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,
Which refreshed that Old Man and his Owl.
Or this:
There was an old person of Sheen,
Whose expression was calm and serene;
He sate in the water, and drank bottled porter,
That placid old person of Sheen.
Now, of course, in reading these passages we can improvise variations:
we can say that Papa’s blue bottle was filled with tea; we can
substitute “ginger ale” for “bitter ale”; we can make the old person
of Sheen sit in the porter and drink bottled water; but before very
long our audience will begin to read the book for himself, and when he
finds that we have implanted a false version in his mind there will be
a swift succession of logical inquiries. The Old Soak’s problem is far
easier: _his_ sons are grown up and become “revenooers”; their minds
were long since formed on this topic. But what is the comparatively
Young Soak to do in the matter of explaining literature to his
offspring?
Only in one place, as far as we can see, does Mr. Lear refer to drink
with any tinge of moral or reprobatory feeling. Thus:
Twas a tumbler full
Of Punch all hot and good;
Papa he drank it up, when in
The middle of a wood.
We shall have to lean heavily upon that cautionary stanza in reading to
the Urchin. We will not try to bias him, of course; but by grave and
solemn repetition surely the idea will pierce his meninges--that no
matter how excellent the libation, it must be performed in secret and
far from scrutiny.