Limeryki/Pierwsze publikacje

Pierwsze publikacje

Pierwsza książka zawierająca ,,nonsensowne wiersze”, The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women, illustrated by as many engravings: exhibiting their Principal Eccentricities and Amusements, została wydana w Anglii przez wydawnictwo Harris and Son w 1820 roku, niestety nie jest znany autor tych wierszy.

    There was an Old Woman named Towl
    Who went out to Sea with her Owl,
       But the Owl was Sea-sick
       And scream'd for Physic;
    Which sadly annoy'd Mistress Towl.

Drugim wydanym zbiorem limeryków był Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen, którego to zbioru autorem był Richard Scrafton Sharpe zaś ilustracje przypisuje się Robertowi Cruikshankowi. Książka została wydana w 1821 roku. To właśnie z tego zbioru pochodzi jeden z popularniejszych wierszy: There was a sick man of Tobago:

    There was a sick man of Tobago,
    Liv'd long on rice-gruel and sago;
       But at last to his bliss,
       The physician said this --
    "To a roast leg of mutton you may go."

który w tłumaczeniu Barańczaka brzmi następująco:

    Pewien starszy mężczyzna z Tobago
    Jadł wyłącznie ryż, kaszę i sago;
       Widząc, że nie polepsza
       Mu się, lekarz rzekł: "Z wieprza
    Kotlet usmaż i zjedz go, łamago!"

A później już poszło z górki... W latach 20. XIX wieku limeryki pojawiły się jeszcze w kilku książkach dla dzieci, m.in. w: Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Young Ladies,, Little Rhymes for Little Folks, John Harris, Londyn 1823, A Peep at the Geography of Europe, E. Marshall, Londyn 1824, zaś pierwsza edycja A Book of Nonsense Leara ukazała się w 1846 roku. Co ciekawe, wszystkie te książki wydane zostały w Anglii. Pierwsze publikacje za oceanem pojawiły się dopiero w latach 60. XIX wieku.

U schyłku dziewiętnastego stulecia wielu znanych pisarzy pozwalało sobie na pisanie w tej formie. Zdolności Williama S. Gilberta ukazały się w szeregu limeryków, które w 1877 roku zostały zapisane przez Sir Arthura Sullivana jako pieśń The Sorcerer’s Song w operze The Sorcerer:

    Oh! My name is John Wellington Wells -
    I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
    In blessings and curses,
    And ever-filled purses,
    In prophecies, witches, and knells!
    If you want a proud foe to make tracks -
    If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax -
    You've but to look in
    On our resident Djinn,
    Number seventy, Simmery Axe!

    We've a first-class assortment of magic;
    And for raising a posthumous shade
    With effects that are comic or tragic,
    There's no cheaper house in the trade.
    Love-philtre - we've quantities of it;
    And for knowledge if any one burns,
    We keep an extremely small prophet, a prophet
    Who brings us unbounded returns:

    For he can prophesy
    With a wink of his eye,
    Peep with security
    Into futurity,
    Sum up your history,
    Clear up a mystery,
    Humour proclivity
    For a nativity.
    With mirrors so magical,
    Tetrapods tragical,
    Bogies spectacular,
    Answers oracular,
    Facts astronomical,
    Solemn or comical,
    And, if you want it, he
    Makes a reduction on taking a quantity!

    Oh! If anyone anything lacks,
    He'll find it all ready in stacks,
    If he'll only look in
    On the resident Djinn,
    Number seventy, Simmery Axe!

    He can raise you hosts,
    Of ghosts,
    And that without reflectors;
    And creepy things
    With wings,
    And gaunt and grisly spectres!
    He can fill you crowds
    Of shrouds,
    And horrify you vastly;
    He can rack your brains
    With chains,
    And gibberings grim and ghastly.
    Then, if you plan it, he
    Changes organity
    With an urbanity,
    Full of Satanity,
    Vexes humanity
    With an inanity
    Fatal to vanity -
    Driving your foes to the verge of insanity.
    Barring tautology,
    In demonology,
    'Lectro biology,
    Mystic nosology,
    Spirit philology,
    High class astrology,
    Such is his knowledge, he
    Isn't the man to require an apology

    Oh! My name is John Wellington Wells -
    I'm a dealer in magic and spells,
    In blessings and curses,
    And ever-filled purses -
    In prophecies, witches, and knells.
    If any one anything lacks,
    He'll find it all ready in stacks,
    If he'll only look in
    On the resident Djinn,
    Number seventy, Simmery Axe!

A oto inne limeryki Gilberta, zaczerpnięte z The Wordsworth Book of Limericks, ed. Linda Marsh, 1997:

    I shall, with cultured taste,
    Distinguish gems from paste,
       And `High diddle diddle'
       Will rank as an idyll
    If I pronounce it chaste!

    Of Agib, who amid Tartaric scenes,
    Wrote a lot of ballet music in his teens;
       His gentle spirit rolls
       In the melody of souls --
    Which is pretty, but I don't know what it means.

    There was a professor named Chesterton,
    Who went for a walk with his best shirt on.
       Being hungry, he ate it,
       But lived to regret it,
    And ruined his life for his digestion.