How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!Further parodies are found in a sequel,Through the Looking-Glass(1871), notably
‘Jabberwocky’, a version of a German Romantic ballad into mock Anglo-Saxon:
‘’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe... .’ Humpty
Dumpty, a literary critic, explains:
‘ “Brillig” means four o’clock in the afternoon – the time when you begin broiling things
for dinner.’
‘That’ll do very well,’ said Alice: ‘and “slithy”?’
‘Well, “slithy” means “lithe” and “slimy”. “Lithe” is the same as “active”. You see it’s like
a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed up into one word.’
‘I see it now,’ Alice remarked thoughtfully: ‘and what are “toves”?’
‘Well, “toves” are something like badgers – they’re something like lizards – and they’re
something like corkscrews.’Another parody, ‘The White Knight’s Song’ (‘I’ll tell you everything I can; / There’s
little to relate’), brings out the illogic of Wordsworth’s ballads. The Alice books,
wonderfully illustrated by Tenniel, had a great success, and have entered the
language. Unlike other Victorian children’s books, they teach no lessons.
Edward Lear
The gentler nonsense verse ofEdward Lear(1812–1888), a gifted watercolourist, has
less logical bite and point than Carroll’s, more whimsy, and a melancholy charm.
He reads,but he cannot speak, Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger beer:
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr Lear!Nonsense verse, England’s answer to French symbolism, thrived before the 19th
ce ntury, but its flowering then may be the other side of Arnold’s proposition that ‘all
THE TRIUMPH OF THE NOVEL 307‘The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’. An illustration by John
Tenniel for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland(1865), showing Alice, the March Hare,
the Dormouse and the Hatter.