Beast with two backs
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Fashionable Contrasts (1792) by James Gillray.
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The beast with two backs is a euphemism for two people engaged in sexual intercourse using the missionary position.
Etymology
The phrase is usually attributed to William Shakespeare but can be traced as far as early 17th century France where it is recorded as "la beste à deux doz" (beste=beast, deux=two, doz=back) in Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534) by François Rabelais.
The full passage reads:
- En son eage virile, espousa Gargamelle, fille du roy des Parpaillos, belle gouge et de bonne troigne, et faisoient eux deux souvent ensemble la beste à deux doz, joyeusement se frotans leur lard, tant qu’elle engroissa d’un beau filz et le porta jusques à l’unziesme moys.
The phrase was first attested in English in Shakespeare's Othello (1603)
See also
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