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A NONSENSE ANTHOLOGY

COLLECTED CAROLYN WELLS

1910

TO

GELETT BURGESS

A NONSENSE LOVER

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

On a topographical map of Literature Nonsense would be represented
by a small and sparsely settled country neglected by the average
tourist but affording keen delight to the few enlightened
travellers who sojourn within its borders. It is a field which has
been neglected by anthologists and essayists; one of its few serious
recognitions being in a certain "Treatise of Figurative Language"
which says: "Nonsense; shall we dignify that with a place on our list?
Assuredly will vote for doing so every one who hath at all duly
noticed what admirable and wise uses it can be and often is put to
though never before in rhetoric has it been so highly honored. How
deeply does clever or quaint nonsense abide in the memory and for
how many a decade--from earliest youth to age's most venerable years."

And yet Hazlitt's "Studies in Jocular Literature" mentions six
divisions of the Jest and omits Nonsense!

Perhaps partly because of such neglect the work of the best
nonsense writers is less widely known than it might be.

But a more probable reason is that the majority of the reading world
does not appreciate or enjoy real nonsense and this again is
consequent upon their inability to discriminate between nonsense of
integral merit and simple chaff.

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it. Never in the tongue
Of him that makes it

and a sense of nonsense is as distinct a part of our mentality as a
sense of humor being by no means identical therewith.

It is a fad at present for a man to relate a nonsensical story and
then if his hearer does not laugh say gravely: "You have no sense
of humor. That is a test story and only a true humorist laughs at it."
Now the hearer may have an exquisite sense of humor but he may be
lacking in a sense of nonsense and so the story gives him no
pleasure. De Quincey said "None but a man of extraordinary talent
can write first-rate nonsense." Only a short study of the subject is
required to convince us that De Quincey was right; and he might have
added none but a man of extraordinary taste can appreciate
first-rate nonsense. As an instance of this we may remember that
Edward Lear "the parent of modern nonsense-writers" was a talented
author and artist and a prime favorite of such men as Tennyson and
the Earls of Derby; and John Ruskin placed Lear's name at the head
of his list of the best hundred authors.

"Don't tell me" said William Pitt "of a man's being able to talk
sense; every one can talk sense. Can he talk nonsense?"

The sense of nonsense enables us not only to discern pure nonsense
but to consider intelligently nonsense of various degrees of purity.
Absence of sense is not necessarily nonsense any more than absence
of justice is injustice.

Etymologically speaking nonsense may be either words without meaning
or words conveying absurd or ridiculous ideas. It is the second
definition which expresses the great mass of nonsense literature
but there is a small proportion of written nonsense which comes
under the head of language without meaning.

Again there are verses composed entirely of meaningless words
which are not nonsense literature because they are written with
some other intent.

The nursery rhyme of which there are almost as many versions as
there are nurseries

Eena meena mona mi
Bassalona bona stri
Hare ware frown whack
Halico balico we wi we wack

is not strictly a nonsense verse because it was invented and used
for "counting out" and the arbitrary words simply take the place of
the numbers 1 2 3 etc.

Also the nonsense verses with which students of Latin composition
are sometimes taught to begin their efforts where words are used
with no relative meaning simply to familiarize the pupil with the
mechanical values of quantity and metre are not nonsense. It is
only nonsense for nonsense' sake that is now under our consideration.

Doubtless the best and best-known example of versified words without
meaning is "Jabberwocky." Although (notwithstanding Lewis Carroll's
explanations) the coined words are absolutely without meaning the
rhythm is perfect and the poetic quality decidedly apparent and the
poem appeals to the nonsense lover as a work of pure genius. Bayard
Taylor is said to have recited "Jabberwocky" aloud for his own
delectation until he was forced to stop by uncontrollable laughter.
To us who know our _Alice_ it would seem unnecessary to quote this
poem but it is a fact that among the general reading community the
appreciators of Lewis Carroll are surprisingly few. An editor of a
leading literary review when asked recently if he had read
"Alice in Wonderland" replied "No but I mean to. It is by the
author of 'As in a looking-Glass' is it not?"

But of far greater interest and merit than nonsense of words is
nonsense of ideas. Here again we distinguish between nonsense and
no sense. Ideas conveying no sense are often intensely funny and
this type is seen in some of the best of our nonsense literature.

A perfect specimen is the bit of evidence read by the White Rabbit
at the Trial of the Knave of Hearts.[1] One charm of these verses is
the serious air of legal directness which pervades their ambiguity
and another is the precision with which the metrical accent
coincides exactly with the natural emphasis. They are marked too
by the liquid euphony that always distinguishes Lewis Carroll's
poetry.

A different type is found in verses that refer to objects in terms
the opposite of true thereby suggesting ludicrous incongruity and
there is also the nonsense verse that uses word effects which have
been confiscated by the poets and tacitly given over to them.

A refrain of nonsense words is a favorite diversion of many
otherwise serious poets.

With a hey and a ho and a hey nonino

is one of Shakespeare's many musical nonsense refrains.

[Footnote 1: "She's all my Fancy painted him" page 20.]

Burns gives us:

Ken ye aught o' Captain Grose?
Igo and ago
If he's 'mang his freens or foes?
Iram coram dago.
Is he slain by Highlan' bodies?
Igo and ago;
And eaten like a weather haggis?
Iram coram dago.

Another very old refrain runs thus:

Forum corum sunt di-vorum
Harum scarum divo;
Tag-rag merry-derry periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

An old ballad written before the Reformation has for a refrain:

Sing go trix
Trim go trix
Under the greenwood tree.

While a celebrated political ballad is known by its nonsense chorus

Lilliburlero bullin a-la.

Mother Goose rhymes abound in these nonsense refrains and they are
often fine examples of onomatopoeia.

By far the most meritorious and most interesting kind of nonsense is
that which embodies an absurd or ridiculous idea and treats it with
elaborate seriousness. The greatest masters of this art are
undoubtedly Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. These Englishmen were men
of genius deep thinkers and hard workers.

Lear was an artist draughtsman his subjects being mainly
ornithological and zoological. Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson)
was an expert in mathematics and a lecturer on that science in
Christ Church Oxford.

Both these men numbered among their friends many of the greatest
Englishmen of the day. Tennyson was a warm friend and admirer of each
as was also John Ruskin.

Lear's first nonsense verses published in 1846 are written in the
form of the well-known stanza beginning:

There was an old man of Tobago.

This type of stanza known as the "Limerick" is said by a gentleman
who speaks with authority to have flourished in the reign of William
IV. This is one of several he remembers as current at his public
school in 1834:

There was a young man at St. Kitts
Who was very much troubled with fits;
The eclipse of the moon
Threw him into a swoon
When he tumbled and broke into bits.

Lear distinctly asserts that this form of verse was not invented by
him but was suggested by a friend as a useful model for amusing
rhymes. It proved so in his case for he published no less than two
hundred and twelve of these "Limericks."

In regard to his verses Lear asserted that "nonsense pure and
...

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