Rebus Game Answers

In the 1700's, a favorite amusement was to write rebus letters. Pictures represented words. The following examples are all from the letter shown at left, published by M Darly in 1778 (click on it to see it enlarged). Can you decipher what each one represents?


BEHOLD (bee + hold)

MOTHER (moth + er)

CANNOT (can + knot) [yes that's a can -- remember this is 18th century!]

LISTEN (l + eye + s + ten) ['eye'=the letter 'i'; 'X' is 'ten' in Roman numerals]

BRING (b + ring)

HAPPINESS (Hap + pie + ness) [the first 's' is old style and can be found throughout the Declaration of Independence this way]

NOTICE (knot + eye + ce)

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