{"id":292,"date":"2020-07-25T22:09:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T02:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/book-arts-baltimore\/?p=292"},"modified":"2021-10-18T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T15:36:15","slug":"jane-austen-and-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/book-arts-baltimore\/jane-austen-and-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Austen and family, \u201cCharades &c.,\u201d London: Spottiswode, [1895]. Want to match wits with the Austens? Try number V"},"content":{"rendered":"

J. David Grey\u2019s large donation to Goucher\u2019s Burke Austen Collection is slowly being processed, and amid the usual editions of \u201cEmma\u201d or \u201cSense and Sensibility\u201d in Icelandic or Persian which this \u201ccompletist\u201d collector loved, we also find the occasional small press run edition of Austeniana made expressly for Janeites. In this case, it\u2019s an anonymous collection of charades or riddles, many accompanied by engravings giving clues before the answer key on the final page.<\/p>\n

Number I (\u201dPair of Spurs\u201d) is supplied to give an example of one considered, in 1895 at least, to be easy. Number V by George Austen, however, is presented with no solution. The photo was frustratingly fuzzy of focus, but here is a transcription: \u201cWithout me, divided, fair ladies I ween, \/ At a ball or a concert you\u2019ll never be seen, \/ You must do me together, or safely I\u2019d swear, \/ Whatever your carriage, you\u2019ll never get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have a suggestion, please reply, with an image if it helps support the solution! (We have a guess but don\u2019t want to spoil the focus of the massed intellect of the Internet.)<\/p>\n

Author: Professor Arnold Sanders, Emeritus Professor of English (2015) – Goucher College<\/p>\n

*Note: The materials below are provided by Goucher Special Collection & Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n