PERNICIOUSNESS OF MR. LEAR
We are rather startled to find, on beginning to read Edward Lear’s immortal Nonsense Books to our Archurchin, that liquor plays a considerable rôle in his waggishness. This phase of Lear’s works we had quite forgotten, although it may have played a subtle part in undermining our character when young. But what are we to do, we ask, when, in reading aloud we come upon such distressing testaments as this:
B was a Bottle blue,
which was not very small;
Papa he filled it full of beer,
And then he drank it all.
Or this:
There was an Old Man with an Owl,
Who continued to bother and howl;
He sat on a rail, and imbibed bitter ale,