Text 44

DINGLE BANK

He lived at Dingle Bank − he did; −

He lived at Dingle Bank;

And in his Garden was a Quail,

Four tulips and a Tank;

And from his windows he could see

The otion and the River Dee.

His house stood on a cliff, − it did,

Its aspic it was cool;

And many thousand little boys

Resorted to his school

Where if of progress they could boast

He gave them heaps of buttered toast.

But he grew rabid-wroth, he did,

If they neglected books,

And dragged them to adjacent cliffs

With beastly Button Hooks,

And there with fatuous glee he threw

Them down into the otion blue.

And in the sea they swam, thy did, −

All playfully about,

And some eventually became

Sponges or special trout: −

But Liverpool doth all bewail

Their fate; − likewise his Garden Quail.

Lear also introduced limericks to "serious" literature. Since then, they have become an essential part of linguistic education of all native speakers of English. Perhaps, nobody could expect that some day limericks might reach the easternmost end of the civilized world, the snowy Russia. The name sounds so exotic to the English ear, more exotic than India or even Timbuctu. So, let us have another good scream.

There was a young lady of Russia,

Who screamed so that no one could hush her;

Her screams were extreme,

No one heard such a scream,

As was screamed by that lady of Russia…

A good hundred years ago this particular limerick was the long-awaited treat for a would-be internationally-known wordsmith! Lo and behold, here comes the maestro himself, in his native language:

«Предупреждая его [ Бэрнеса ] набег, я спешил вернуться в классную и уже оттуда слышал, как по длинному коридору приближаются энергичные шаги испытанного скорохода. Какой бы ни был мороз на дворе, лоб его весь блестел перловым потом.

Урок состоял в том, что в продолжение первой четверти он молча исправлял заданное в прошлый раз упражнение, вторую часть посвящал диктовке, исправлял ее, а затем, лихорадочно сверив свои жилетные часы со стенными, принимался писать своим быстрым, округлым почерком, со страшной силой нажимая на плюющееся перо, очередное задание.

Перед самым его уходом я выпрашивал у него любимую пытку. Держа в своем похожем на окорок кулаке мою небольшую руку, он говорил лимерик (нечто вроде пятистрочной частушки весьма строгой формы) o lady from Russia, которая кричала, screamed, когда ее сдавливали, crushed her, и прелесть была в том, что при повторении слова "screamed" Бэрнес все крепче и крепче сжимал мне руку, так что я никогда не выдерживал лимерика до конца. Вот перефразировка по-русски:

Есть странная дама из Кракова:

орет от пожатия всякого,

орет наперед

и все время орет −

но орет не всегда одинаково».

In fact, limericks are destined to be used by all who engage in education: Lear's were originally intended for Earl of Derby's grandchildren's amusement. Lear drew a little sketch and then added a limerick to go with it. So the Book of Nonsense started as an attempt to have fun. That's why readers mistook Earl of Derby for the author.

Early in the 20^th century the craze for limericks really caught on. Each week two famous London magazines ran competitions for the best limericks and hundreds of thousands of people used to enter. In 1971, more than 8,000 authors entered the Blue Peter competition held by the BBS. The standards were high. Those entries were sometimes technically more versatile than Lear's ones. Here are some examples(Text 45).