[Ads-l] a "won't you come up to Limerick" proposed event, 1879

[Jonathan Lighter]

"LImerick rhyme" is the missing link! Congratulations on unearthing it,
Stephen!

I'm struck by the word "erotic."  The sub rosa magazine "The Pearl" was
being published in 1879 and included erotic limericks under the rubric of
"Nursery Rhymes."

JL

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 4:39 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> And, a few days later, comes news of another, slightly later, 1879
> relevant usage. From Doug Harris:
>
> The Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduate's Journal, Thurs, Nov. 20, 1879,
> 110/2:
>
> [...]nobody can be sulky when the songs have begun...and when every soul
> has contributed his humble mite to that great resource of inventive
> talent--the Limerick rhymes."
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
>
> https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Hh8PAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA110&dq=%22limerick+rhymes%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNn66FydLsAhWmUxUIHbgNA1oQ6AEwAnoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=%22limerick%20rhymes%22&f=false
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, October 24, 2020 12:16 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: a "won't you come up to Limerick" proposed event, 1879
>
> Sporting Notes (also sometimes called The Pink 'un), London, issue 805,
> Sat. Feb. 22, 1879, 1/2:
>
> Labby, love, doesn't it seem to you that your acquaintance with nursery
> rhymes of an erotic character is very great? Because it does to us. You
> would be a good man at roundabout. You had better bring over all your staff
> (except Miss Cobbe) here some fine Friday, and we will have a won't you
> come up, come up, oh, won't you come up to Limerick, oh, won't you come up,
> come up, oh _won't_ you come to Limerick, of a high order. We'll have that
> Bishop who maligned you in the _Guardian_ in the chair.
>
> S. Goranson
>
> Recall, among others, 1880 uses noted here of:
>
>
> There was a young rustic named Mallory
>
> Who earned but a very poor salary.
>
> He went to the show,
>
> But his purse was so
>
> That he sat in the uppermost gallery.
>
> Tune: wont you come [up] to Limerick
>
>
> and
>
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31647__;!!OToaGQ!5Zyh7DmVTVMO0t7ZmS1Mp9fVv2kqurJJ-WUe6JLAbQFZoTHO-3n5C_psKefdFBMX$
> Language Log » Limerick Poems and Civil Wars<
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31647__;!!OToaGQ!5Zyh7DmVTVMO0t7ZmS1Mp9fVv2kqurJJ-WUe6JLAbQFZoTHO-3n5C_psKefdFBMX$
> >
> 26 Comments Robert Coren said, March 18, 2017 @ 9:42 am In my personal
> opinion, the limerick cited at the head of this article would scan slightly
> better (and make a little more sense, if anyone cares) if the fourth line
> were "But his purse was so low".
> languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu
>
>
>
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