Edward Lear
Edward Lear
1812-1825
Edward Lear was born in Highgate, 12 May. He was the twentieth child of Jeremiah Lear, a London stockbroker, and his wife Ann.
Four years after his birth, Jeremiah fell a defaulter in the Stock Exchange and the family had to abandon the fashionable life to which they were accustomed. Edward’s upbringing was entrusted to his sister Ann, twenty-one years his senior, and Mrs Lear had nothing more to do with it. Young Edward certainly resented his mother’s rejection, but found all the love he needed in Ann.
He was first attacked by what he called ‘the Demon’, epilepsy, when he was five or six, and a few years later ‘the Morbids’, sudden changes of mood with bouts of acute depression, began.
His early education was completely left to Ann and Sarah, another sister: beside the typical tuition books of the age they read to him classical tales and modern poetry (the Romantic poets), and taught him to draw, especially natural subjects.
c.1826
Lear’s father retires and as he cannot provide for his children, Edward, who still lives with Ann, begins to earn his living as an artist.
1830
Starts work on Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in June. The first two folios are published in November and immediately give him a reputation as an ornithological draughtsman; he is nominated as an Associate of the Linnean Society.
1831
Lear interrupts the series about the Psittacidae and begins a collaboration with John Gould (The Birds of Europe).
In October he wrote in a letter to Charles Empson also containing a sketch of himself:
This is amazingly like; add only – that both my knees are fractured from being run over which has made them very peculiarly crooked – that my neck is singularly long, a most elephantine nose – & a disposition to tumble here & there – owing to being half blind, & you may very well imagine my tout ensemble. (Selected Letters, p. 16)
1831 or 1832
Visits Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berne, and Berlin with Gould.
1832
Lear starts drawing the animals in the menagerie of Knowsley Hall for Lord Stanley.
1835
Travels to Ireland with Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, and his son Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, July-August. His interst turns to landscape painting.
1836
Walking tour in the Lake District, August-October. His eyesight and general health deteriorate.
1837
Sets out for Rome travelling via Belgium, Luxenburg, Germany, and Switzerland, July. Reaches Rome, December.
1838
Travels to southern Italy, May-August. Earliest oil painting, June.
1839
Walking tour towards Florence, May-October.
1841
Returns to England, spring. Publication of Views in Rome and its environs. Visits Scotland, September. Returns to Rome, December.
1842
Visits Sicily, April-May, and the Abruzzi, July-October.
1843
Returns to the Abruzzi, September-October.
1845
Meets Chichester Fortescue, April. Returns to England, May.
1846
Publication of Illustrated Excursions in Italy (2 vols.). Publication of first edition of A Book of Nonsense, using the pseudonym Derry Down Derry. Publication of Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall. Gives a series of twelve drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. Returns to Rome, December.
1847
Visits Sicily and southern Calabria and witnesses outbursts of revolution, May-October.
1848
Meets Thomas Baring, later Lord Northbrook, February. The state of Italy becomes more unsettled, and Lear leaves Rome, April. Travels via Malta to Corfu and the Ionian Islands, April-May. Visits Athens, Marathon, Thermophylae, and Thebes, where he is taken ill, June-July. Arrives in Costantinople, August. Travels across Greece and into Albania, September-December. Returns to Malta, and meets Fraanklin Lushington, December.
1849
Travels to Cairo, Suez, and Sinai, January-February. Returns to Malta, then sets out for southern Greece with F. Lushington, March. Travels in the Morea and visits Janina, Vale of Tempe, and Mount Olympus, March-July. Returns to England, July. Attends Sass’s School of Art to prepare drawings for entrance to the Royal Academy Schools, November-December.
1850
Accepted as a probationer, January, and as a full student, April. First picture accepted by the Royal Academy. By November he is working on his own again.
1851
Publication of Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, & c. Meets Alfred and Emely Tennyson.
1852
Introduced to Holman Hunt, who offers to teach him his own methods of painting, early summer. Lives with Hunt at Clive Vale, Hastings, and meets other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, July-December. He begins to gain confidence in oil painting, and conceives the plan of illustrating Tennyson’s poems. Publication of Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria.
