Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/201

 s. vi. MAY i, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

161

LONDON, MAY 1, 19S9

CONTENTS. No. 107.


 * ' Alice in Wonderland ' and Wordsworth's

' Leech-gatherer,' 161 London Coffee-houses. Taverns, and Inns in the Eighteenth Century, 162" Strikes " in the Talmud, 164 Thomas Baschurch, Winchester Scholar, 165 A Gallician Inscription Historical In- accuracies, 166 Reference in Kuskin, 167.

'QUERIES: Burton's 'Anatomv' : "Deuce ace non ossunt" Van Balen : Charles Lainb Toulroin, 167 Nicholas Brown Marten Arms Italy and India in the Fifteenth Century Tom or Thorns: Nias Coddington Arthur Pole Pigott Wood (Thurston) Light fc of Marriage 'A New View of London,' 17(H, IfiS -Bronze of Shakespeare Nouchette Zeus and Chi Whitelocke :Pryse : Scawen Etonians in the Eighteenth Century Cistercian Abbess J. Murdoch. Burns's Schoolmaster Maffey Family, 169 Cookes of Ireland De Celle Walthamstow Darnell fl.nd Thorp Clergymen : Church of England: Roman Catholic- Caveac Tavern Rev. John Gutch Lacaux Marsh -Maynard John Jones's ' Lord Viscount Nelson ' Author of Quotation Wanted, 170.

31EPLIES : Portuguese Embassy Chapel Cornish and Devonian Priests Executed: George Stocker, 171 Jacobite Memorial Rings Letter from the King (George IV.) Celtic Patron Saints, 172 "The Lame Demon "The Baskett Bible Constable the Painter Hawke's Flagship. 173 Slates and Slate Pencils Burial -at Sea : Mildmay "Cockagee " : "Cypress," 174 Cantrell Family' Anne of Geierstein ' Petrograd : Monument of Peter the Great, 175 Yale and Hobhs Walter Hamilton Belt-buckle Plate and Motto Finkle Street, 176 Mary Jones Gender of ''Dish" in Latin- Jenner Family Bradshaw Lancelot Blackburne -Italian St. Swithin's Day, 177 No Man's Land Unannotated Marriages at Westminster St. Leonard's Priory, Hants Uncollected Kipling Items, 178.

"NOTES ON BOOKS :' Paul-Louis Courier 'Devonshire House Reference Library.

OBITUARY: Charles William Sutton.

' ALICE IN WONDERLAND ' AND WORDSWORTH'S LEECH - GATHERER.'

THAT those delightful books, 'Alice in Wonderland,' and 'Through the Looking- glass and what Alice found there,' contain far more interest for the mature reader than is apparent at first sight, is a very well known fact. And while one feels almost sacrilegious in attempting to dissect such wonderful dream-stories, there still is no question but that all through them especially all throxigh the ' Looking-glass ' book Lewis Carroll deliberately provokes us to dissection, and no one can really be blamed for taking up the challenge.

One of the most elusive passages in the two books is the White Knight's song, in chap. viii. of 'Through the Looking-glass.' 'The song is charming enough in itself ; and it is in its metre a parody on Thomas More's "'My Heart and Lute,' as Mrs. Florence
 * Milner has pointed out in her edition of

' Alice ' the author himself gives the clue to that. But the real humour of the poem lies beyond that, and of this Lewis Carroll, in his characteristic way, has given no outward indication. To carry the White Knight's own description of his song one step further, " the song really is " a delicious parody of Wordsworth's ' Resolution and Independence,' or 'The Leech-gatherer.' Once the connection is suggested, this fact seems to me so evident as hardly to need detailed explanation. The parody is far cleverer than a mere line-for-line imitation would have been. It is a parody of the essential spirit of Wordsworth's poem. A slight sketch of the " story " of each poem, while fair to the true spirit of neither, will show at least the unmistakable connection between the original poem and its parody.

In ' Resolution and Independence ' the poet is wandering in the country, at first happy, but soon, with a sudden spiritual change in mood, downhearted and despair- ing. He meets a man, The oldest man he seemed that ever wore grey

hairs.

who is wandering the country gathering leeches from the pools a rather peculiar occupation, by the way, the peculiarity of which Lewis Carroll realized to the fullest extent of its implications and greets him, asking him

What occupation do you there pursue ?

The old man answers gently, but the poet's mind is wandering ; he is comforted by the voice of the old man, but does not attend to what he is saying, and renews the question

Hovr is it that you live, and what is it you do ?

Again the old man answers gently. They part, and the poet determines in future despondent moods to make more firm his mind by thinking of the ~ rt Leech-gatherer on the lonely moor."

In the White Knight's song, the poet Saw an aged aged man A -sitting on a gate. He asks the old man how he lives,

And his answer trickled through my head Like water through a sieve.

The old man tells of various astounding things he does, such as making' butterflies into mutton-pies. Twice more the poet asks the old man the same question over again, thumping him on the head and shaking him "until his face was blue," while the old man continues to describe his varied occupations :

His accents mild took up the tale.