His form is ungainly -- his intellect small -- (So the Bellman would often remark) -- But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,Is the thing that one needs with a Snark. --The Hunting of the Snar

Penn, A. Vorpal

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I, 234 OPEN SEASON ON SNARKS A. voRPAL PENN* II His form is ungainly - - his intellect small 11 (So the Bellman would often remark) -­II But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, Is the thing that one needs with a Snark, II - - The Hunting of the Snark In a whimsicalogical treatise entitled loIFor a Lewis Carroll Soci­ety" in the November 1969 Word Ways, the present writer proposed that a call be issued to all serious Lewis Carroll students and funny im­itators to form a society for the hunting of Literary Snarks. A Literary Snark was defined as a Ole sHon. Observation, Speculation, Contradic­tion' Ilnitation or Invention about, on, concerning, in, of, or based up­on the writings of Lewis Carroll. Several typical specimens were ex­hibite d. with a particular provi s ion be ing made fa r a das s of Non­Snarks. It was suggested that the proposed society be called The Bold Order of Snark Hunters (BOSH) , and that it be run along the lines of the Menai Bridge. Martin Gardner 1 s two full bags of Snarks, The An­notated Alice and The Annotated Snark, were earnestly comITlended to readers, and those interested in the whole project were invited to write to ITle c/o Word Ways. There having been no response, I have had more time free for fur­ther Snark hunts of ITly own. I would like to take this opportunity to display part of my recent collection - - purely in the interest of stimu­lating research, of course. But fir st let me put down a few words on practical ITlatters. If this type of pursuit catches on as I hope, Jhere will be a tremendous unfelt need for an organization such as the Bold Order of Snark Hunters -­to break rules, ignore disputes, disdain prizes, and celebrate. (It would be unthinkable to allow the Centennial Year of The Hunting of the Snark, 1976, to go by quietly without SOITle sort of celebration. Per­haps a First Annual Caucus Rac'e and Picnic in the Wabe would be fit­ting. A good tiITle for it might be brillig on the 4th of July, since that is famous as the day of the invention of the original Alice. ) LewisCar r all, in The Hunting of the Snark, ha s provi de d the lTlodel for governing the Order. For officers there should be: A BellITlan Bold - - to act as captain, give speeches, and serve 11 grog with a liberal hand ll • * Author of l! Open Season on Snarks ll A Beaver pens. and beavers: : A Banker in his carl raising ev In 11 Jabbe: Greetings of t Salutation Valedictio It has beel might include confused with Lingua in Buc Snark No. On, In my 196 John Tenniel \ youthful figur, Alice ?" It is now I Carroll UE Anglo- Saxon 1 part of the stc; Beowulf. My first h self in the 1"01 ne s 5 by camp. Snark No. Tw After the zes (Alice's, de 1" not to lea' racers, they II But f said the l\,. 11 Of c( you got in 'k rroll Soci­r proposed and funny im­s. A Literary n., Contradic­or based up­~ns were ex-s of Non-led The Bold ;he lines of rks. The An­mmended to lvited to free for fur­lrtunity to 8st of stimu­:ters. If this mdous unfelt Hunters -­Irate. (It -Iunting of the ~tion. Per­vould be fit­, since that ) ded the model nd serve 235 A Beaver - - to act as secretary and bring II paper, portfolio, pens, and ink in unfailing supplies II. (Feminist secretaries and beavers: Please doni t misunderstand. ) A Banker - - to act as treasurer and have II the whole of their cash in hi s care ". nlogically, he ought also to be in charge of all fun­raising events. In "Jabberwocky" we have infallible guidelines as to the Official Greetings of the Order: Salutation	 First Member: 11 Frabjous day!\\ Second Member: Callooh, Callay!"1\ Valediction First Member: Beware the Jubjub bird. IIII Second Member: II Shun the frumious Bandersnatch. 