Double or Nothing Today

It’s funny just how well some of the original poems in both Wonderland and Looking Glass have survived. Although having said that Lewis Carroll is often held up as one of the masters of Victorian nonsense verse along with Edward Lear. Personally, I’m not a great fan of Edward Lear. Yes, he wrote “The Owl and the Pussycat”, but have you ever read any of his limericks? They’re bloody dreadful, and a great many of them cheat on the last line by just basically repeating the first line.

“Father William” appears relatively early in “Alice in Wonderland”, when Alice is told to recite it by the caterpillar. It is accompanied by no fewer than four Tenniel illustrations, one for each of the paired questions and responses by the young man and Father William.

So I’ve read, Carroll wrote the poem as a parody of Robert Southey’s “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them.” It’s ironic that the original poem is pretty much forgotten. It’s not surprising. I’ve read it, and it’s po-faced and rather miserable, with the old fellow explaining how he didn’t waste time having fun when he was younger, which is why he has lived to such a healthy old age. Hmmm.

I picked this illustration from the poem to copy partly because I think the figures are so well observed in the original. I can’t help having a mental picture of Tenniel chuckling away in spite of himself as he was drawing them. I also like the way that the eel that the old man is balancing on his nose rather looks like a curvy sword. That’s got to be deliberate.