Limerick (poem) slightly antedated to Nov. 20, 1880

[Stephen Goranson]

Previously, I posted an antedating of Limerick (poem) to Nov. 30 (Tuesday), 1880.


http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1002A&L=ADS-L&P=R2104&I=-3&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=qUcmZB5y_30C&dat=18801130&printsec=frontpage&hl=en


Here is a very similar (though not identical) text from Saturday Nov. 20, 1880, from Grip [Toronto, weekly] v. 16 n.1 p.1 col. 2.:


"There was a young rustic named MALLORY, who drew but a very small salary. When he went to the show, his purse made him go to a seat in the uppermost gallery.--New York News. Tune, Wont you come up to Limerick."


The texts before and after this quoted paragraph are largely the same in both publications.


Differences, compared to the Nov. 30 version, include that the Nov. 20 version

1) Has "the" before "show" (which Nov. 30 lacks)

2) Has "up" before "to Limerick" (which Nov. 30 lacks)

3) has an attribution to "New York News" (which Nov. 30 lacks), indicating further possible antedating.


This may accord with my proposal that the English verse form got its Irish name in America.


http://books.google.com/books?id=Sm0-AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA39&dq=%22you+come+up+to+limerick%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oX0bU6GqGYmj0gG_h4DIAg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22you%20come%20up%20to%20limerick%22&f=false


Stephen Goranson

http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

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