[Fortune-telling game, 178-?]

Links

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Creator

[Anonymous]

Location

Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle

Extent

• 1 v. (26 p.) ; 33 cm.

Access Restrictions

Restricted access; Permit must be requested at the division indicated.

Scope/Contents Notes

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.

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 numberfrom 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 HumanBrats").

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.

Controlled Access Terms

• Amusements -- Great Britain -- 18th century.
• Fortune-telling -- Great Britain.
• Indoor games.
• Games -- Great Britain -- 18th century.

Additional Creator Name

• p1pc Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle: Manuscripts, 1772-1925 (CStRLIN)NYPW03-A5