In general, I like to think myself an intelligent, well-informed person. I never feel less so when I come across something like these charades. Fun and games indeed (harrumph, harrumph)
Harrumph, harrumph, indeed! In the thoughts of Mr Knightley, charades are "but the vehicle for gallantry [showing off] and trick" (Emma, ch.41). Obvious, but only when you know the answer!
What can it be, Dr. Cox?-what can it be? I have not an idea-I cannot guess it in the least. What can it possibly be? Can it be Neptune? Or a trident? Or a mermaid? Or a shark? Oh, no! Shark is only one syllable! Oh! Dr. Cox, do you think we shall ever find it out?"
I can't help myself. This one's easy-peasy: My first is a child, but it has to be male, My second's what catches a fish by the tail; You put them together, as here is the norm, And you'll find a well-belov'd poetic form.
For those who did not get any of the answers - please don’t worry, they are supposed to be puzzling! Clearly the Austen family themselves puzzled, collaboratively, over each other’s charades for days. Jane Austen wrote to her sister, Cassandra, for instance, on 29th January 1813: “We admire your Charades excessively, but as yet have guessed only the 1st. The others seem extremely difficult.”
I love riddles, especially clever ones like the hemlock one, but I'd never have got them because they require a thorough understanding of life in Jane Austen's time period to solve! Even if I'd guessed "sew." I'd never have come up with "hem." I wonder if Jane Austen's friends and family were able to solve them, and how long it took. Oh wait - I just saw Dr Octavia Cox's comment regarding her family finding them difficult. Oh good!
Or...(again, bending the rules a bit) My first two: a span of eight musical notes; My third is what hears them; my last steers the boats. Finesse it a bit, and you'll see very plain A charming professor, who helps us read Jane. Alright, alright, I'll stop now. 🎄✴😄
Although my English is good enough for your fantastic videos and for reading Jane Austens novels; alas! it's not quite good enough for this glorious charades. I had half an idea for the third, but not the whole answer😒 Thanks for this video and especially for this funny new word chariddle. It's worth of putting it in the oxford dictionary 👍
I've read Emma a few times and I've always wanted to know the answer to Mr. Elton's riddle. It always made me feel terrible that I couldn't figure it out, but now that you've explained it I feel so much better. There was no way I would have figured it out by myself because I don't use the same language. I was trying to fit broken or sick into the answer... not "woe". Is there a trick to figuring them out? Would they have been easy for the reader at that time?
Often they would have been puzzled over in groups rather than solitarily (as in the Austen family itself), sharing ideas and possibilities together, which makes things easier.
I was getting crazy with it but the original version I've bought has the answer in it :) (tbh in translation it was totally impossible to guess because of the labguage of course... not knowing that I tried and tried - and there was no answer.)
Just rewatched the 2020 adaptation of Emma is it the only Austen where we don’t get a first hand depiction of a military or Naval officer. There’s Colonel Campbell but we only get reports of him. Is there any significance to this?
Only got them when you explained the first part of it and so could guess the rest. I think I'll stick with Miss Bates and come up with 3 things very dull indeed 😄
These are difficult, especially since I'm not native speaker of English. In the first I thought praying as a task for a girl of spirit. In second, I thought judge, notary, magistrate or king regent as a man of deed and power. And in the third I thought of Narcissus, the Greek myth because a nymph was mentioned...
I'm such an ignoramus! But it was fun to try. Thank you and I would be happy to see new charades, next year. Happy Christmas and wishing you an excellent - and healthy - 2022, one and all!
My pleasure! Yep, women would have done a lot of sewing. In Pride and Prejudice we might note that Lizzy Bennet, while staying at Netherfield, causally sews in the evening while enjoying listening to the conversation of the others: "...in the evening Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing-room. The loo table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley, seated near him, was watching the progress of his letter, and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs. Hurst was observing their game. Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion." (ch.10)
This feels like a school end-of-term party - great fun and thank you for all of your videos. (I've mentioned elsewhere that I actually figured out the third one - but then, I am an accountant.
Last one, I promise: My first comes midway, in an alphabet's list; My second's the last that you'll see of a beast; My whole rules the order of who gets the stuff, So look after your daughters, so they'll have enough.
I have a "Marshall's Ladies Fashionable Repository for 1830" that contains several pages of "Charades, Enigmas, &c". Some have quite long and lyrical descriptions of the "first" and the "second" parts, as well as a longer description of the "whole". But here are a couple short four-line examples: I found this one fairly easy: 1) My first is lovely, pale, and bright; My second it imparts; My whole dispels the gloom of night, Delighting lovers' hearts. This next one was a bit more challenging: 2) My first is a name of a part of your frame; A part of your dress is my second; My whole has the power my first to secure, And a dreadful disgrace may be reckon'd.
The first creates thought. The second makes busy. When combined my head's in a tizzy. Subtract one letter from the following to find the answer: bsuvpsl.
These require a fairly reasonable knowledge of 18th century life, so alas I knew very little. I know people who would have been able to guess these, but the amount of time and energy they dedicate to this period in time is far beyond this mere mortal 😆
Many women of the period (including those of the gentry class, of which the Austens were on the periphery) would have spent much time sewing, or "at work" [i.e. needlework], together. JA wrote to Cassandra, for example, "This complaint in my eye has been a sad bore to me, for I have not been able to read or work in any comfort since Friday" (Tuesday, 8th January 1799). Playing word games together would have been a way to pass the time mentally while the hands were occupied.
Ha! - yes, JA doesn't shy away from biting morbidity in some of her jokes. I've always rather marvelled at the casual - even cheery! - misanthropy of this one: "Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of" (Emma, ch.22).
@@DrOctaviaCox Death was an ever present fact of life in that time. The only way to deal with these things was philosophically and with a certain amount of black humour I'm sure.
OK, try this one: My first is the reverence, tinged with some fear Appropriate to feel when my second is near - A Norse god is he - but together we find One who conjures up novels, just using her mind.
These remind me of Cryptic Crossword clues, another typically British type of word game. So glad to have found you, Dr Cox, by following a mention of you by Scottish author Mary Kingswood.
I didn't get anywhere close on the first two, but I was beginning to work out the second but got too fancy with odes and sonnets. Years ago, my husband was playing twenty questions with a collogue while stuck waiting together in an airport and the answer to the 20 questions was "hemlock," so he might have gotten the first.
Hi , l'm writing a research about Jane Austen's novels..there is a charade in her " History of England" about the king James i can't get it if you please try to help me with. The charade is " my first is what my second was to King James the 1st ,and you tread on my whole "
Enjoy your content and analysis. In thinking about Edward Ferrars in "Sense and Sensibility", what were the Regency societal constraints obligating him to his engagement of Lucy Steele? Where Regency engagements tantamount to legal contracts, or is it really just a question of honor and the value of one's promise with Edward? Thank you.
I LOVE Catherine Called Birdy! It's not as well known as it deserves to be - at least, here in the UK. "Tangled my spinning again. Corpus bones, what a torture." Every word a delight - must go and read it again now!
Thank You! If you want more, here is another! - This one is by Frank Austen: By my 1st you may travel with safety & speed Though many dislike the conveyance indeed. My 2nd no woman can well be My whole take a change several times in each year Hot & cold, wet & dry, benignant, severe What am I, fair Lady, pray tell me?
