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Lewis Carroll - Hunting Of The Snark: Preface
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PREFACE

   If—-and the thing is wildly possible—-t he charge of writing 
   nonsense were ever brought against the author of this brief but 
   instructive poem, it would be based, I feel convinced, on the line 

    ``Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes`` 

   In view of this painful possibility,  I will not (as I might) appeal 
   indignantly to my other writings as a proof that I am incapable of 
   such a deed: I will not (as I might) point to the strong moral 
   purpose of this poem itself, to the arithmetical  principles so 
   cautiously inculcated in it, or to its noble teachings in Natural 
   History—-I will take the more prosaic course of simply explaining 
   how it happened. 

   The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances,  
   used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be 
   revarnished,  and it more than once happened, when the time came for 
   replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the 
   ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to 
   appeal to the Bellman about it—-he would only refer to his Naval 
   Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions  which 
   none of them had ever been able to understand— -so it generally ended 
   in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman 
   used to stand by with tears in his eyes: he knew it was all wrong, 
   but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, ``No one shall speak to the Man at the 
   Helm``, had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words 
   ``and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one``. So remonstrance  
   was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next 
   varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals the ship usually 
   sailed backwards. 

    This office was usually undertaken by the Boots, who found in it 
   a refuge from the Baker`s constant complaints about the insufficient  
   blacking of his three pairs of boots. 

   As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the 
   Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that 
   has often been asked me, how to pronounce ``slithy toves``. The 
   ``i`` in ``slithy`` is long, as in ``writhe``; and ``toves`` is 
   pronounced so as to rhyme with ``groves``. Again, the first ``o`` in 
   ``borogoves` ` is pronounced like the ``o`` in ``borrow``. I have 
   heard people try to give it the sound of the ``o`` in ``worry``. 
   Such is Human Perversity. 

   This also seems a fitting occasion to notice the other hard words in 
   that poem. Humpty-Dumpt y`s theory, of two meanings packed into one 
   word like a portmanteau,  seems to me the right explanation for all. 

   For instance, take the two words ``fuming`` and ``furious``.  Make up 
   your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which 
   you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts 
   incline ever so little towards ``fuming``, you will say 
   ``fuming-fur ious``; if they turn, by even a hair`s breadth, towards 
   ``furious``,  you will say ``furious-fu ming``; but if you have that 
   rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 
   ``frumious`` . 

   Supposing that, when Pistol uttered the well-known words—- 

    ``Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!`` 

   Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or 
   Richard, but had not been able to settle which, so that he could not 
   possibly say either name before the other, can it be doubted that, 
   rather than die, he would have gasped out ``Rilchiam!` `. 


`Lewis Carroll`
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