Three Charades
Headnote
The three charades the 1895 family booklet assigns to Jane herself — Nos. XVIII, XIX, and XX of ’Charades &c. Written a Hundred Years Ago’, dated by its own title to the 1790s. The booklet’s key gives the answers: hemlock, agent, bank-note. The remaining thirty-nine charades are by her parents, brothers, and other kin, and are therefore not in this edition.
Xviii
When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit,
And my second confines her to finish the piece,
How hard is her fate! but how great is her merit,
If by taking my whole she effect her release!
And my second confines her to finish the piece,
How hard is her fate! but how great is her merit,
If by taking my whole she effect her release!
Xix
Divided, I’m a gentleman
In public deeds and powers;
United, I’m a monster, who
That gentleman devours.
In public deeds and powers;
United, I’m a monster, who
That gentleman devours.
Xx
You may lie on my first by the side of a stream,
And my second compose to the nymph you adore,
But if, when you’ve none of my whole, her esteem
And affection diminish—think of her no more!
And my second compose to the nymph you adore,
But if, when you’ve none of my whole, her esteem
And affection diminish—think of her no more!