I am more of a lurker than a poster, but I was curious that no one posted last week on Mr. Woodhouse's forgotten riddle, as it does cast Mr. Woodhouse as a slightly darker character. According to Jill Heydt-Stevenson (Austen's Unbecoming Conjunctions),the riddle was written by David Garrick and first printed in 1771. Here is the entire riddle:

A Riddle

Kitty, a fair, but frozen maid,
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 fought 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.