making up Rosalind couplets - ie two ΄˘΄˘΄˘΄ lines in which the first line rhymes with “Rosalind” and the second line ends with the word “Rosalind”. (You are allowed to use the “lind”, “linde”, “lin” or “line” pronunciations, and it's best not to be too strict about the metre!) Anybody who can't think of one in time drinks two fingers.

Here are a couple of Shakespeare’s, to give us the idea. First, this is Orlando’s:

Let no face be kept in mind,

But the fair of Rosalinde.

... and this is Touchstone’s:

Sweetest nut hath sourest rind -

Such a nut is Rosalinde.

... and now, some suggestions for the game:

Forgive me Father, I have sinned,

I've just had sex with Rosalind.

A competition I have winned:

To find strange rhymes for “Rosalind”.

I've tied her to this bed with twine,

And now I'll spank my Rosaline.

She is tall and she is thin

Like a beanpole, Rosalin.

Cecelia is nice and kind

The nasty one is Rosalinde.

For your love away I’ve pined,

Oh, my darling Rosalinde.

I saw a film with Kevin Kline

And a girl called Rosaline.

She runs her fingers up my spine,

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, Rosaline.

The George Medal has been pinned

To the breast of Rosalind.

I've softened her with food and wine

Now I'll propose to Rosaline.

She’s either tripletted or quinned;

Very pregnant Rosalind.

Percussion, strings and brass and wind -

The orchestra of Rosalind.

I live in Brixham which is twinned

With the town of Rosalind.

If jam is jarred and beans are tinned

Does that mean Rosaline is “skinned”?

I know a girl who’s got the wind;

Smelly, farty, Rosalind.

Birds are winged and fish are finned

But I am "armed" - like Rosalind.

“All these poems should by binned”

Is the view of Rosalind.

... and a personal favourite, although probably not strictly within the rules:

Skwidgelly, skwodgelly, skwudgelly, skwind

Flubba-dubba-dum-dum Rosalind.