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to Nonsense
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The Edinburgh
Companion
to Nonsense
Edited by Anna Barton and James Williams
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© editorial matter and organisation Anna Barton and James Williams, 2022
© the chapters their several authors, 2022
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Companionable Nonsense 1
Anna Barton and James Williams
Part I: Notes towards a History of English Nonsense
1. Buba, Blictrix, Bufbaf: Medieval Theory and Practice of Nonsense 13
Jordan Kirk
2. ‘The Best Fooling’: Every Man Out of His Humour,
Twelfth Night, and Early Modern English Nonsense Games 31
Rebecca L. Fall
3. Nonsense in the Age of Reason 47
Freya Johnston
4. ‘The Light of Sense | Goes Out’: Romantic Poetry and
Victorian Nonsense Poetry 60
Peter Swaab
5. Victorian Nonsense and Its Kinships 81
Martin Dubois
6. Shady Pleasures: Modernist Nonsense 98
Noreen Masud
7. Mid-Century Nonsense and Destructive Mockery 114
Adam Piette
Part II: Global Nonsenses
8. In Search of Ancient Greek Nonsense 129
Sara Chiarini
vi contents
9. Traditional Moorings, Modern Practices: Indian Literary Nonsense 145
Sumanyu Satpathy
10. Signs and Wonders: Two Approaches to Nonsense in Russia 163
James Rann
11. ‘What’s the French for fiddle-de-dee?’: Nonsense in French 182
Alexandra Lukes
12. Italian Nonsense: Tradition, Translation, Translocation,
Transcodification (and a Trinity) 199
Alessandro Giammei
Part III: Contexts and Connections
13. English ‘hibber-gibber’ and the ‘jargon of France’:
Rabelaisian Nonsense in Translation 217
Hugh Roberts
14. Musical Foundations of Nonsense 231
Michael Heyman
15. Doubtful Girls and Silly Women: Nonsense and Gender 247
Anna Barton
16. Queer Nonsense: Query? 264
Hugh Haughton
17. Humans, and Other Nonsense Animals 281
Cassie Westwood
18. Nonsense Among the Philosophers 300
Michael Potter
19. ‘Word beyond Speech’: Nonsense and the Sacred 311
James Williams
Notes on Contributors 325
Index 327
List of Illustrations
Figure 4.1 Edward Lear, ‘There was an old Derry down Derry’, A Book
of Nonsense (London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1846;
18th edn, 1866), title page. 68
Figure 4.2 Edward Lear, ‘There was a Young Lady whose bonnet’,
A Book of Nonsense (London: 1861), p. 5. 71
Figure 4.3 E dward Lear, ‘There was an Old Person of Bree’, More
Nonsense: Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc (London: 1872), n.p. 71
Figure 4.4 Edward Lear, ‘There was an Old Man of Kildare’,
A Book of Nonsense (London: 1855), n.p. 72
Figure 4.5 Edward Lear, ‘There was an Old Person of Spain’, A Book
of Nonsense (London: 1871), p. 90. 73
Figure 4.6 Edward Lear, ‘There was an Old Person of Grange’, More
Nonsense: Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc (London: 1872), n.p. 74
Figure 4.7 Edward Lear, ‘There was an Old Man whose despair’, More
Nonsense: Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc (London: 1872), n.p. 74
Figure 4.8 E dward Lear, ‘There was an Old Man of Messina’, More
Nonsense: Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc (London: 1872), n.p. 75
Figure 4.9 Edward Lear, ‘There was an Old Man of Dunluce’, More
Nonsense: Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, Etc (London: 1872), n.p. 76
Figure 5.1 Edward Lear, ‘There was an Old Man of Cape Horn’,
Edward Lear, A Book of Nonsense, 25th edn (London:
Frederick Warne & Co., 1885), p. 54. 88
Figure 11.1 ‘ Le plongeoir de Narcisse’, Mots sans mémoire. Simulacre.
Le Point Cardinal. Glossaire j’y serre mes gloses. Bagatelles
végétales. Marrons sculptés pour Miró (Paris: Gallimard, 1969),
p. 115. 192
Figure 12.1 Giulia Niccolai, ‘Senses Do Sound!’ and ‘He Might Bite
p. 121’, from Humpty Dumpty (Turin: Geiger, 1969),
pp. 13–4, artisanal Linotype on paper, 11x15cm. 207
Figure 12.2 Giulia Niccolai, ‘The Table Was a Large One p. 93’ and
‘The Cheshire Cat’s Grin p. 83’, from Humpty Dumpty
(Turin: Geiger, 1969), pp. 24–5, artisanal Linotype and
xeroxed Letraset print on paper, 11x15cm. 208
Figure 12.3 G iulia Niccolai, ‘To Bounce p. 241’ and ‘Humpty
Dumpty p. 261’, from Humpty Dumpty (Turin: Geiger, 1969),
pp. 31–2, xeroxed Letraset print on paper, 11x15cm. 208
viii list of illustrations
Figure 14.1 from John Stump’s String Quartet No. 556(b) for Strings In
A Minor (Motoring Accident) (1997). 235
Figure 14.2 John Hoskyns, Coryat’s Crudites, ed. Thomas Coryat
(Glasgow: James MacLehose and sons, [1611] 1901), p. 58. 240
Figure 14.3 John Hoskyns, Coryat’s Crudites, ed. Thomas Coryat
(Glasgow: James MacLehose and sons, [1611] 1901), p. 59. 240
Acknowledgements
Our sincere thanks to all those friends and colleagues whose advice, friendship
and inspiration we have drawn upon at different points in the planning, com-
missioning, writing and editing of this book. Thanks to Ersev Ersoy and the team at
Edinburgh University Press for their expert guidance and patience. We are also
indebted to Marco Graziosi for his swift and generous response to requests for help
obtaining a number of the illustrations included in this volume. And thanks, as ever, to
our families, especially Brian King and Iain Kee Vaughan, for their care and support.
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders, but if any have been
inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrange-
ments at the first opportunity.
