capulc
o
.
52. Charades
are compositions, poetical or otherwise, founded upon words, each syllable of which constitutes a
noun
, the whole of each word constituting another noun of a somewhat different meaning from those supplied by its separate syllables. Words which fully answer these conditions are the best for the purposes of charades; though many other words are employed. In writing, the first syllable is termed "
My first
," the second syllable "
My second
," and the complete word "
My whole
." The following is an example of a Poetical Charade:
The breath of the morning is sweet;The earth is bespangled with flowers,And buds in a countless arrayHave ope'd at the touch of the showers.The birds, whose glad voices are everA music delightful to hear,Seem to welcome the joy of the morning,As the hour of the bridal draws near.What is that which now steals onmy first,Like a sound from the dreamland of love,And seems wand'ring the valleys among,That they may the nuptials approve?'Tis a sound whichmy secondexplains,And it comes from a sacred abode,And it merrily trills as the villagers throngTo greet the fair bride on her road.How meek is her dress, how befitting a brideSo beautiful, spotless, and pure!When she wearethmy second, oh, long may it beEre her heart shall a sorrow endure.See the glittering gem that shines forth from her hair—'Tismy whole, which a good father gave;Twas worn by her mother with honour before—Butshesleeps in peace in her grave.Twas her earnest request, as she bade them adieu,That when her dear daughter the altar drew near,She should wear the same gem that her mother had wornWhen she as a bride full of promise stood there.
The answer is
Ear-ring
. The bells
ring
, the sound steals upon the
ear
, and the bride wears an
ear ring
. Charades may be sentimental or humorous, in poetry or prose; they may also be
acted
, in which manner they afford considerable amusement.
53. Charades (Acted)
A drawing room with folded doors is the best for the purpose. Various household appliances are employed to fit up something like a stage, and to supply the fitting scenes. Characters dressed in costumes made up of handkerchiefs, coats, shawls, table-covers, &c, come on and perform an extempore play, founded upon the parts of a word, and its
whole
, as indicated already. For instance, the events explained in the poem given might be
acted
—glasses might be rung for bells—something might be said in the course of the dialogues about the sound of the bells being delightful to the
ear
; there might be a dance of the villagers, in which a
ring
might be formed; a wedding might be performed, and so on: but for
acting charades
there are many better words, because
Ear-ring
could with difficulty be
represented
without at once betraying the meaning.
There
is a little work entitled "Philosophy and Mirth united by Pen and Pencil," and another work, "Our Charades; and How we Played Them,"
1
by Jean Francis, which supply a large number of these Charades. But the following is the most extensive list of words ever published upon which Charades may be founded:
Footnote 1:
"Philosophy and Mirth, united by Pen and Pencil," One Shilling.
"Our Charades; and How we played Them," by Jean Francis, One Shilling.
Both published by Houlston and Sons, Paternoster Square, London, EC.
return
A Fool's Bolt Is Soon Shot.
54. Words which may be converted into Acting or Written Charades
A Liar Should Have a Good Memory.
55. Chronograms or Chrono-graphs
are riddles in which the letters of the Roman notation in a sentence or series of words are so arranged as to make up a date. The following is a good example:
My Day Closed Is In Immortality.
The initials MDCIII. give 1603, the year of Queen Elizabeth's death. Sometimes the Chronogram is employed to express a date on coins or medals; but oftener it is simply used as a riddle:
A poet who in blindness wrote; another lived in Charles's reign; a third called the father of English verse; a Spanish dramatist; the scolding wife of Socrates; and the Prince of Latin poets,—their initials give the year of the Great Plague—MDCLXV.—1665: Milton, Dryden, Chaucer, Lope-de-Vega, Xantippe, Virgil.
The word comes from
Chronos
, time, and
gramma
, a letter.
Begin Well and End Better.
56. Conundrums
These are simple catches, in which the sense is playfully cheated, and are generally founded upon words capable of double meaning. The following are examples:
Where did Charles the First's executioner dine, and what did hetake?He took a chop at the King's Head.When is a plant to be dreaded more than a mad dog?When it's madder.What is majesty stripped of its externals?It isa jest.[Themand they, externals, are taken away.]Why is hot bread like a caterpillar?Because it's the grub that makes the butter fly.Why did the accession of Victoria throw a greater damp over England than the death of King William?Because the King was missed(mist)while the Queen wasreigning(raining).Why should a gouty man make his will?To have his legatees(leg at ease).Why are bankrupts more to be pitied than idiots?Because bankrupts are broken, while idiots are only cracked.Why is the treadmill like a true convert?Because it's turning is the result of conviction.When may a nobleman's property be said to be all feathers?When his estates are all entails(hen-tails).
Every Man Knows Where His Own Shoe Pinches.