1I It has been suggested (op. cit,.) that a suitable emblem for BOSH might include a display of shoes and ships and sealing-wax (not to be confused with floor- wax) and cabbages and kings, along with the motto, Lingua in Bucca! (ibid.) . A DUBIETY OF SNARKS Snark No. One: A Question Answered In my 1969 article, I gave this as an example of a Question: II Sir John Tenniel ' s illustration of the slaying of the Jabberwock shows a youthful figure with long, blond hair wielding the vorpal sword. Is it Alice ?II It is now possible for me to give the following answer: No. Carroll used to claim a connection between" Jabberwocky" and Anglo - Saxon lite rary a ntiquity; thu s, the bio nd hai r would s imply be part of the standard image of Anglo-Saxon heroes, such as Mr. E. G. Beowulf. My first hypothe sis - - that Tenniel visualized Alice imagining her­self in the role of the Jabberwock- slayer - - fails the test of sensible­ness by comparison. Snark No. Two: An Observation After the Caucus- race in Alice I s Adventures in Wonderland, pri­ze s (Alice's comfits) are awarded to all of the animals. Then, in or­de r not to Ie ave Ali c e out. and to give he r equal s tanding with the othe r racers, they decide they should find a prize for her. II But she must have a prize herself, you know, II said the Mouse. II Of course, 11 the Dodo replied very gravely. 11 "What else have you got in your po cket? 11 it we nt on, tur ning to Alice. 236 11 Only a thimble, 11 said Alice I' Hand it over here, II said the Dodo. Then they all crowded round her once more while the Dodo solemly presented the thimble. saying, "We beg your acceptance of thi 5 ele gant thimble" ; and, when it had Hni she d thi s sho rt speech, they all cheered. A desperate wag thus might call the prize a status thimble. Snark No. Three: A Question Lewis Carroll may safely be supposed to have been the first to use the word" Snark" as a noun in print ( Webster I s Second, OED). Som.e doubt arise s, however, as to the word II snarked ll as a verb or adject­ive. Carroll ' s TROTS (The Hunting of the Snark, 1876) uses it in the stanza: Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes: A thing) as the Bellman remarked, That frequently happens in tropical clime s, When a vessel is, so to speak, II snarked. II But Sir Richard Burton, whose translation of The Thousand and One Nights was published in 1885- 86, wrote, II ... I have never hesitated to coin a word when wante d, such a SiShe sno rte d and snarke d, I fully to repre sent the original. 1\ Burton had been working on his translation since 1852, and other writers of English on other translations since be­fore 1838. (See Tales from the Arabian Nights, edited by P. H. Newby, Pocket Books, New York. ) Did CarrOll, perhaps unconsciously, pluck his word from the liter­ary "climate" rather than \I out of the blue" ? (Burton, curiously enough, was one of several mid- Victorians who set out on bootle s s expe ditions to find the Sour ce of the Nile - - an en­terprise which may well have helped to inspire THOTS.) Snark No. Four: An Observation with Comment The famou s fi r st/last stanza of II J abbe rwo ckyll (too famou s to re­quire quoting here) is full of shibboleths - - words that, when pro­nounced correctly, assure one of being in, but contrariwise, incor­rectly, out. Let us at this tim.e consideT'l' borogoves. II Fastidious Lewis Carroll, in the Preface to THOTS, wrote, 11 ••• the first ' 0 ' in ' borogoves I is pronounced like the ' 0 1 in I bor­row.' I have heard people try to give it the sound of the 1 0 I in worry. II Such is Human Perversity. II And rv1artin Gardner, scholar and gentleman, added, in The Anno­ta.ted Alice: The word is commonly mispronounced as 1 borogrove s I11 by Carrollian novitiate s, and thi s mis spelling eve n appear s in s orne Arne rican editions of the book. II Now be it a wicked mar disk accompa pe rpetuated 1: free of this p. irnm e diately • zation. Snark No. Fa Those whl Cheshire Cat sion may SoOl Those wh< Snark No. Fi' What is tIl Glass: "Wool that the two tl Snark No. Si~ Carroll SE Duchess's bal alleges that 11 the Carpenter earlier ends" pigs have winl And Carre in Wonderlanc tempted one il At last, it As the farce i 11 In th< To giving Carroll of law: II ceas queath, 11 and' Finally, A No: One of Do, ed volumes (I trivia is A No: great verse ar years old, II a, brief and amic: e the Dodo IlT acceptance his short :>le. the first to use , OED}. Some rerb or adject­) uses it in nes: lousand and One ~ver hesitated to -ked, I fully to s translation ations sinc.e be­'y P. H. Newby, from the liter-Victorians who 'fIle - - an en­amous to re­when pro­ise, incor­wrote, 10 1 in lbor_ ! 0 1 in worry. 