The Complete Alice in Wonderland (Wonderland Imprints Master Editions)
Page 39
December, 1871: Positive reviews appear throughout England for Through the Looking-Glass, and again drive Christmas sales.
December, 1871 to January 27, 1872: In the first seven weeks of publication, Through the Looking-Glass sells 15,000 copies.
July, 1874: Carroll has a stroll which results in his composing the ending (and first created) verse of his future work, The Hunting of the Snark.
Summer, 1874: Carroll writes The Hunting of the Snark.
November 23, 1874: By this time, Carroll has Henry Holiday completing illustrations for The Hunting of the Snark.
November 7, 1875: Carroll writes a letter to Mrs. Chataway, explaining the relation of The Hunting of the Snark to the island of the Jabberwock.
Christmas, 1875: Carroll publishes The Hunting of the Snark.
February to April, 1876: Macmillan publishes Carroll’s epic nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark.
April, 1876: The Hunting of the Snark causes confusion and much speculation, and receives mixed reviews.
1878: The forty-fifth thousand of Through the Looking-Glass is published.
1879: The last edition of Through the Looking-Glass to be published in Carroll’s lifetime is released, reflecting his final revisions.
August 18, 1884: Carroll writes a letter explaining some of the meaning (or lack thereof!) in The Hunting of the Snark.
March 1, 1885: Carroll writes to Alice Hargreaves, requesting her permission to borrow, review and publish the manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.
March 29, 1885: Carroll mentions in his diary that John Tenniel is busy coloring his own illustrations, for use in the future Nursery “Alice”. (Due to some text released by Macmillan, it is more likely that another person performs the coloration, overseen by Tenniel.)
December, 1886: Carroll writes the preface for Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, and the book is published (December 22).
December 23, 1886: The stage version of Henry Savile Clarke’s “Dream Play,” “Alice in Wonderland,” premieres at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
Christmas, 1886: Carroll writes the Preface to the Seventy-Ninth Thousand of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. (In other words, the book by this time has sold 79,000 copies)
Early 1887: Henry Savile Clarke’s play version of “Alice in Wonderland” is published (dated 1886).
April, 1887: Carroll publishes his article “‘Alice’ on the Stage,” which includes a number of insights into the stories and their creation.
1887: Carroll writes a letter explaining the initial idea for The Hunting of the Snark.
December 28, 1888: Carroll begins revising Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to create The Nursery “Alice.”
February 20, 1889: Carroll completes the manuscript of The Nursery “Alice” and sends it on to Macmillan for consideration.
1889: Printing difficulties delay the release of The Nursery “Alice” in England. (Those copies which Carroll deems inferior are sent to America for sale. Other copies are likely donated to children’s hospitals.)
Easter, 1890: Carroll writes the preface to The Nursery “Alice,” and the book is published by Macmillan.
December 29, 1893: A Boojum is briefly mentioned in Carroll’s oft-forgotten book, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.
Christmas, 1896: Carroll writes the Preface to the Eighty-Sixth Thousand of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
January 14, 1898: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Lewis Carroll, dies of pneumonia.
April 3, 1928: The original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground is sold in a Sotheby’s auction for the unheard-of sum of ₤15,400.
1932: At the age of 80, Alice publishes her “memoirs” by way of her son, Caryl Hargreaves.
November 15, 1934: Alice Pleasance Liddell dies.
1960: Martin Gardner publishes The Annotated Alice, a landmark in the field of Alice and Carrollian studies.
July, 1974: A Sotheby’s auction results in the sale of several galley proofs of Through the Looking-Glass, which include the long-lost Wasp in a Wig chapter.
1977: The Wasp in a Wig chapter of Through the Looking-Glass is published for the first time.
Christmas, 2010: The Complete Alice in Wonderland is published.
(NOTE: The following two brief pieces may be of further interest to the devoted Alice reader.)
A Diary Entry by Charles Dodgson
NOVEMBER 1888
Skene brought, as his guest, Mr. Hargreaves, the husband of “Alice,” who was a stranger to me, though we had met, years ago, as pupil and lecturer. It was not easy to link in one’s mind’s eye the new face with the once-so-intimately-known and loved “Alice,” whom I shall always remember best as an entirely fascinating little seven-year-old maiden.
