| Description |
1 v. (26 p.) ; 33 cm. |
| Summary |
Copybook, containing the pieces and instructions for a fortune-telling parlor game. Includes cloth bag, numbered "4," holding cardboard squares with Roman numerals; the rules of the game ("Explanation," p. 2), a chart of twenty-one numbered questions, a table of celestial bodies, and a list of more than 300 possible answers, in verse. |
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The questions are arranged under the headings "Masculine" ("Shall I be successful in my Amours?"), Feminine ("How do the Men like me?") and "Epicene" ("How many children of both sexes shall I have?"). A player was to choose a question, remember its number, select a number from the cloth bag, and use both numbers to find the answer under the indicated planet or constellation ("Be content with Dogs and Cats / For you will ne'er have Human Brats"). |
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The game's creator(s) may have left it uncompleted: the instructions say to draw a number "out of one of the Bags, on the Cover," but there is only one bag; and there are many blank spaces in the list of answers. |
| Note |
"The date of this manuscript is assumed to be ca. 1780-1810 ... It has been suggested, however, that the use of the original name "Georgium Sidus" for the newly discovered planet Uranus puts it in the period immediately post-1781, the date when the planet was discovered by Herschel and named by him in honour of his patron King George III."--From dealer's description. |
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Binding: Gray paper wrappers. In white envelope. (Shelved with oversize MSS.) |
| Restricted Access |
Restricted access; Permit must be requested at the division indicated. |
| Subject |
Amusements -- Great Britain -- 18th century.
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Fortune-telling -- Great Britain.
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Indoor games.
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| Genre/Form |
Games -- Great Britain -- 18th century.
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| In: |
p1pc Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle: Manuscripts, 1772-1925 (CStRLIN)NYPW03-A5 |
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