EDWARD LEAR AND THE PLAY OF POETRY Edward Lear and the Play of Poetry Editedby JAMES WILLIAMS AND MATTHEW BEVIS 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©OxfordUniversityPress Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin Impression: Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber: ISBN –––– PrintedinGreatBritainby ClaysLtd,StIvesplc LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. In memory of Vivien Noakes ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Around half the chapters in this volume got a first draft as papers at the Bicentennial ConferenceonEdwardLearatJesusCollege, Oxford in Septem- ber.Wearegratefultoallwhomadethateventpossible,especiallytheOxford English Faculty, Jesus College, the MHRA, and the John Fell Fund for financial assistance,andtoHannahField,PaulinaKewes,RowenaFowler,andDerekAttridge for their personal support. We are grateful also to the attendees who shared their ideasandenthusiasmforLearinconversationswhichinmanywaysgavethisbook itsfirstimpetus.WethankthetworeadersatOUPfortheirencouraginganddetailed comments, and also Jacqueline Norton, Rachel Platt, Lucy McClune, Rachel Peake, ChristineRanft,ManikandanChandrasekaran,RosemaryDear,RoseCampbell,and Eleanor Collins for supporting the book and seeing it through to publication. A contribution from the Small Research Grants Scheme at Keble College, Oxford helpedpayforeditorialassistance,forwhichourthanksgotoAlexAlonsoforhis hardwork,closeattention,andgoodhumour. Oneessayinthisvolumecontainsworkpublishedpreviously:AnnaHenchman’s ‘Fragments out of Place: Homology and the Logic of Nonsense in Edward Lear’ reworks elements of her article ‘Edward Lear Dismembered: Word Fragments and Body Parts’, in Nineteenth-Century Contexts: An Interdisciplinary Journal . (), –.Wearegratefultothejournalforpermissiontoreprint.Acknowledgement is made to Faber and Faber for quotations from T. S. Eliot, to Penguin Books for quotations from Edward Lear, and to New Directions, and the Estate of James MacGibbonforthequotationsandillustrationsfromTheCollectedPoemsandDrawings ofStevieSmith.WearegratefultoJohnAshberyandCarcanetPressforpermissionto quote from Girls on the Run, Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems, Planisphere, and Collected Poems. We thank Hope Mayo and Mary Haegert at Harvard, and AnnaLee PaulsandBriannaCregleatPrincetonfortheirhelpinsecuringimagesandanswer- ingourqueries.VariousLearianshaveofferedsupportandadvice:thanksareduein particular to Hugh Haughton, Peter Swaab, and Charles Lewsen for their kindness andcounsel, andweoweanespeciallyhugedebttoMarcoGraziosi forhisheroic generosityinprovidinghigh-qualityimagesofEdwardLear’spublisheddrawings.It is a pleasure to acknowledge in print Marco’s ‘Blog of Bosh’ (https://nonsenselit. wordpress.com) and his meticulous transcriptions of the first six years of Lear’s diary(https://leardiaries.wordpress.com),forwhichreadersandscholarsofLearare greatly in his debt. We cannot conclude without acknowledging Vivien Noakes vii  who, although she passed away before our work began, laid the groundwork for everythingbetweenthesecovers.WearegratefultoMichaelNoakesforpermitting ustodedicatethebooktohermemory. Finally,fortheircontinuedsupportincountlessbigandsmallways,wethankour families,especiallyRebeccaBevisandBrianKing. J.W.&M.B. viii CONTENTS Abbreviations xi ListofIllustrations xiii NotesontheContributors xvii Introduction: Edward Learand the Play of Poetry  JamesWilliamsandMatthewBevis . Lear and the Fool  JamesWilliams . ‘One of the Dumms’: Edward Lear and Romanticism  MichaelO’Neill . Edward Lear and Dissent  SaraLodge . ‘Some Think Him...Queer’: Loners and Love in Edward Lear  PeterSwaab . Edward Lear: Celebrity Chef  PeterRobinson . Falling for Edward Lear  MatthewBevis . Being and Naughtiness  DanielBrown . Fragments Out of Place: Homologyand the Logic of Nonsense in Edward Lear  AnnaHenchman . ‘The Owl and the Pussy-Cat’, and other Poems of Love and Marriage  DanielKarlin . Playing with Letters: Lear’s Episthilarity  HughHaughton ix