So Alice said “Stuff and nonsense!”
So the Queen said “Off with her head!” (Just what she always said, when she was angry.)
So Alice said “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
So they were all very angry, and flew up into the air, and came tumbling down again, all over Alice, just like a shower of rain.
And I think you’ll never guess what happened next. The next thing was, Alice woke up out of her curious dream. And she found that the cards were only some leaves off the tree, that the wind had blown down upon her face.
Wouldn’t it be a nice thing to have a curious dream, just like Alice?
The best plan is this. First lie down under a tree, and wait till a White Rabbit runs by, with a watch in his hand: then shut your eyes, and pretend to be dear little Alice.
Good-bye, Alice dear, good-bye!
THE END.
PART IX
REFLECTIONS ON THE NURSERY “ALICE”
By Kent David Kelly
Secrets in the Illustrations
THE ILLUSTRATIONS that appear in the published edition of The Nursery “Alice” are, as a collective representation of Wonderland, incomplete. Those few illustrations which do appear in the book are largely identical to the earlier versions, except for coloration (which cannot be reproduced on the Kindle). As such, they are not repeated here. However, the few differences and added details which are interesting and new are elaborated upon here for the curious reader.
A Change of Allegiance: One of the soldiers, who originally had a tabard with Club symbols down the front, now has red Hearts as his insignia instead.
The Drunken Knave: The Knave of Hearts has a red nose, which makes it clear (in Tenniel’s drawing style) that he is a lush as well as a rogue!
A Well-Dressed Man-Rabbit: The White Rabbit carries a gold watch and a blue umbrella. His yellow shirt (surmounted by a blue necktie) is covered by a brown-checked waistcoat, with a red kerchief stuffed into the pocket. Interestingly, his paws are flesh-colored, and are very clearly intended to be hands instead of paws.
Alice Keeps Up With Fashion: Alice has a blue hair bow (kept in place by a hairband) and a blue dress bow, which do not appear in the original illustrations. These changes reflect advancements in style from the 1860s to 1890. Her stockings are blue, and her pinafore is white with blue edging. The classic dress, which is traditionally colored baby blue in later iterations, is actually a golden yellow-orange.
Dodo’s Evolution: Much like the White Rabbit, the Dodo is meticulously rendered in appropriate colors, but his hands are flesh-colored. He clearly incorporates some elements of Lewis Carroll himself!
An Oriental Caterpillar: Reflecting the nature and source of opium, the Caterpillar is revealed to have gold-cloth sleeves over his forearms. The rest of his body is a thoroughly unclothed and dreamy shade of blue.
The Colors of a Cat: The Cheshire-Cat is revealed to be a tabby, with brown fur, a whitish face, tan underbelly, and twinkling green eyes.
Fury of the Queen: When the Queen of Hearts yells at Alice, her entire face turns a deep shade of scarlet.
Strange Fur Indeed!: Regardless of the Gryphon’s leonine origins, his head, claws and paws are orange, and his entire body is covered in emerald green plumage, or scales.
Explanatory Notes on the Text
SOME OF Carroll’s new text in this version of the story is fascinating, in that it offers us a few more of Wonderland’s secrets. But many of the entries are (from our modern perspective) curiously morbid. This is not a failing on Carroll’s part, for a Victorian childhood was a far more dangerous one than what is enjoyed by many children today; but these instances do reflect on the purely Victorian nature of The Nursery “Alice.”
Spoiling the Story: Carroll tells us right away, for the benefit of a literal child, that Alice’s adventures were entirely a dream! This takes away all of the drama, excitement and ambiguity of Wonderland, but makes the tale perhaps “safe” and not one to inspire fear.
Teasing About Decapitation: Carroll tells our little nursery friends all about decapitation, but he is nice enough to let us know that beheadings never really happen in Wonderland. They are simply threatened, is all.
The Doddering Rabbit: Although we may have guessed this in prior versions of the tale, Carroll makes it clear to us that the Rabbit is getting old, perhaps even senile. His mistaking Alice for Mary Ann is a result of his failing vision.
Mary Ann, Thief Catcher: We are told that the reason for Alice’s alarm in White Rabbit’s House is not only that Mary Ann might see her, but that the vigilant housemaid will regard Alice as a robber and either cry out or take action against her.
Runaway Puppy: Carroll explains to us that if you are going to be run over by an enormous puppy, it’s quite like being run over by four horses pulling a carriage. Such a charming image for the children, to be sure!
Force-Feed That Puppy!: For some reason, Carroll goes into a bizarre aside about a puppy named Dash, and how it needed to be force-fed oatmeal porridge (because it would not eat it on its own).
