9 January 1759: The Ænigma answered

Many thanks to all of you who tweeted us with answers to Ophelia’s New Year riddle (see the original post from 2 January 1759 below). In 1759, a reader from ‘Hemingburgh’ (now Hemingbrough), North Yorkshire solved the puzzle in verse:

Tho’ “Smart, Fair, or Witling,”

I hate, (I profess)

I’ll yet tell Ophelia

An OYSTER’S her Mess.

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