1853
Publication of the first of his musical settings of Tennyson’s poems. Unable to cope any longer with the damp Englsh weather, he leaves to spend the winter in Egypt, December.
1854
Travels up the Nile as far as the first cataract, January-March. Returns to England, then visits Switzerland, August-October.
1855
Publication of the second edition of A Book of Nonsense. Accompanies Lushington to Corfu for the winter. Spending most of his time alone, he becomes lonely and depressed.
1856
Employs Giorgio Cocali, April. Travels via Albania and Greece to Mount Athos and Troy, August-October.
1857
Visits Albania, April. Returns to London for the summer, May, and to Corfu for the winter, November.
1858
Travels to Bethlehem, hebron, Petra, the Dead SEa, Jerusalem and Lebanon, March-June. Returns to England, August. Decides to winter in Rome.
1859
Returns to England in May, and spends most of the summer at St Leonards. Returns to Rome, December.
1860
To England, May. Begins work on large oil paintings of the Cedars of Lebanon and Masada at Oatlands Park Hotel, October.
1861
His sister Ann becomes ill, and dies 11 March. Visits Florence, May-August. Cedars of Lebanon exhibited in Liverpool and receives favourable reviews, September. Returns to winter again in Corfu, November. Publication of third edition of A Book of Nonsense under his own name, December.
1862
Cedars of Lebanon exhibited in the Great International Exhibition, March, but hung very high and not well received. Returns to England, May. leaves England for Corfu, November. Despite the increasing sales of the last ten years, he now realizes that his chances of becoming established are diminishing, and he works on his first group of Tyrants.
1863
Visits the other Ionian Islands, April-May. Returns to England, June. Publication of Views in the Seven Ionian Islands, December.
1864
Returns to Corfu, January. The island is ceded to the Greeks and he leaves for Athens and Crete, April. In London, June-November. Decides to winter in southern France and leaves England. Finds rooms in Nice, November.
1865
Writes the first of his Nonsense stories, The History of the Seven Families of the Lake Pipple-Popple, February.. Returns to England, April. Lady Waldergrave commissions a painting of Venice, and he travels there, November. Decides to winter in Malta, December.
1866
Returns to England, April. contemplates proposing marriage to Gussie Bethell, November. To Egypt, and travels down the Nile as far as Wadi Halfa, December-March.
1867
Visits Gaza and Jerusalem, then returns to England via Ravenna, June. Leaves to winter in Cannes, November. Writes the first of his Nonsense songs, The Owl and the Pussycat, December. The Cedars of Lebanon sold to Louisa, Lady Ashburton for £200, less than a third of its original price.
1868
Travels in Corsica, May-June, then returns to England until December. Leaves for Cannes, December.
1869
In Paris, working on plates for his book on Corsica, June-July. In London until December, when he returns to Cannes. Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica, the last of his travel books, published December.
1870
Decides to settle, and buys land in San Remo, March. Summer in Certosa del Pesio. Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets published, December.
1871
Moves into Villa Emily, March. More Nonsense published, December.
1872
Spends the summer in England, June-October. Sets out for India, but turns back at Suez, October. Foss the cat arrives, November.
1873
Leaves for India, October. Arrives Bombay, November.
1874
Travels in India and Ceylon.
1875
Leaves India, January. Summer in England, June-September.
1876
His last Nonsense book, Laughable Lyrics, published December.
1877
England, May-September. Brief visit to Corfu to see Giorgio who is ill, September.
1878
Summer, Monte Generoso, Switzerland. The land below his house is cleared for building, October.
1879
Lady Waldergrave dies, July. Summer, Monte Generoso.
1880
Buy new land for building, February. Last visit to England, April-August; Varese, Monte Generoso, September-October.
1881
Summer on Monte Generoso. Moves into Villa Tennyson, October.
1882
Summer in Monte Generoso.
1883
Summer in Monte Generoso. Giorgio Cocali dies, August.
1884
Villa Emily sold, February. Summer in Recoaro.
1885
Summer in Brianza.
1886
Spends some weeks in bed with bronchitis, January-April. John Ruskin places him at the head of his list of favourite authors in the Pall Mall Gazette, February. Makes his final repayment of debt for building Villa Tennyson, March.
