The Snark’s Significance by Henry Holiday

128 (Tan, 29, 1898.

THE SNARK’S SIGNIFICANCE. I. Mvor fruitless speculation has been spent over supposed hidden meanings in ’s Hunting of the Snark. Theinclina- tion to search for these wasstrictly natural, though the search was destined to fail. It is possible that the author was half- consciously laying a trap, so readily did he take to the inventing of puzzles and things enigmatic; but to those who knew the man, or who have divined him correctly through his writings, the explanation is fairly simple. Mr. Dodgson had a mathematical, a logical, and a philosophical mind ; and when these qualities are united to a love of the grotesque, the resultant fancies are sure to have a quite peculiar charm, a charm so much the greater because its source is subtle and eludes all attempts to grasp it. Some- times he seems to revel in ideas which are not merely illogical but anti-logical, as where the Bellman supplies his crew with charts of the ocean in which the land is omitted for the sake of simplicity, and “north poles and equators, tropics, zones and meridian lines”? are rejected because ‘“‘they are merely conventional signs.’”’ Or, as in the Barrister’s dream, where the Pig, being charged with deserting his sty, the Snark pleads an alibi in mitigation. At other times, when the nonsense seems most exuberant, we find an underlying order, a method in the madness, which makes us feel that even when he gives Fancy the rein the jade knows that the firm hand is there and there is no risk of a spill, such as seems to be the fate of so many nonsense- writers, if we may judge by the average burlesques of the day. Take ‘‘ Jabberwocky,” for instance. The very words are unknown to any language, ancient or modern; but they are so valuable that we have adopted |} them and translated them into most lan- Jan. 29, - 1898, ] __.THE ACADEMY. _ a ene ee nee eee 199 guages, ancient and modern. What should exactly fitted. Most peoplewill have noticed several games of ‘Go-bang’ on them aireudy. we do without “chortle,” ‘ uffish,” *‘ beam- this peculiarity of Lewis Carroll’s writings. (I need hardly remark that they serve just as ish,” “galumphing,” and the rest? ‘The In the thick of the great miners’ strike of well or that, or for draughts, as they do for page looks, when weopenit, likethe wander- 1893 I sent to the Westminster Gazette chess. ings of one insane; but as we read wefind @ quotation from Alice in Wonderland Now for another bit of designing, if you we have a of creative genius, and that don’t mind undertaking it. Macmillan writes about a mine; not a coal-mine, it is true, me word that the gorgeous cover will cost our language is enriched as to its vocabulary. but amustard-mine. Alice having hazarded Whether the humour consists chiefly in ls 4d.acopy! Whereas we can’t really afford the suggestion that mustard is a mineral, more than dd. or 6d., as we must not charge the conscious defiance oflogic by a logical the Duchess tells her that she has a large more than 3s. for the book. Myidea is this, mind,or in the half-unconscious control by mustard-mine on her estate, and adds, “The to have @ simpler cover for the 3s. copies, that logical mind of its lively aud grotesque moral of that is—the more there is of mine which will, no doubt, be the ones usually sold, fancies, in either case the charm arises from the less there is of yours”; which goes to but to offer the gorgeous covers also at 4s., which the author’s well-ordered mind; and we the root of the whole system of commercial will be bought by the rich and these who wish need not be surprised if the feeling that competition, and,was marvellously apt when to give them as presents. Whut I want you this is so leads many to look for some to do is to take ‘ Alice’ as a guide, and landowners were struggling for their design covers requiring about the same amount hidden purpose in his writings. royalties, mine-owners for their profits, rail- The real origin of The Hunting of the of guld, or, better, a little less. As ‘ Alice’ way companies for cheap fuel, and miners and the ‘ Looking-Glass’ have both got Snark is very singular. Mr. Dodgson was for wages; each for ‘‘moum” against grotesque faces outside, I should like these to walking alone one evening, whenthe words, 66 tuum,”? ; be pretty, as a contrast, and I don’t think we ‘‘For the Snark was a Boojum, you see,” In our correspondence about the illustra- can do better than to take the head of ‘ ’ came spontaneously into his head, and the tions, the coherence and consistency of the for thefirst side, and ‘Care’ for the second ; oem was written up to them. I have nonsense on its own nonsensical understand- and, as these are associated with ‘forks’ and heard it said that Wagner began ‘‘ The Ring ing often became prominent. One of the ‘thimbles’ in the poem, what do you think of the Nibelungs” by writing Siegfried’s of surrounding them, one with a border of first three I had to do was the disappearance interlaced forks, the other with a shower of ‘‘Funeral March,” which certainly contains of the Baker, and I not unnaturally invented thimbles? And what do youthink of putting the most important motives in the work, and a Boojum. Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was @ bell at each corner of the cover, instead of a that the rest of the trilogy, or tetralogy, a delightful monster, but that it was inad- single line? The only thing to secureis that the was developed out of it; but as this great missible. All his descriptions of the total amount of gold required shall be rather work, though finished after the publication Boojum were quite unimaginable, and he less than on the cover of ‘ Alice.’ All these are merely suggestions : you will be of Lhe Hunting of the Snark (1876), was wanted the creature to remain so. I assented, certainly begun beforeit, it is scarcely open a far better judge of the matter than I can be, of course, though reluctant to dismiss what and perhaps may think of some quite different, to me to maintain that the great German I am still confident is an accurate repre- master of musical drama plagiarised in his and better, design.—Yours ever truly, sentation. I hope that some future Darwin, L. Dopason, methods from our distinguished humorist. in a new Beagle, will find the beast, or The Chestnuts, Guildford, Jan. 15, 1876.” Starting in this way, our author wrote its remains; if he does, I know he will three stanzas of his poem (or “fits” of his confirm my drawing. “agony,” as he called them), and asked if When sent Mr. Dodgson the sketch of I I would design three illustrations to them, the hunting, in which I had personified IT. explaining that the composition would some Hope and Care— Human perversity has identified the Snark day be introduced in a book he was con- with everything possible and templating; but as this latter would ‘‘ They sought it with thimbles, they sought it impossible. certainly There exist people who, led away by not be ready for a considerable time, with care, the he They pursued it with forks and hope ”—— exquisite demonstration given to thought of printing the poem for the private Butcher by the Beaver, have seen in it circulation in the first instance. hile I he wrote that he admired the figures, but a treatise on pure mathematics. Others was making sketches for these illustrations, that they interfered with the point, which will have it that the Bellman he sent me a fourth “ fit,” asking for is only another consisted in the mixing up of two meanings an Arctic explorer and the Snark the drawing; shortly after came a fifth “fit,” of the word “with.” replied,‘ Precisely, with @ similar request, North Pole; while a few, basing their and this was followed and I intended to add a third—‘in com- conjecture on the fact that the Barrister by a sixth, seventh, and eighth. His mind pany with’—and so develop the point.” bears, in his portrait, not being occupied with any an extraordinary other book at This view he cordially accepted, and the resemblance to the late Dr. Kenealy, the time, this theme seemed continually to ladies were admitted. maintain be suggesting that the Snark is the Tichborne new developments; and having In the copy bound in vellum which he Claimant. extended the ‘“‘agony”’ In fact, each reader finds the thus far beyond his gave me the dedication runs: “ Presented Snark that he deserves. My own is Fortune, original intentions, Mr. Dodgson decided to to Henry Holiday, most patient of artists, publish it at once and I am always lost in astonishmentat the as an independent work, by Charles L. Dodgson, most exacting, but people who think it can be anything else. without waiting for Sylvie and Bruno, of not most ungrateful of authors, March 29, which it was to have formed a feature. Observe the things with which its capture 1876,” was attempted. Why, the mere mention of I rather regretted the extension, as it The above instance will show that though railway shares and soap is sufficient of itself seemed to me to involve a disproportion he justly desired to see his meanings pre- between the to establish my thesis. And then look at scale of the work and its served, he was not exacting in any un- the dramatis persone substance ; and I doubted and their actions. The if the expansion reasonable spirit. The accompanyingletter, Butcher, perceiving that novelty is the were not greater than so slight a structure written after the work was complete, will would bear. The ‘ Walrus secret of success, announces himself as the and Carpenter ” sufficiently show the friendly tone which only beaver-butcher in this or any other appeared to be happierin its proportion, and had characterised our correspondence. country, and the Baker aims at interest it mattered little whether or not it could Henry Hotipay. establish by specialising in bride-cakes. Even the a claim to be classified among Jan. 26, 1898, Banker, literary vertebrata. However, whose celebrated interview with on re-reading the Bandersnatch gave him so great the Snark now I feel it to be unquestion- [copy.