The collection of "elegant extracts" was so common among young women of Austen's time that there were publishers who put out a series of books with that phrase in the title, containing excerpts of Shakespeare and Spenser alongside various bits from philosophers, historians, moralizers and more. Another fun (and suitable) pastime for young women was the collection of riddles, conundra, word puzzles and "trophies" (things like pressed flowers, perhaps, or mementoes).
Inspired by one of the teachers at Mrs Goddard's school, Harriet is currently collecting a bunch of riddles into a book.
I actually think I'll do a separate post about the rest of the chapter, but I'd like to point out that in this chapter of Emma, Austen is not at all the prim, proper author so many people think of. Instead, she is referencing a well-known dirty joke.
Mr Woodhouse's riddle is a well-known (and rather bawdy) riddle published by David Garrick in 1771. Garrick was a noted actor and owner of the Drury Lane Theater. He was also friends with Sir Francis Dashwood, the founder of the infamous Hellfire Club, and was part of the Society of Dilettanti - an organization of young men interested in the arts in England, although the group had some unsavory connotations as well.
Kitty, a fair, but frozen maid,Those of you who cling firmly to the belief that Austen was always entirely proper, all I can say is prepare to have your minds blown.
Kindled a flame I still deplore;
The hood-wink'd boy I call'd in aid,
Much of his near approach afraid,
So fatal to my suit before.
At length, propitious to my pray'r,
The little urchin came;
At once he sought the midway air,
And soon he clear'd, with dextrous care,
The bitter relicks of my flame.
To Kitty, Fanny now succeeds,
She kindles slow, but lasting fires:
With care my appetite she feeds;
Each day some willing victim bleeds,
To satisfy my strange desires.
Say, by what title, or what name,
Must I this youth address?
Cupid and he are not the same,
Tho' both can raise, or quench a flame --
I'll kiss you, if you guess.
In the first stanza: "Kitty" was a slang term during that period for a prostitute. "Hoodwinked" at that time meant only "hooded", and the "hoodwinked boy" called upon by the speaker is, in fact, his penis (uncircumcised males being predominant). The "flame" that was kindled was the burning sensation associated with syphilis.
The second stanza is often read as referring to sodomy - it was not an uncommon practice during Garrick's time for young boys to be used sexually as a way of trying to avoid venereal disease. Some of the boys were male prostitutes by trade, while others were boys kidnapped off the street by procurers for the use of their male patrons. It also reads quite rightly as references to what a penis gets up to during intercourse, with the word "came" meaning exactly what you might expect.
In the third stanza, the man has switched from female prostitutes to virgins - Fanny (even then a euphemism in England for the vagina) is obviously female, and is probably supposed to be the guy's wife, who is fine for vanilla sex. However, in order to try to rid himself of the symptoms of syphilis and to satisfy his "strange desires", the man has been having sex with virgins (it was believed during Garrick's time - as during Shakespeare's - that intercourse with virgins would cure VD). Hence the reference to a new one bleeding every day. That it was not uncommon for children of both sexes to be raped as part of this sort of treatment feeds into the "strange desires" as well.
Throughout the poem, it's been possible for a tame reading to lead one to the answer Cupid, but in the final stanza, we're flat-out told it's NOT Cupid. The correct "tame" answer to this poem is "a chimney-sweep" while the "dirty" answer is "a penis". The reason I put the word tame in quote