57. Cryptography, or secret writing
from the Greek
cryptos
, a secret, and
graphein
, to write—has been largely employed in state despatches, commercial correspondence, love epistles, and riddles. The telegraphic codes employed in the transmission of news by electric wire, partakes somewhat of the cryptographic character, the writer employing certain words or figures, the key to which is in the possession of his correspondent. The single-word despatch sent by Napier to the Government of India, was a sort of cryptographic conundrum—
Peccavi
, I have sinned (Scinde); and in the agony column of the
Times
there commonly appear paragraphs which look puzzling enough until we discover the key-letter or figure. Various and singular have been the devices adopted—as, for instance, the writing in the perforations of a card especially prepared, so as only to allow the real words of the message to be separated from the mass of writing by means of a duplicate card with similar perforations; the old Greek mode of writing on the edges of a strip of paper wound round a stick in a certain direction, and the substitution of figures or signs for letters or words. Where one letter is always made to stand for another, the secret of a cryptograph is soon discovered, but when, as in the following example, the same letter does not invariably correspond to the letter for which it is a substitute, the difficulty of deciphering the cryptograph is manifestly increased:
Ohs ya h sych, oayarsa rr loucys symsOsrh srore rrhmu h smsmsmah emshyr snms.
The translation of this can be made only by the possessor of the key.
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y zh u s h m o n e y b y c h a r l e s h r o s s e s q
"Hush Money, by Charles H. Ross, Esq."—twenty-six letters which, when applied to the cryptograph, will give a couplet from Parnell's "Hermit":
"Far in a wild, unknown to public view,From youth to age a reverend hermit grew."
The employment of figures and signs for letters is the most usual form of the cryptograph. From the following jumble we get a portion of Hamlet's address to the Ghost:
cryptography example
it is easy to write and not very hard to read the entire speech. The whole theory of the cryptogram is that each correspondent possesses the key to the secret. To confound an outside inquirer the key is often varied. A good plan is to take a line from any ordinary book and substitute the first twenty-six of its letters for those of the alphabet. In your next cryptogram you take the letters from another page or another book. It is not necessary to give an example. Enough will be seen from what we have written to instruct an intelligent inquirer.
58. Decapitations and Curtailments
are riddles somewhat of the nature of the Logogriph, which
see
. In the first, the omission of the successive initials produces new words, as—Prelate, Relate, Elate, Late, Ate. In the curtailment the last letter of the word is taken away with a similar result, as—Patent, Paten, Pate, Pat, Pa. Of like kind are the riddles known as variations, mutilations, reverses, and counterchanges. A good example of the last-named is this:
Charge, Chester, Charge: on, Stanley, on!Were the last words of Marmion.Had I but been in Stanley's place,When Marmion urged him to the chase,A tear might come on every face."
The answer is onion—On, I, on.
Mock Not a Cobbler for His Black Thumb.
59. Enigmas
are compositions of a different character, based upon
ideas
, rather than upon words, and frequently constructed so as to mislead, and to surprise when the solution is made known. Enigmas may be founded upon simple catches, like Conundrums, in which form they are usually called
Riddles
, such as:
"Though you set me on foot,I shall be on my head."
The answer is,
A nail in a shoe
. The celebrated Enigma on the letter H, by Miss Catherine Fanshawe, but usually attributed to Lord Byron, commencing:
"'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell,And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;"
and given elsewhere in this volume (See
par. 215
, page 77), is an admirable specimen of what may be rendered in the form of an Enigma.
60. Hidden Words.
A riddle in which names of towns, persons, rivers, &c, are hidden or arranged, without transposition, in the midst of sentences which convey no suggestion of their presence. In the following sentence, for instance, there are hidden six Christian names:—Here is hid a name the people of Pisa acknowledge: work at each word, for there are worse things than to give the last shilling for bottled wine.—The names are Ida, Isaac, Kate, Seth, Ethel, Edwin. Great varieties of riddles, known as Buried Cities, Hidden Towns, &c, are formed on this principle, the words being sometimes placed so as to read backwards, or from right to left. The example given will, however, sufficiently explain the mode of operation.
61. Lipogram
from
leipein
, to leave out, and
gramma
, a letter—is a riddle in which a name or sentence is written without its vowels, as:
Thprffthpddngsthtng,The proof of the pudding is in the eating.Whnhnorslst ts—rlftd,Dths bt—sr rtrt fm nfmy."When honour's lost 'tis a relief to die,Death's but a sure retreat from infamy."
This riddle sometimes appears as a proverb.
"Fear's the white feather all cowards wear."——s' th wht fthr ll cwrds——
62. Logogriph
This is a riddle (
logos
, a word, and
griphos
, a riddle) in which a word is made to undergo several changes. These changes are brought about by the addition, subtraction, omission, or substitution of a letter or letters. The following, by the late Lord Macaulay, is an excellent example:
"Cut off my head, how singular I act:Cut off my tail, and plural I appear.Cut off my head and tail—most curious fact,Although my middle's left, there's nothing there!What is my head cut off?—a sounding sea!What is my tail cut off?—a flowing river!Amid their mingling deaths I fearless playParent of softest sounds, though mute for ever!
The answer is
cod
. Cut off its head and it is
od
(odd, singular); its tail, and it is Co., plural, for company; head and tail, and it is o, nothing. Its head is a sounding C (sea), its tail a flowing D (river Dee), and amid their depths the cod may fearless play, parent of softest