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“Ah!” said the first speaker, “so it is printed; but that is only a whim
of the real author, the Earl of Derby. ‘Edward’ is his Christian name,
and, as you may see, LEAR is only EARL transposed.”
“But,” said the lady, doubtingly, “here is a dedication to the great-
grandchildren, grand-nephews, and grand-nieces of Edward, thir-
teenth Earl of Derby, by the author, Edward Lear.”
“That,” replied the other, “is simply a piece of mystification; I am in
a position to know that the whole book was composed and illustrated by
Lord Derby himself. In fact, there is no such a person at all as Edward
Lear.”
“Yet,” said the other lady, “some friends of mine tell me they know
Mr. Lear.”
“Quite a mistake! completely a mistake!” said the old gentleman,
becoming rather angry at the contradiction; “I am well aware of what
I am saying: I can inform you, no such a person as ‘Edward Lear’ exists!”
Hitherto I had kept silence; but as my hat was, as well as my hand-
kerchief and stick, largely marked inside with my name, and as I hap-
pened to have in my pocket several letters addressed to me, the tempta-
tion was too great to resist; so, flashing all these articles at once on my
would-be extinguisher’s attention, I speedily reduced him to silence.
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...
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Long years ago, in days when much of my time was passed in a coun-
try house, where children and mirth abounded, the lines beginning,
“There was an old man of Tobago,” were suggested to me by a valued
friend, as a form of verse lending itself to limitless variety for rhymes
and pictures; and thenceforth the greater part of the original drawings
and verses for the first “Book of Nonsense” were struck off with a pen,
no assistance ever having been given me in any way but that of uproari-
ous delight and welcome at the appearance of every new absurdity.
Most of these Drawings and Rhymes were transferred to lithograph-
ic stones in the year 1846, and were then first published by Mr. Thomas
McLean, of the Haymarket. But that edition having been soon exhaust-
ed, and the call for the “Book of Nonsense” continuing, I added a con-
siderable number of subjects to those previously-published
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...
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.
Edward Lear.
Villa Emily, San Remo, August, 1871.