Beware the Hippopotamus!: Continuing with the grim parade of cautionary tales, Carroll warns us not to play with a Hippopotamus, lest we be squashed underfoot.
The Rules of Abuse: In the home of the Duchess, we are told all about ugly people, murder with axes, and baby tossing. However, we are also reminded about the proper way to hold a child while nursing!
Fox-Glove, the Fairy Flower: Carroll takes the time to tell an interesting story above Fox-Gloves, and how they relate to the fairy world.
Does Vanishing Cause Madness?: There is an intriguing mention associating the Cheshire-Cat’s vanishing with Alice’s fears about going out like a candle, and no longer existing. We can speculate that the nature of the Cat’s madness may be founded in the fact that his vanishing is actually a momentary form of non-existence, in which he is not only not there, but simply is not at all.
Straw, the Sign of the Mad: Carroll points out an oft-missed detail, that the March Hare has a few bits of straw stuck to his head (from cavorting madly about in the fields). This depiction was actually quite common in Victorian times, as shorthand for insanity or wild (rural) behavior.
An Illustrator’s Rare Error: Carroll kindly glosses over the fact that Tenniel forgot to illustrate the milk-jug at the Mad Tea-Party, by implying that the jug and the March Hare’s plate are hidden behind the tea-pot.
At What Price a Topper?: We are told that the numerals on Hatter’s hat-tag show the price of his hat to be ten shillings and six pence, quite a lavish price.
A Reptilian Gryphon: Instead of feathers, Carroll tells us that the Gryphon is covered in lizard-like scales. (Since we now know that birds’ feathers evolved from dinosaurian scales, this is not so far-fetched.)
Fear of Becoming Food: If it hadn’t been made quite clear in the prior versions, we are told that the Mock Turtle is in fear of being beheaded, and having his calf’s head used to make a tasty soup.
The Privileges of High Birth: We are told that the Knave (of royal birth) deserves a trial, while all of the lesser personages in the croquet game were threatened with decapitation. By implication, it is also interesting that Alice, of the upper middle class, is given a trial as well.
Secrets of the Jury: Carroll takes the time to point out the identities of the jurors, even those which were not mentioned in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. They are: #1 - a Frog (of what relation to the Frog-Footman, we do not know); #2 - the Dormouse (from the Mad Tea-Party); #3 - a Rat; #4 - a Ferret (which the White Rabbit mentioned he was fearful of); #5 - a Hedgehog (from the croquet-ground, and quite used to tumbling); #6 - the Lizard (Bill, from White Rabbit’s home); #7 - a Bantam-Cock; #8 - a Mole (wearing spectacles to help him see); #9 - the Duck (friend of the Dodo); #10 - a Squirrel (perhaps from White Rabbit’s place); #11 - a Storkling (a young Stork, perhaps from either White Rabbit’s or the Pool of Tears); and #12 - a Mousling (a young Mouse, who might be the
son of the Mouse who Alice met earlier).
PART X
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK
Introduction – The Snark Was a Boojum
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK is (and it may be alone in this category!) an epic poem of nonsense. It follows the misadventures of a foolish crew as they hunt a fabulous creature called a Snark. Danger awaits them, for Snarks are capricious and random at the best of times. Worse still, some few Snarks are Boojums: a sub-species known only for its terrible power to wink observers entirely out of existence.
The poem is thoroughly entertaining, and (despite its more adult and ominous tone) fits well with Through the Looking-Glass and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The link may seem tenuous at first, and Alice does not appear in the poem at all. However, Carroll was kind enough to leave us some few clues which explain how The Hunting of the Snark is actually a continuation of the world portrayed in the Alice tales! (We shall see precisely how a bit later on.)
In his essay “‘Alice’ on the Stage,” Carroll explained the creation of the poem as follows:
“I was walking on a hillside, alone, one bright summer day [in July, 1874], when suddenly there came into my head one line of verse—one solitary line—‘For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.’ I know not what it meant, then: I know not what it means, now; but I wrote it down: and, some time afterwards, the rest of the stanza occurred to me, that being its last line: and so by degrees, at odd moments during the next year or two, the rest of the poem pieced itself together, that being its last stanza. And since then, periodically I have received courteous letters from strangers, begging to know whether ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ is an allegory, or contains some hidden moral, or is a political satire: and for all such questions I have but one answer, ‘I don’t know!’”
In several letters (such as this one from 1880), Carroll refused to elaborate on the riddle of the Snark:
“I have a letter from you ... asking me ‘Why don’t you explain the Snark?’ Let me answer it now – ‘because I ca’n’t.’”
