New York and London
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
The Knickerbocker Press
Copyright, 1848
By GEORGE P. PUTNAM
Copyright, 1890
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
Note.—This edition is printed under the authorization of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the publishers of the complete works of James Russell Lowell.
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
Reader! walk up at once (it will soon be too late) and
buy at a perfectly ruinous rate
A
FABLE FOR CRITICS;
OR, BETTER,
(I like, as a thing that the reader’s first fancy may strike,
an old-fashioned title-page,
such as presents a tabular view of the volume’s contents)
A GLANCE
AT A FEW OF OUR LITERARY PROGENIES
(Mrs Malaprop’s word)
FROM
THE TUB OF DIOGENES:
A VOCAL AND MUSICAL MEDLEY
THAT IS,
A SERIES OF JOKES
B y A W o n d e rf u l Q u i z,
who accompanies himself with a rub-a-dub-dub, full of spirit and grace,
on the top of the tub.
SET FORTH IN
October, the 21st day, in the year ’48
G. P. PUTNAM, BROADWAY
PREFATORY NOTE
This jeu d’esprit was extemporized, I may fairly say, so rapidly was it written, purely for my own amusement, and with no thought of publication. I sent daily instalments of it to a friend in New York, the late Chas F. Briggs. He urged me to let it be printed and I at last consented to its anonymous publication. The secret was kept till after several persons had laid claim to its authorship.
It being the commonest mode of procedure, I premise a few candid remarks
TO THE READER:
This trifle, begun to please only myself and my own private fancy, was laid on the shelf. But some friends, who had seen it, induced me, by dint of saying they liked it, to put it in print. That is, having come to that very conclusion, I asked their advice when ’t would make no confusion. For though (in the gentlest of ways) they had hinted it was scarce worth the while, I should doubtless have printed it.