Editing Charades (section)

===Literary charades===
[[File:Vanity Fair 538.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Triumph of [[Clytemnestra]]'']]
[[File:Vanity Fair D542.png|thumb|upright|[[Becky Sharp (character)|Becky]] as a [[Louis XIV|''Louis-Quatorze'']] [[Philomela]]]]
A '''charade''' was a form of literary [[riddle]] popularized in [[France]] in the 18th century{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}} where each syllable of the answer was described enigmatically as a separate word before the word as a whole was similarly described. The term ''charade'' was borrowed into English from French in the second half of the eighteenth century, denoting a "kind of riddle in which each syllable of a word, or a complete word or phrase, is enigmatically described or dramatically represented". 

Written forms of charade appeared in magazines and books, and on the folding fans of the [[British Regency|Regency]]. The answers were sometimes printed on the reverse of the fan, suggesting that they were a flirting device, used by a young woman to tease her beau.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} One charade composed by [[Jane Austen]] goes as follows:
<poem style="margin-left:2em">
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 effects her release!<ref>Austen-Leigh, M. A. (1920). Personal Aspects of Jane Austen. E. P. Dutton. pg. 167.</ref>
</poem>
The answer is "[[Conium maculatum|hem-lock]]".

[[William Mackworth Praed]]'s poetic charades<ref>{{citation |pages=[https://archive.org/stream/poeticalworkswi00whitgoog#page/n9/mode/2up 268–310] |url=https://archive.org/stream/poeticalworkswi00whitgoog#page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Poetical Works of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, ''Vol. I'' |last=Praed |first=Winthrop Mackworth |author-link=William Mackworth Praed  |publisher=Redfield |location=New York |date=1860 }}</ref> became famous.{{sfnp|''EB''|1878}} 

Later examples omitted direct references to individual syllables, such as the following, said to be a favorite of [[Theodore Roosevelt]]:{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}}
<poem style="margin-left:2em">
I talk, but I do not speak my mind
I hear words, but I do not listen to thoughts
When I wake, all see me
When I sleep, all hear me
Many heads are on my shoulders
Many hands are at my feet
The strongest steel cannot break my visage
But the softest whisper can destroy me
The quietest whimper can be heard.
</poem>
The answer is "an actor".

In the early 20th century, the [[Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition|11th edition]] of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' offered these two prose charades as "perhaps as good as could be selected":
{{quote|"My ''first'', with the most rooted antipathy to a [[French people|Frenchman]], prides himself, whenever they meet, upon sticking close to his jacket; my ''second'' has many virtues, nor is its least that it gives its name to my first; my ''whole'' may I never catch!"{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}
}}
and
{{quote|"My ''first'' is company; my ''second'' shuns company; my ''third'' collects company; and my ''whole'' amuses company."{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}
}}
with the answers being [[wiktionary:tartar|tartar]] and [[Riddle|conundrum]].{{sfnp|''EB''|1911}}