In a letter dated August 18, 1884, however, Carroll provided a few meager clues as to the poem’s meaning:
“As to the meaning of the Snark? I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense! Still, you know, words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant. So, whatever good meanings are in the book, I’m very glad to accept as the meaning of the book. The best I’ve seen is ... that the whole book is an allegory on the search for happiness. I think this fits beautifully in many ways.”
Are we confused yet? We might think so, but the story grows stranger as we go on!
A Letter of Curious Monstrosities
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK is—with good reason—regarded as the second-most famous and laudatory of all nonsense poems (bowing only to that eternal champion by the very same author, “Jabberwocky”). Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece, this “Agony in Eight Fits,” is a nonesuch treasury of maddening wit and wisdom. Few readers realize, however, that the poem’s story actually takes place in the exact same dream-world as Alice’s Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land.
I include here the pertinent excerpt of a letter which Lewis Carroll wrote to one Mrs. Chataway, explaining this very fact. It is intriguing because it firmly ties The Hunting of the Snark to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and to Through the Looking-Glass even moreso.
Ch. Ch. Oxford
November 7, 1875
DEAR MRS. CHATAWAY,
With the exception of my Publisher, Printer, and Artist, and my own family, I have told nobody yet of my intention of bringing out a little Christmas book. And I think you are the next person to whom the announcement ought to be made, because I have taken as a dedication, the verses I sent you the other day in MS. It will be a very small book—not 40 pages—a poem (supposed to be comic) with a frontispiece by Mr. Holiday. The advertisements will appear about the middle of this month, I suppose, and till then I should be glad if you would not let the name of the book go beyond your own family-circle—I don’t mind the fact, that the book is in the press, being known—but the name ought to be new when it appears. It is called “The Hunting of the Snark,” and the scene is laid in an island frequented by the Jubjub and Bandersnatch—no doubt the very island in which the Jabberwock was Slain.
(...)
Believe me
yours very sincerely,
C. L. DODGSON.
We are left with the understanding that there is a mysterious island, perhaps not far from Looking-Glass Land, which is home to the Jabberwock, Jubjubs, Bandersnatches and Snarks. And, as we shall see, the intrepid dreaming adventurer who dares to explore that island is not Alice, but rather Lewis Carroll himself!
THE HUNTING
OF THE SNARK
An Agony in Eight Fits
By
LEWIS CARROLL
With Illustrations By
HENRY HOLIDAY
Dedication
Inscribed to a dear Child:
in memory of golden summer hours
and whispers of a summer sea.
Prefatory Poem
GIRT with a boyish garb for boyish task,
Eager she wields her spade: yet loves as well
Rest on a friendly knee, intent to ask
The tale he loves to tell.
Rude spirits of the seething outer strife,
Unmeet to read her pure and simple spright,
Deem, if you list, such hours a waste of life,
Empty of all delight!
Chat on, sweet Maid, and rescue from annoy
Hearts that by wiser talk are unbeguiled.
Ah, happy he who owns that tenderest joy,
The heart-love of a child!
Away, fond thoughts, and vex my soul no more!
Work claims my wakeful nights, my busy days—
Albeit bright memories of that sunlit shore
Yet haunt my dreaming gaze!
Preface
IF—and the thing is wildly possible—the charge of writing nonsense were ever brought against the author of this brief but instructive poem, it would be based, I feel convinced, on the line “then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.”
In view of this painful possibility, I will not (as I might) appeal indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of such a deed: I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral purpose of this poem itself, to the arithmetical principles so cautiously inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural History—I will take the more prosaic course of simply explaining how it happened.
The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it—he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand—so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, “no one shall speak to the Man at the Helm,” had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words “and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one.” So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backwards.
As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked me, how to pronounce “slithy toves.” The “i” in “slithy” is long, as in “writhe”; and “toves” is pronounced so as to rhyme with “groves.” Again, the first “o” in “borogoves” is pronounced like the “o” in “borrow.” I have heard people try to give it the sound of the “o” in “worry”.
Such is Human Perversity.
This also seems a fitting occasion to notice the other hard works in that poem. Humpty-Dumpty’s theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all.
For instance, take the two words “fuming” and “furious.” Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards “fuming,” you will say “fuming-furious;” if they turn, by even a hair’s breadth, towards “furious,” you will say “furious-fuming;” but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say “frumious.”
Supposing that, when Pistol uttered the well-known words—”Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!” Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or Richard, but had not been able to settle which, so that he could not possibly say either name before the other, can it be doubted that, rather than die, he would have gasped out “Rilchiam!”
Fit the First:
The Landing
“JUST the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,
The Complete Alice in Wonderland (Wonderland Imprints Master Editions) Page 34