1887
Abandons Tennyson-illustrations project as a failure. Foss dies, November.
1888
Dies in San Remo, 29 January.
A Bibliography of
Edward Lear’s Works
Nonsense
A Book of Nonsense, by Derry Down Derry,
London, Thomas McLean, 1846, 1855.
A Book of Nonsense, new and enlarged edition,
London, Warne & Routledge, 1861.
Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets,
London, Robert Bush, 1871.
More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc.,
London, Robert Bush, 1872.
Laughable Lyrics. A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, & c.,
London, Robert Bush, 1877.
Nonsense Songs and Stories, ed. Sir Edward Strachey,
London, Frederick Warne, 1895.
Queery Leary Nonsense, ed. Lady Strachey,
London, Mills & Boon, 1911.
The Lear Coloured Bird Book for Children, foreword by J. St. Loe Strachey,
London, Mills & Boon, 1912.
The Complete Nonsense Book, ed. Lady Strachey,
New York, Duffield & Company, 1912.
Facsimile of a Nonsense Alphabet Drawn and Written by Edward Lear,
London, Frederick Warne, 1926.
The Lear Omnibus, ed. R.L. Mégroz,
London, T. Nelson, 1938.
Lear in Sicily, ed. Granville Proby,
London, Duckworth, 1939?.
The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear, ed. Holbrook Jackson,
London, Faber & Faber, 1947.
A Nonsense Alphabet,
New York, Doubleday, 1952.
Teapots and Quails, ed. Angus Davidson and Philip Hofer,
London, John Murray, 1953.
A Drawing Book Alphabet,
Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard College Library, 1954.
Lear Alphabet ABC,
New York, McGraw-Hill, 1965.
Rhymes of Nonsense: An Alphabet,
London, Bertram Rota, 1968.
The New Vestments, drawings by Arnold Lobel,
London, Macmillan, 1971.
Ye Long Nite in ye Wonderfull Bedde,
Cambridge, Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1972.
St. Kiven and the Gentle Kathleen, ed. Donald Gallup,
New Haven, 1973.
A Book of Bosh, ed. Brian Alderson,
Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1975.
Lear in the Original, ed Herman W. Liebert,
New York, H.P. Kraus, 1975.
For Lovers of Birds, compiled by Vivien Noakes and Charles Lewsen,
London, Collins, 1978.
For Lovers of Cats, compiled by Vivien Noakes and Charles Lewsen,
London, Collins, 1978.
For Lovers of Flowers and Gardens, compiled by Vivien Noakes and Charles Lewsen,
London, Collins, 1978.
For Lovers of Food, compiled by Vivien Noakes and Charles Lewsen,
London, Collins, 1978.
Bosh and Nonsense,
London, Allen Lane, 1982.
The Tragical Life and Death of Caius Marius Esq.,
New York, Justin G. Schiller, 1983.
The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, illustrated by John Vernon Lord,
New York, Harmony Books, 1984.
Nonsensus. Comparing the 1846, 1855 and 1861 printed texts of 116 Edward Lear limericks to their original manuscripts, compiled by Justin G. Schiller, with an introduction by V. Noakes,
Stroud, Catalpa Press, 1988.
A New Nonsense Alphabet, ed. Susan Hyman,
London, Bloomsbury, 1988.
The New Vestments, illustrated by DeLoss McGraw,
New York, Simon & Schuster, 1995.
The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense, edited by Vivien Noakes, London, Penguin, 2001.
Translations
Nonsensi, scelta e libera traduzione di Renato Bellabarba
Roma, G. Bardi , 1961.
Il libro dei nonsense, Italian translation by Carlo Izzo,
Torino, Einaudi, 1970.
Poesie senza senso, illustrate da Luciana Roselli
Torino, Einaudi, 1972.
Nonsense Poems/Poèmes sans sens, French translation by Henri Parisot,
Paris, Aubier-Flammarion, 1974.
I limericks di Edward Lear, nella versione di Ottavio Fatica; con uno scritto di Mario Praz
Roma, Theoria, 1994.