The Last Letter to Alice
CHRIST CHURCH, Oxford
December 8, 1891
My Dear Mrs. Hargreaves,
I should be so glad if you could, quite conveniently to yourself, look in for tea any day. You would probably prefer to bring a companion: but I must leave the choice to you, only remarking that if your husband is here he would be (most) very welcome. (I crossed out “most” because it’s ambiguous; most words are, I fear.) I met him in our Common Room not long ago. It was hard to realise that he was the husband of one I can scarcely picture to myself, even now, as more than 7 years old!
Always sincerely yours,
C. L. Dodgson
(P.S.) Your adventures have had a marvellous success. I have now sold well over 100,000 copies.
(Sadly, Alice was not able to meet with Lewis Carroll for tea this one last time. But she did visit the elderly gentleman, along with her sister Rhoda. What they spoke of will never be known. It was the last time they ever met.)
Carroll’s Parodies: The Original Poetry
THROUGHOUT THE “Alice” stories, Carroll pokes fun at various poems, songs and nursery rhymes that were popular in the 1800s. Unfortunately, 150 years after the fact, some of these jokes are so obscure that they no longer have any meaning. It is for this reason (and for the interest of the studious reader) that the original, parodies works are included here in their entirety.
The works (and excerpts of works) which appear here are as follows:
“Against Idleness and Mischief,” by Isaac Watts: Parodied as “How Doth the Little Crocodile.”
“Alice Gray,” by William Mee: Parodied as “Alice’s Evidence,” or, “She’s All My Fancy Painted Him.”
“Bonnie Dundee,” by Sir Walter Scott: Parodied as “To the Looking-Glass World.”
“The Dream of Eugene Aram,” by Thomas Hood: Parodied as “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”
“Humpty Dumpty,” attributed to Mother Goose: Alluded to in Through the Looking-Glass.
“Hush-a-by Baby,” or, “Rock-a-by Baby,” attributed to Mother Goose: Parodied as “Hush-a-by Lady.”
“The Lion and the Unicorn,” attributed to Mother Goose: Alluded to in Through the Looking-Glass.
“My Heart and Lute,” by Thomas Moore: Parodied as “Upon the Lonely Moor,” or, “The Aged, Aged Man.”
“The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them,” by Robert Southey: Parodies as “You Are Old, Father William.”
“Resolution and Independence,” by Wordsworth: Parodied as “Upon the Lonely Moor,” or, “The Aged, Aged Man.”
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” Anonymous: Alluded to in the closing poem of Through the Looking-Glass.
“Sally Come Up,” Anonymous: Parodied as “Salmon Come Up.”
“The Sluggard,” by Isaac Watts: Parodied as “’Tis the Voice of the Lobster.”
“Speak Gently,” by G. W. Langford: Parodied as “Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy.”
“The Spider and the Fly,” by Mary Howitt: Parodied as “The Lobster Quadrille,” or, “Will You Walk a Little Faster.”
“The Star,” by Jane Taylor: Parodied as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat.”
“Star of the Evening,” by James M. Sayle: Parodied
as “Turtle Soup,” or, “Beautiful Soup.”
“Summer Days,” by Marks Wilks Call: Parodied as “In Winter, When the Fields Are White,” or “Humpty Dumpty’s Poem.”
“The Tarts,” attributed to Mother Goose: Parodied as “The Tarts,” or, “The Queen of Hearts.”
“Tweedledum and Tweedledee,” attributed to Mother Goose: Alluded to in Through the Looking-Glass.
Against Idleness and Mischief
by Isaac Watts
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.
Alice Gray
by William Mee
She’s all my fancy painted her, she’s lovely, she’s divine,
But her heart it is another’s, she never can be mine.
Yet loved I as man never loved, a love without decay,
Oh, my heart, my heart is breaking for the love of Alice Gray.
Her dark brown hair is braided o’er a brow of spotless white,
Her soft blue eye now languishes, now flashes with delight;
Her hair is braided not for me, the eye is turned away,
Yet my heart, my heart is breaking for the love of Alice Gray.
I’ve sunk beneath the summer’s sun, and trembled in the blast.