| a fright ably funny throughout, ‘‘ that his waistcoat turned white,” abandons and I cannot wish ‘My DEAR Honipay,—I finishedoff myletter his legitimate any part cut business in favourof the issue out; so I suppose my fears at Brighton yesterday in a hurry, and omitted of insurancepolicies were unfounded. against fire and damage to say how pleased I am with the proofs you from hail. The Barrister I remember a clever sent me. They seem to me most successfully dreams of points of undergraduate at the utmost nicety and rarity, and the influence Oxford, who knew the Szari; by cut, and T agree with you in thinking the head heart, of luck in the court is prettily emphasised telling me that on all sorts of occasions, in of ‘ Hope’ w great success ; it is quite lovely. On my return here last night, I the by the Snark’s assumption of the preroga~ all the daily incidents of life, someline from charming chess-boards, for which aceapt tives of the Judge. The Bellman isa truly the poem was sure to occur to him that my best thanks, My sister and pathetic I have played figure. Heis the type of the man 130 THE ACADEMY. (Jan. 29, 1898 who pursues fortune without any sufficient Bellman always repeat everything three consideration of the facts of practical life, times: and I fancy that he must, at one time or ‘What I say three times is true,” another, have lost a good deal of money on the Stock Exchange. His sorrowful remark he says, with marked emphasis ? that “he had hoped, when the wind was due East, that the ship would not travel ‘“Ah,” suid my friend, ‘‘the Bellman was one of those tedious people who always repeat due West,” is just what one could expect themselves, and who believe that a thing is from a disappointed speculator. Of the roved if it is only asserted sufficiently often. Billiard-marker nothing is recorded, save have met loads of them. Can you wonder that ‘‘ his skill was immense’; but that of that they never get into Society? e suburban itself was more than sufficient justification Boojum (which take to be a kind of Browning I for his joining in the search for Fortune, Society) is the only place for them.”’ and he may well have been the most success- ful in the end of ail the crew. ‘The This seemed convincing, and I next inquired dichotomy of Snarks into those which have why it was the Baker who found the “feathers and bite” and those which have Boojum, and not one of the others. My ‘‘ whiskers and scratch” does not, I think, friend’s reply was oracular. ‘‘ Bakers,” he indicate anything more than a belief that said, ‘never get into Society. Barristers there is more than one sort of good fortune, and bankers sometimes; bakers never. The and that all are somewhat to be feared. Baker, therefore, was very rightly put out The habit—common, apparently, to all in the first round.” No further information Snarks—of breakfasting at five o’clock tea could I extract from myfriend, and when and dining the day afterwards, so obviously my questions grew pertinacious, he yawned typifies the tendency of Fortune not to come and went away. For myself, I am tempted to a man until it is too late to give him any to accept his view, and to believe that pleasure that it is unnecessary to labour the the whole poem is a prophetic satire on point, The taste—‘‘ meagre and hollow, the career of the late Barney Barnato. ut crisp ’’—I regard as finally settling the Students of the poem will remember that question, All varieties of Snark have them, all the Snark-hunters’ names begin with a and the most fortunate of mankind freely ‘B,” which is, I think, strong evidence of admit that this is the real flavour of success. my theory. = On my hypothesis the Bandersnatch would Sr. J. E. C. H. be Scandal. In Through the Looking- Glass this creature is more than once referred to as oxtraordinarily difficult to stop or to catch, and the judicious reader il remember how the Banker entirely failed to divert its attacks bythe offer of large discount or even bearer cheques. But what, then, is the Boojum? It is a-kind of Snark —that is clear from twenty passages. But if a sort of good fortune, how could it have so distressing an effect upon the man they called Ho? Well, I think a Boojum is that sort of sudden, unexpected luck which ‘puts a man “ above his boots,” carries him into a sphere in which he is miserable, and makes his wife cut the greengrocer’s lady. It is a very dangerous creature, and the warning of the Baker’s Uncle is more than justified. M. H. T.

ett tet it. Ay ingenious friend of mine once main- tained, with considerable speciousness, that was written as a satire on the craving for what is called “social advancement.” According to his view, the people who hunt the Snark are the people who try to “get into Society,’’ the bankers, bakers, butchers, billiard. markers, and barristers of our day. They are headed by an individual who rings a bell because their endeavour is to attract attention, Thoy never do get into Society, these good people. The Snark is never caught. They only find a Boojum, which my friend interpreted as a kind of suburban set, where they “ never are heard of again ”’ —in the Morning Post. The theory, on the face of it, has much to be said in its favour, and I trust to get further details from my informant. Why, for instance, did the