When I last posted news of essays on Edward Lear I forgot to mention the following I learned about from John Varriano’s essay:

Fiorentino, Emmanuel. “Edward Lear in Malta.” Proceedings of History Week 1984  (1986): 33-40. Available online as a pdf facsimile and as text.

Meanwhile, Peter Byrne has published an essay discussing Lear’s relationship with Alfred Tennyson:

Byrne, Peter. “Pursuing Tennyson in Tight Shoes.” Able Muse: A Review of Poetry, Prose & Art 16 (2013): 89-99. The journal is available online, but the article is not.

Which reminds me that Victorian Celebrity Culture and Tennyson’s Circle (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), by Charlotte Boyce, Páraic Finnerty and Anne-Marie Millim includes a chapter on the same subject:

Finnerty, Páraic. “‘This Is the Sort of Fame for Which I Have Given my Life’: G.F. Watts, Edward Lear and Portraits of Fame and Nonsense.” pp. 53-96. You can read part of the chapter on Google Books.

The same is true for “Professionals and Amateurs, Work and Play: William Rowan Hamilton, Edward Lear and James Clerk Maxwell,” chapter 1 of The Poetry of Victorian Scientists: Style, Science and Nonsense by Daniel Brown. Google Books.

Finally, you may find the following of interest: Three Principles Underlying Iconicity in Literature: The Poetics of Nonsense in Children’s and General Literature, by Daniel Kies.