An Elephant Seal of Torquay, was desperate to swim in the sea : But he couldn't reach, the far end of the beach, 'cos the crowds had invaded Torquay.
Edward Lear seems to be contagious. A friend of mine composed three limericks for the parish magazine and now she finds she can’t help slipping into limerick mode.
My elephant seal offering was inspired by a page of Edward Lear-style punning cartoons posted by ‘have_pen_will_draw’, who like me is tackling Mattias Adolfsson’s The Art of Sketching course. His other punning creations included ‘tiger shark’, ‘bull frog’ and ‘horse fly’.
I’m lucky enough to have a copy of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense, which helpfully has every verso page left blank, so that I could slot in my cartoon in Photoshop. I’m particularly pleased that I was able to almost match Lear’s choice of typeface by using the typeface Didot.
If only I could match the inky spontaneity of Lear’s drawings!
Dear Richard, I am an amateur historian of the limerick (perhaps less so of Edward Lear) and I am intrigued by the image and verse about the elephant seal. I don’t recognise this as a Lear drawing and I would be most interested to hear which book this comes from!
Many thanks and best wishes,
Doug
Stockton-on-Tees
Dear Doug, It’s actually all my own work, cunningly dropped onto the page in Photoshop. I’m lucky enough to have come across a beautiful copy of Lear’s Nonsense Verse in our local bookshop (so many copies must have disintegrated in Victorian nurseries), so I photographed a spread in that and blotted out the original content and added mine. I haven’t quite managed Lear’s exuberant penmanship!
The then topical reference that I got mixed up about was that it was actually Bournemouth, not Torquay, that the alarmingly large numbers of day-trippers flocked to during the first lockdown, but Bournemouth doesn’t fit in with the metre of the limerick. If you’re ever compiling an anthology of fake limericks you’d be very welcome to include it!
Richard,
A great story! Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Ach, it’s a pity your book was not one that was new to me. I thought I might have discovered a previously unknown volume of limereicks that doesn’t exist in my collection of 2000 limerick books (from as early as 1820 and a few scattered verses even earlier). Your sketch may have been recognisably non-Lear, but it and the limerick were excellent nonetheless. I’d still be interested to know which edition of Lear’s ‘A Book of Nonsense’ you have? In the image it looks like an early one of the shape common to the editions printed between 1846 and perhaps 1863. I have several editions in my collection … it must surely be the most re-published book ever after the bible?! Cheers, Doug.
Just checked – it’s the 14th edition, ‘with many new pictures and verses’.
And talking of limericks, one that has stuck in my mind was from a Roy Hudd Radio 4, c.1883, series recreating Victorian music hall acts. Hudd recreated a novelty act, a man who specialised in instant extemporised verse from suggestions by the audience, so I’m not sure if this one was original Victorian or from the writers of the Radio 4 show:
‘We take off our hats to Charles Darwin,
For he is a good man and true;
He said, ‘All men are apes,
To judge by their shapes,’
So here’s to the red, white and blue!
The performer always used the first two lines and last line, so he must have had the ability to rattle off his verses instantly.
It’s amazing enough that Lear’s book should run to 14 editions …. but in truth it was hundreds after he sold the copyright for peanuts and on it goes still, year after year. Roy Hudd – the man with a face you just can’t forget! His pals on “I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue” were also keen on their limericks, some recorded for posterity on cassettes and CDs I have in my collection. Cheers, Doug.