Cartoons
The Owl and the Pussycat (1956)
Halas and Batchelor ; producer, John Halas ; director, Brian Borthwick.
New York, NY : Phoenix Films, 1981.
The owl and the pussycat ; and, Little birds
Deborah Healy.
New York, NY : Texture Films, 1980.
The Owl and the Pussycat
filmmakers, Robin E. Crist and Teresa Drilling.
West Henrietta, NY : R.E. Crist, 1983.
Zoological Illustrations
Illustrations of the Family of the Psittacidae, or Parrots,
London, R. Ackermann & E. Lear, 1832.
Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall, ed. E. Gray,
privately printed, 1846.
Edward Lear and Knowsley,
Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 1975.
The Birds of Edward Lear. A Selection of the Twelve Finest Plates of the Artist, ed. Adrian Thorpe,
London, The Ariel Press, 1975.
The Family of Parrots,
New York, American Museum of Natural History; San Francisco, Pomegranate Artbooks, 1997
Collaborations
The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society Delineated, ed. E.T. Bennet, vol. II, 1831.
John Gould, A Century of Birds from the Himalayan Mountains,
London, 1831.
Sir William Jardine & Prideaux John Selby, Illustrations of British Ornithology, vols III & IV, London, 1834.
John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans,
London, 1834.
The Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. I, London, 1835.
Thomas Bell, A Monograph of the Testudinata, London, 1832-1836. [CD-ROM facsimile edition, Octavo, 1999.
Thomas Bell, A History of British Quadrupeds, London, 1837.
John Gould, Birds of Europe, London, 1837.
T.C. Eyton, A Monograph of the Anatidae, or Duck Tribe, London, 1838.
The Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage, London, 1839.
The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle, ed. Charles Darwin, London, 1841.
The Naturalists Library, ed. Sir William Jardine, vols. IX & XVIII, London, 1843.
G.R. Gray, The Genera of Birds, vol. II, London, 1849.
James de Carle Sowerby, Tortoises, Terrapins and Turtles, London, Henry Sotheran, Joseph Baer & co, 1872 [reprinted Sowerby & Lear's Tortoises, terrapins, and turtles / with a new introduction by Ernest E. Williams, Athens, Ohio, Society for Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1970].
Journals and Travel
Views in Rome and Its Environs,
London, Thomas McLean, 1841.
Illustrated Excursions in Italy,
London, Thomas McLean, 1846.
Journals of a Landscape Painter in Greece and Albania, & c.,
London, Richard Bentley, 1851.
Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria, & c.,
London, Richard Bentley, 1852.
Views in the Seven Ionian Isles,
London, privately printed, 1863.
Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica,
London, Robert Bush, 1870.
Journals: A Selection, ed. H. van Tal,
London, Arthur Barker, 1952.
Indian Journal, ed. Ray Murphy,
London, Jarrolds, 1953.
Edward Lear in Southern Italy, introduction by Peter Quennell,
London, William Kimber, 1964.
Edward Lear in Greece, introduction by Peter Quennell,
London, William Kimber, 1965.
Lear’s Corfu, introduction by Lawrence Durrell,
Corfy, Corfu Travel, 1965
Edward Lear in Corsica, introduction by Peter Quennell,
London, William Kimber, 1966.
The Cretan Journal, edited by Rowena Fowler,
Athens, Denise Harvey & Company, 1984.
Edward Lear in the Levant. Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848-1849, compiled and edited by Susan Hyman,
London, John Murray, 1988.
Translations
Diario di un viaggio a piedi; Reggio Calabria e la sua provincia; 25 luglio-5 settembre 1847,
Reggio Calabria, Parallelo 38, 1973, 1976.
Viaggio illustrato nei tre Abruzzi : 1843-1844,
Sulmona, Tipografia Labor, 1974.
Viaggio in Basilicata (1847), traduzione di Vincenzo Pepe
Venosa, Osanna Venosa, 1984.
Diari di viaggio in Calabria e nel Regno di Napoli, traduzione di Giuseppe Isnardi; a cura di Graziella Cappello; postfazione di Margherita Isnardi Parente
Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1992.
Letters
Letters of Edward Lear, ed. Lady Strachey,
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1907.
