The Mad Gardener's Illusions "If this should stay to dine," he said, "There won't be much for us!"

He thought he saw a Rattlesnake
That questioned him in Greek:
He looked again and found it was
The Middle of Next Week.
"The one thing I regret," he said,
"Is that it cannot speak!"

He thought he saw an Albatross
That fluttered round the lamp:
He looked again, and found it was
A Penny-Postage-Stamp.

"You'd best be getting home," he said:
"The nights are very damp!"

He thought he saw a Buffalo
Upon the chimney-piece:

He looked again, and found it was

His Sister's Husband's Niece. "Unless you leave this house," he said,

"I'll send for the Police!"

He thought he saw a Coach-and-Four
That stood beside his bed:
He looked again and found it was
A Bear without a Head.

"Poor thing," he said, "poor silly thing!
It's waiting to be fed!"

45

LEWIS CARROLL.

Jabberwocky

(From "Alice Through the Looking Glass")

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the teeth that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead and with its head

He went galumphing back.

Jabberwocky

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock!
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

GLOSSARY TO "JABBERWOCKY"

LEWIS CARROLL.

47

The genius who composed this inimitable Nonsense Poem has left on record the most ingenious definitions for the majority of the invented words in it. Some of them are given by "Humpty Dumpty" in "Alice Through the Looking Glass," others in the preface to "The Hunting of the Snark," and a good many more in "The Lewis Carroll Picture Book." these it is possible to compile the following glossary:

From

BRILLIG. (Derived from the verb to Bryl or Broil.) The time of broiling for dinner, i.e., the close of the after

noon.

SLITHY. A "portmanteau" word, composed of two meanings packed into one word. It is compounded of the words "slimy" and "lithe."

TOVE. This animal is a cross between a badger, a lizard, and a cockscrew. It makes its nest under sun-dials and lives chiefly on cheese.

GYRE. To go round and round like a gyroscope.
GIMBLE. To make holes like a gimlet.

WABE. The grass-plot round a sun-dial. So called because it goes a long way before it, a long way behind it, and a long way beyond it on each side.

48

Book of Nonsense Verse

MIMSY. Another "portmanteau" word, meaning flimsy and miserable.

BOROGROVE. A thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round-something like a live mop. Now extinct, but when alive lived on veal.

MOME. Short for "from home." As applied to the raths, it meant that they had lost their way.

RATH. A species of land turtle. Head erect, mouth like a shark's, the front forelegs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees; smooth green body; lived on swallows and oysters.

OUTGRABE. Past tense of the verb to Outgribe, which means making a noise something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle.

FRUMIOUS. A "portmanteau" word meaning fuming and furious.

In "Macmillan's Magazine" for February, 1872, appeared a quaint letter from a Mr. Thomas Chatterton, headed "The Jabberwock Traced to its True Source," in which the writer related how at a certain Spiritualistic séance he attended, a Spirit who announced himself as Herman von Schwindel (a significant name, surely!) complained that the celebrated "Jabberwock" was taken from "Der Jammerwoch," a German ballad by the well-known author of "The Lyre and the Sword. And he proceeded with great fluency to tap out the alleged original version, in question, the first verse of which ran as follows:

"Es brillig war. Die schlichte Toven
Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
Und aller-mümsige Burggoven

Die mohmen Räth' ausgraben."

Jabberwocky

49

This ballad is quoted in full in "The Lewis Carroll Picture Book," and, also, Mr. Chatterton's opinion on it which, apparently, coincides with that of the departed von Schwindel. He suggests that it is a product of the war against Napoleon I, and the Jammerwoch is the "Corsican Fiend" himself. Arrayed against him are the "Burggoven" (Burgrafen, the nobility in general); the "Rathe" (whether "Hof" or "Geheim"), the Bureaucracy, and the "schlichte Toven," the simple coves of the lower class. And, finally, he identifies the hero with the Archduke Charles who (says he) did not slay the Jammerwoch, but did his best to do it, and was a genuine hero of the Austrian Empire.