This year is the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. An extraordinarily eccentric tale beloved of many generations. I am extremely fortunate to own this copy which came from my grandmother and has the most beautiful colour illustrations by Bessie Pease. This is the front plate and quite unusual to see Alice depicted as a brunette.
So in the spirit of all things celebratory it gives me the perfect excuse to repeat the Jabberwocky poem [note I am blatantly ignoring that this is found in "Alice Through The Looking Glass"!]
Jabberwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
the Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling throught the tulgey wood
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One,two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galmuphing back.
'And hast though slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh callay!
He chortled in joy.
'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the mome raths outgrabes.
The spell checker on Blogger is most put out. Splendid....on that note may I wish one and all a frabjous weekend!
Arilx
PS This is the cat in the church in Cranleigh which was reputedly Carroll's inspiration for the Cheshire cat.
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I remember seeing a wonderful outdoor performance of Alice somewhere in the north West - the grounds of a country house - and for part of the show it was a promenade performance.
ReplyDeleteI also acted in a performance in the Grand Hall of London University - I played the Gryffon (I think!) with amazing costumes. We also performed outdoors in Milton Keynes Campbell Park. All good fun.
I have a book called "More Alice" which was written by - hmm, can't remember - which carried on the Alice stories...
lol @ the blogger spell check :) Bestest weekend to you m'dear, I'm attached to the sofa for Six Nations!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. FD you have reminded me that I was one of the cards in our school play. Hardly a starring role!
ReplyDeleteArilx