The Choise of Valentines

The Choise of Valentines Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo, which alternatively acquired the label "Nashe's Dildo", [1] is an erotic poem by Thomas Nashe, thought to have been composed around 1592 or 1593. [2] The poem survives in three extant manuscript versions [3] [4] and was first printed in 1899. [5] It recounts in the first person a sexual encounter in a brothel between the narrator, Tomalin, and his lover, Mistress Frances. The poem contains the most detailed description of a dildo in Renaissance literature, and constitutes the first known use of the word "dildo", though the word may derive ultimately from popular ballads.