The 5 'unmistakable marks' that identify Snarks
5 illustrations by JVL in Lewis Carroll's
The Hunting of the Snark, Artists' Choice Editions, 2006.
its hollow and crisp taste it frequently breakfasts at 5 o'clock tea
The text:
37
"Come,
listen, my men, while I tell you again
The five unmistakable marks
By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
The warranted genuine Snarks.
38
"Let
us take them in order. The first is the taste,
Which is meager and hollow, but crisp:
Like a coat that is rather too tight in the
waist,
With a flavor of Will-o-the-wisp.
39
"Its
habit of getting up late you'll agree
That it carries too far, when I say
That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock
tea,
And dines on the following day.
40
"The third is its slowness in taking a
jest.
Should you happen to venture on one,
It will sigh like a thing that is deeply
distressed:
And it always looks grave at a pun.
41
"The fourth is its fondness for
bathing-machines,
Which is constantly carries about,
And believes that they add to the beauty of
scenes--
A sentiment open to doubt.
42
"The fifth is ambition. It next will be
right
To describe each particular batch:
Distinguishing those that have feathers, and
bite,
And those that have whiskers, and scratch.
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ReplyDeleteAs for bathing machines I would like to mention that "In The New Belfry of Christ Church", a certain "D. C. L." (Dodgson, C.L.) wrote:
ReplyDelete"...§ 7. On the impetus given to Art in England by the new Belfry, Ch. Ch.
The idea has spread far and wide, and is rapidly pervading all branches of manufacture. Already an enterprising maker of bonnet-boxes is advertising ‘the Belfry pattern’: two builders of bathing-machines at Ramsgate have followed his example: one of the great London houses is supplying ‘bar-soap’ cut in the same striking and symmetrical form: and we are credibly informed that Borwick’s Baking Powder and Thorley’s Food for Cattle are now sold in no other shape."
https://snrk.de/page_the-new-belfry
"Distinguishing those that have feathers, and bite,
ReplyDeleteAnd those that have whiskers, and scratch."
A riddle? John, two print making techniques known to illustrators?