Later Letters of Edward Lear, ed. Lady Strachey,
London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1911.
Selected Letters, ed. Vivien Noakes,
Oxford, Oford University Press, 1988.
Translations
Paesaggi mediterranei; lettere 1833-1858, a cura di Graziella Cappello
Milano, Archinto, 1990.
Lettere dall’Italia 1837-1887,
Catanzaro, Abramo, 1991.
Tennyson Music and Illustrations
Poems and Songs by Alfred Tennyson, set to music and inscribed to Mrs Alfred Tennyson by Edward Lear,
London, Cramer, Beale & Co., 1853.
Includes four settings: ‘Edward Gray’, ‘A Farewell’, ‘Tears, Idle Tears’, and ‘Sweet and Low’.
Poems and Songs by Alfred Tennyson, set to music and inscribed to Mrs Alfred Tennyson by Edward Lear,
London, Cramer, Beale & Co., 1859.
Reprints the first four settings and adds five new ones: ‘Home They Brought her Warrior Dead’, As through the Land at Eve We Went’, ‘Come Not When I am Dead’, ‘O Let the Solid Ground not Fail’, and ‘The Time Draws Near’.
Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Illustrated by Edward Lear,
Boussod, Valadon & Co., 1889.
Edward Lear’s Tennyson, with and Introduction and commentary by Ruth Pitman,
Manchester-New York, Carcanet, 1988.
The Daddy Long-legs
and the Fly
I
Once Mr. Daddy Long-legs,
Dressed in brown and gray,
Walked about upon the sands
Upon a sumer’s day;
And there among the pebbles,
When the wind was rather cold,
He met with Mr. Floppy Fly,
All dressed in blue and gold.
And as it was too soon to dine,
They drank some Periwinkle-wine,
And played an hour or two, or more,
At battlecock and shuttledore.
II
Said Mr. Daddy Long-legs
To Mr. Floppy Fly,
‘Why do you never come to court?
I wish you’d tell me why.
All gold and shine, in dress so fine,
You’d quite delight the court.
Why do you never go at all?
I really think you ought!
And if you went, you’d see such sights!
Such rugs! Such jugs! and candle-lights!
And more than all, the King and Queen,
One in red, and one in green!’
III
‘O Mr. Daddy Long-legs,’
Said Mr. Floppy Fly,
‘It’s true I never go to court,
And I will tell you why.
If I had six long legs like yours,
At once I’d go to court!
But oh! I can’t, because my legs
Are so extremely short.
And I’m afraid the King and Queen
(One in red, and one in green)
Would say aloud, “You are not fit,
You Fly, to come to court a bit!”‘
IV
‘O Mr. Daddy Long-legs,’
Said Mr. Floppy Fly,
‘I wish you’d sing one little song!
One mumbian melody!
You used to sing so awful well
In former days gone by,
But now you never sing at all;
I wish you’d tell me why:
For if you would, the silvery sound
Would please the shrimps and cockles round,
And all the crabs would gladly come
To hear you sing, “Ah, hum di Hum”!’
V
Said Mr. Daddy Long-legs,
‘I can never sing again!
And if you wish, I’ll tell you why,
Although it gives me pain.
For years I cannot hum a bit,
Or sing the smallest song;
And this the dreadful reason is,
My legs are grown too long!
My six long legs, all here and there,
Oppress my bosom with despair;
And if I stand, or lie, or sit,
I cannot sing one little bit!’
VI
So Mr. Daddy Long-legs
And Mr. Floppy Fly
Sat down in silence by the sea,
And gazed upon the sky.
They said, ‘This is a dreadful thing!
The world has all gone wrong,
Since one has legs too short by half,
The other much too long!
One never more can go to court,
Because his legs have grown too short;
The other cannot sing a song,
Because his legs have grown too long!’
VII
Then Mr. Daddy Long-legs
And Mr. Floppy Fly
Rushed downward to the foamy sea
With one sponge-taneous cry;
And there they found a little boat,
Whose sails were pink and gray;
And off they sailed among the waves,
Far, and far away.
They sailed across the silent main,
And reached the great Gromboolian plain;
And there they play for evermore
At battlecock and shuttledoor.
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