Enigmas, Logogriphs, Charades, Rebuses, Queries and Transpositions
December 14, 2016 1:28 PM   Subscribe

It is thus confidently hoped, that the volume now offered to the public will prove an interesting and cheerful companion for a Christmas fire-side, and be employed among the innocent and rational of Christmas festivities...
Selections from The Masquerade collects hundreds of riddles and literary word puzzles from the late 18th and early 19th century.

The book is organized by puzzle type:

-"Enigmas." (Mystery riddles of the sort that Gollum, the Sphinx, and the Anglo-Saxons liked to ask.)

-"Logogriphs." ("In this puzzle, the keyword was enigmatically expressed, and then clues were given to other words which were composed of letters contained in the keyword. Thus, one logogriph appeared in The Masquerade on the word spear, which contains the letters which form ape, spar, reap, asp, ear, rap, par, pear, pare, are, as, sap, rasp, sea, pea, spa and spare. Logogriphs tended to be inordinately long, as clues had to be given to each word contained in the keyword." -Will Shortz, "British Word Puzzles: 1800-1850," 1973)

-"A List of English Towns (enigmatically expressed)."

-"An Enigmatical List of Birds."

-"Charades." (A literary predecessor of the modern party game. Each syllable of the keyword is "enigmatically expressed" in turn.)

-"Rebusses, Transpositions, &c." (A rebus, in this context, seems to be a looser form of charade, cluing individual letters and broader word chunks as well as syllables. Transposition puzzles are based on reversals and anagrams.)

-"Queries." (Riddles of the format "Why is a BLANK like a BLANK?")

-"Transpositions." (More anagram puzzles. Most solutions will be an ironic reversal of the clue - e.g., REAL FUN = "Funeral.")

-"Solutions." (Two pages were skipped during the scanning process, leaving a number of rebuses and transpositions without solutions.)
posted by Iridic (6 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is great. We're in the middle of reading The Hobbit to my 8 year old, and he has been asking me to tell more riddles like the ones Bilbo and Gollum trade.

Not that either of us have a shot at solving any of these based on my first attempts. But I love being reminded how smart I'm not.
posted by Mchelly at 2:02 PM on December 14, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm just getting "No eBook available" (UK, mobile).
posted by comealongpole at 3:18 PM on December 14, 2016


I'm just getting "No eBook available" (UK, mobile).

Sorry about that! Try this Internet Archive version.
posted by Iridic at 3:31 PM on December 14, 2016 [2 favorites]


There are some palindromes (of sorts) worked in there, which is very early in the game. At the time (1826), there had only been two palindromes (that is, sentences) every published in English, back in 1614.

-- e.g. 180.28 "A dreadful crime reversed gives colour to a spiritous liquor." Pretty sure that's the origin of the Shining right there.
posted by msalt at 3:36 PM on December 14, 2016 [2 favorites]


“An Enigmatical List of Birds.”

New username or band name, your choice.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:02 PM on December 14, 2016


"An Enigmatical List of Birds.: A celebrated English architect"

WREN! WREN! IT'S WREN! I GOT ONE!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:05 PM on December 14, 2016 [4 favorites]


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