A Blog of Bosh

Sentimental journey
THE idealised landscapes and saintly children of 19th century British watercolour painters are being cast in a different light in a new exhibition at Carrick Hill.
Natural Wonders: Visions of Home and Abroad, featuring 40 rarely seen paintings from the Art Gallery of South Australia, attempts to reach beyond surface interpretations of the works…
By the 1800s most landscapes were being painted for city audiences. Ideas of national identity, travel and topography are explored, the presence of Queen Victoria looms large and the exhibition contains a sketch by Edward Lear, who taught Queen Victoria watercolour painting.
The Advertiser | 25 August 2003

My Uncle Arly, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
Rather endearingly unhinged, this celebration of the work of the nonsense poet Edward Lear takes the audience on a journey through France and Italy and into places in the mind that no map could ever chart. It gets curiouser and curiouser as it creates a straitjacketed Victorian world and then shows that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
There is song, there is poetry, there is wordplay (oh for pizza in Pisa). And there are also huge puppet-like figures and some simple clowning and slapstick. Familiarity with the work of the author of The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and other nursery classics would certainly be a bonus, but it isn’t strictly necessary as long as you are prepared to leave reason and sanity behind and go with the flow.
A clever collaboration between physical-theatre company Hoipolloi and the children’s company Tiebreak, this is one of those shows that entirely defies categorisation. It is equally suitable for adults and children, and all it requires is an audience that is prepared to embrace the absurd.
Unlike Queen Victoria we were much amused in a gently entertaining way.
Guardian Unlimited | Arts reviews | 23 August 2003

Records to tumble at Tatton [flower] show
A show newcomer among 18 garden designers is Sarah Lynch, who has created the Owl and the Pussycat garden.
Sarah, 36, who lives in Cheshire, is taking part in a flower show for the first time and her entry promises to be one of the most theatrical designs this year.
Her garden for the Anthony Nolan Trust, supported by Cheshire Building Society, will provide visitors with a magical journey through Edward Lear’s verse of 1871, and incorporates the famous pea green boat.
ManchesterOnline – News

“Edward Lear’s Tribute to the Moon”
A humourous exchange providing a deep interpretation of Lear’s limerick on the Old Man of the Hague.
Google Groups

Excelsior
[H.W. Longfellow’s famous poem, Jams Thurber’s illustrated version, and a “Parody” attributed to Edward Lear. One of these days I am going to publish a scan of the manuscript, in the State Library of Victoria.]

Don’t be so beastly!
There was a time when you could sing, ‘I love little pussy, her coat is so warm’ without fear of innuendo. There was no pun intended when Edward Lear wrote, ‘O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love, what a beautiful Pussy you are.’ Puss or pussy has been the nursery term for a cat since the early 16th century. For almost as long, of course, it has also been used to denote sexual intercourse, a woman and female genitalia. (It is safe to assume, for example, that the toast, ‘Here’s a health to thee, to Pusse and to good company’, recorded in 1664, was not a tribute to Tibbles.) But not everyone was familiar with tavern slang, and pussy remained a term of endearment for women, as well as cats, well into the 19th century.
[This interesting articles will explain why searching for The Owl and the Pussy-cat with a child on your lap is not a good idea.]
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian