{"id":1124,"date":"2026-07-10T18:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T22:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/?p=1124"},"modified":"2026-07-10T18:14:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T22:14:35","slug":"acting-charades-1850","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/acting-charades-1850\/","title":{"rendered":"Acting Charades (1850)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"metaslider-id-1117\" style=\"width: 100%;\" class=\"ml-slider-3-100-0 metaslider metaslider-flex metaslider-1117 ml-slider ms-theme-default-base has-dots-nav\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Acting Charades\" data-height=\"700\" data-width=\"700\">\n    <div id=\"metaslider_container_1117\">\n        <div id=\"metaslider_1117\">\n            <ul aria-live='polite' class='slides'>\n                <li style=\"display: block; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1121 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-07-10 18:02:54\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2158\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1117 slide-1121 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_8916\" style=\"margin-top: 7.8515625%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-300x253.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-1024x863.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-768x647.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-1536x1295.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8916-2048x1726.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1122 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-07-10 18:02:55\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2345\" height=\"2466\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1117 slide-1122 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_8922\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 95.093268450933%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922.jpeg 2345w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922-285x300.jpeg 285w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922-974x1024.jpeg 974w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922-768x808.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922-1461x1536.jpeg 1461w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8922-1948x2048.jpeg 1948w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2345px) 100vw, 2345px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1123 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-07-10 18:02:55\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2073\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1117 slide-1123 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_8921\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 80.9765625%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-scaled.jpeg 2073w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-243x300.jpeg 243w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-829x1024.jpeg 829w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-768x948.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-1244x1536.jpeg 1244w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_8921-1659x2048.jpeg 1659w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2073px) 100vw, 2073px\" \/><\/li>\n            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Title: Acting Charades or Deeds Not Words, A Christmas Game to Make a Long Evening Short<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author: The Brothers Mayhew<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Publisher:  D. Bogle<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Year of printing: 1850&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s hard to imagine today, but there was a time before TV, radio, or even recorded music existed, but people still had the human desire to unwind and be entertained in the evening.&nbsp; Without other options, a greater emphasis was placed on what today we would call \u201cfamily\u201d or \u201cparty\u201d games.&nbsp; This book describes one such game, called \u201cActing Charades\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similar to standard charades, players pick a word and try to get other plays to guess it.&nbsp; But in Acting Charades, they try to convey the word by acting out elaborate plays \u2014 one for each syllable, and then one for the overall word.&nbsp; This book contains a variety of words to use in the game, along with detailed, suggested plays to go along with each syllable and word.&nbsp; Each play contains multiple characters, costumes, sets, storylines \u2014 but no dialogue.&nbsp; It truly does seem like it would fill a long&nbsp; evening!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is framed as a Christmas book, with a beautiful red and gilt cover reminiscent of Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, and a lively hand-colored frontispiece featuring Father Christmas.&nbsp; However, the actual content has nothing to do with the holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is a fascinating time capsule \u2014 within the first few sentences of the introduction, the authors manage to demean the French: \u201cThe French have made themselves singularly famous by their \u2018petit jeux\u2019 as they call them.&nbsp; Their inability to sit still for more than half an hour has forced them to invent a long list of amusing excuses for locomotion.\u201d&nbsp; The plays themselves are interspersed with slightly offensive stereotypes of various groups of people, and other antiquated references like \u201ccar\u201d referring to a horse drawn carriage, \u201cblunderbuss\u201d being a household gun, and \u201cmonthly nurse\u201d referring to a woman who looks after a new mother and baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Brother Mayhew refers to Henry (1812-1887), Augustus (1826 &#8211; 1875), and Horace (1816 &#8211; 1872) Mayhew. Henry, in particular, founded <em>Punch <\/em>magazine, a popular and influential humor magazine which coined the word \u201ccartoon\u201d and ran from 1841 to 2002.&nbsp; This book was illustrated by Henry George Hine (1811 &#8211; 1895), who was also well-known for illustrating<em> Punch<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Historical context:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1850, Victoria was Queen of Great Britain.&nbsp; Besides acting charades, families would read serialized&nbsp; novels together, play moral boardgames such as The Mansion of Happiness, or rowdy parlor games like \u201csnapdragon\u201d, where raisins would be doused in brandy and set on fire, then eaten to extinguish the fire.&nbsp; Commercially available recorded music appeared in the 1880s, setting the stage for more passive evening activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=8KZfAAAAcAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" title=\"\">Full text on Google Books<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk\/search?q=Acting%20Charades%3A%20Deeds%20not%20Words%20A%20Christmas%20Game%20to%20make%20a%20Long%20Evening%20Short&amp;rn=1\" title=\"\">Library entry at Jisc<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk\/discovery\/fulldisplay?docid=alma990202828710107026&amp;context=L&amp;vid=44OXF_INST:SOLO&amp;lang=en&amp;search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&amp;adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&amp;tab=Everything&amp;query=any,contains,Acting%20Charades:%20Deeds%20not%20Words%20A%20Christmas%20Game%20to%20make%20a%20Long%20Evening%20Short&amp;offset=0\" title=\"\">Entry at Bodleian Library, Oxford University<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/reference\/62420\/reference-article-abstract\/556030642?redirectedFrom=fulltext\" title=\"\">The Brothers Mayhew &#8211; Oxford University Press<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>H<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lambiek.net\/artists\/h\/hine_henry_george.htm\" title=\"\">enry George Hine &#8211; Lambiek Comiclopedia <\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Punch_(magazine)\" title=\"\">Punch Magazine &#8211; Wikipedia<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Acquired in June, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before TV and radio, a cold, dark evening&#8217;s entertainment might consist of acting out elaborate plays to pass the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80,42],"class_list":["post-1124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gaming","tag-highlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1125,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions\/1125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}