But my pilgrimage is nearly done, the weary conflict’s past;
And when the green sod wraps my grave, may pity haply say,
Oh, his heart, his heart is broken for the love of Alice Gray!
Bonnie Dundee (Excerpt)
by Sir Walter Scott
To the Lords of Convention ’twas Claver’se who spoke,
“Ere the King’s crown shall fall there are crowns to be broke;
So let each Cavalier who loves honour and me,
Come follow the Bonnet of Bonny Dundee.”
“Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle your horses, and call up your men;
Come open the West Port, and let me gang free,
And it’s room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!”
The Dream of Eugene Aram (Excerpt)
by Thomas Hood
’Twas in the prime of summer-time
An evening calm and cool,
And four-and-twenty happy boys
Came bounding out of school:
There were some that ran and some that leapt,
Like troutlets in a pool.
Humpty Dumpty
(Mother Goose)
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Hush-a-by Baby
(Mother Goose)
Hush-a-by baby
On the tree top,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall,
Down tumbles baby,
Cradle and all.
The Lion and the Unicorn
(Mother Goose)
The lion and the unicorn
Were fighting for the crown;
The lion beat the unicorn
All around the town.
Some gave them white bread,
And some gave them brown;
Some gave them plum cake
And drummed them out of town.
And when he had beat him out,
He beat him in again;
He beat him three times over,
His power to maintain.
My Heart and Lute
Thomas Moore
I give thee all—I can no more—
Though poor the off’ring be;
My heart and lute are all the store
That I can bring to thee.
A lute who’s gentle song reveals
The soul of love full well;
And, better far, a heart that feels
Much more than lute could tell.
Though love and song may fail, alas!
To keep life’s clouds away,
At least ’twill make them lighter pass
Or gild them if they stay.
And ev’n if Care, at moments, flings
A discord o’er life’s happy strain,
Let love but gently touch the strings,
’Twill all be sweet again!
The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them
by Robert Southey
“You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“The few locks which are left you are grey;
You are hale, father William, a hearty old man;
Now tell me the reason, I pray.”
“In the days of my youth,” father William replied,
“I remember’d that youth would fly fast,
And abus’d not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last.”
“You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“And pleasures with youth pass away.
And yet you lament not the days that are gone;
Now tell me the reason I pray.”
“In the days of my youth,” father William replied,
“I remember’d that youth could not last;
I thought of the future, whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the past.”
“You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“And life must be hast’ning away;
You are cheerful and love to converse upon death;
Now tell me the reason, I pray.”
“I am cheerful, young man,” father William replied,
“Let the cause thy attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remember’d my God!
And He hath not forgotten my age.”
Resolution and Independence (Excerpt)
by Wordsworth
My former thoughts returned: the fear that kills;
And hope that is unwilling to be fed;
Cold, pain, and labour, and all fleshly ills;
And mighty Poets in their misery dead.
—Perplexed, and longing to be comforted,
My question eagerly did I renew,
“How is it that you live, and what is it you do?”
He with a smile did then his words repeat;
And said that, gathering leeches, far and wide
He traveled; stirring thus about his feet
The waters of the pools where they abide.
“Once I could meet with them on every side;
But they have dwindled long by slow decay;
Yet still I persevere, and find them where I may.”
While he was talking thus the lonely place,
The old Man’s shape, and speech—all troubled me:
In my mind’s eye I seemed to see him pace
About the weary moors continually,
Wandering about alone and silently.
While I these thoughts within myself pursued,
He, having made a pause, the same discourse renewed.
And soon with this he other matter blended,
Cheerfully uttered, with demeanor kind,
But stately in the main; and, when he ended,
I could have laughed myself to scorn to find
In that decrepit Man so firm a mind.
“God,” said I, “be my help
and stay secure;
I’ll think of the Leech-gatherer on the lonely moor!”
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
(Anonymous)
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Sally Come Up (Excerpt)
(Anonymous)
Sally come up! oh, Sally go down!
Oh, Sally come twist you heel around,
The old man he’s gone down to town,
Oh Sally come down the middle.
The Sluggard
by Isaac Watts
’Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain,
“You have wak’d me too soon, I must slumber again.”
As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed,
Turns his sides and his shoulders and his heavy head.
“A little more sleep, and a little more slumber;”