1I in The Anno­borogroves 1 ,rB in some 237 Now be it recorded that the late Walt Disney, whom few would call a wicked man, in the lyrics of the Jabberwocky song on a promotional disk accompanying his feature-length II Alice in Wonderland ll cartoon, perpetuated both of the above perpetrations. The cartoon, which was free of this particular error, appeared in 1951 and disappeared almost immediately, but the song lingers on, to the shame of American civili­zation. Snark No. Four-and-a- Half: Merely an Anticipation Those who have been concerned with the problem of whether the Cheshire Cat was intended to be a Manife station from the Fourth Dimen­sion may soon be provided with inconclusive evidence. Those who have not been concerned may not. Snark No. Five: Another Question What is the arcane significance of the title of Chapter V of Looking­Glas s: Wool and Water H ? The first thought that corne s to mind isII that the two things combined produce a bad smell. Snark No. Six; Miscellaneous Carroll seems to have been delighted by pigs. In Wonderland the Duchess 1 s baby turns into a pig. In Looking-Glass Hurnpty- DUmpty alleges that l1 a I rath l is a sort of green pig. 11 In II The Walrus and the Carpenter ll tli"eTamous list of conversational topics alluded to earlier ends with: 11 And why the sea is boiling hot - - And whether pigs have wings. II Pigs abound in his logic problems. And Carroll seems to have been appalled by trials. There are two in Wonderland - - the threatened one in the Mouse 1 s tale and the at­tempted one in the case of the Knave of Hearts. At la s t, in the Barri ste r I s Dream in THOT S, a pig is put on trial. As the farce is drawing to a close, the defense argues, II In the matter of Treason the pig would appear To have aided, but scarcely abetted ... II glV1ng Carroll a crack at those thundering redundancies in the language of law: cease and desist, II 11 wHl and te starnent, 11 II devise and be­11 queath,'\ and the rest. Finally, A Non- Snark One of Dove r Publicati ons 1 Dume r au s sub s tantial, dur ably construct­ed volumes (I did not say II ponderous tomes") of frivolous, whimsical trivia is A Nonsense Anthology, c.ollected by Carolyn Wells, II the great verse anthologist. II My copy is a 1958 reprint of a book II fifty years old,1\ according to the back cover. There is an appropriately brief and amiable Introduction, but little else in the way of scholarly 238 embellishments or, alas, facts. When an author is named, that is most probably the only clue to a verse I S origins in space and time. "Jabberwocky" is accorded its proper honor by being placed first in the book. For that, and for the other 240-odd inspirational poems, one must be grateful. But a Carrollian must also report that, quizzi­cally, THOTS is represented by only 23 random quatrains out of a pos­sible 141 - - and uninitiated readers are never given reason to suspect that anything has been omitted. The Wells anthology is the earliest source I know (or the ensuing Non-Snark. (The poem appears there with an anticlimactic II Moral" , here omitted.) I classify it as a Non-Snark because I do not know if it is in any way relate d to Ca r roll \ s writing s . I do not know whethe r it exi s te d in hi slifetime, but I think that if he had read it, he would have appreciated it. Once- ­ but no matter when-­ But whether he was rich There lived- -no matter where-­ Or whether he was poor, A man, whose name--but then Or neither--both--or which, I need not that declare. I cannot say, Pm sure. He- -well, he had been born, I can l t recall his name, And so he was alive; Or what he used to do: His age- - I details scorn-­ But then- -well, such is fame! Was somethingty and five. , Twill so serve me and you. He lived- -how many years And that is why I thus, I truly can I t decide; About this unknown man But this one fact appear s: Would fain create a fuss, He lived- -until he died. To rescue, if I can, II He died, 1\ I have averred, From dark 0 blivion' 5 blow, But calUlot prove 1 twas so, Some record of his lot: But that he was interred, But, ah! I do not know At any rate, I know. Who- -where-when- -why- -or what. I fancy he I d a son, I hear he had a wife: Perhaps he \ d more than one, I know not, on my life! And to cap the joke it is signed Anonymous! HARO-l RALPH G. 1 Boothwyn, I dhu skean d' huile gut di = molto diaboli ad\' dialling 2 ( diazotate d dibbukim d dicaryophyti dice ria dik dichlorethyl dich10rhydri dichroiscopE dicit nil = dictu mira: diegan san diego san: diem 3 per die l'e se s d: dieretic dio dieses dief diethylamide dieu hotel: digitiformis diimine qUI dikastery c dikastic dil dilate r dila dilletanti d dimidium 1 d' imitazione dinh binh = d I instructiol diphenyl-ure diplomata diplomatique directi don directioned directioning directurn d directus do disclike di~ discussionis 

Open Season on Snarks

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Open Season on Snarks

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