[Ads-l] "a young lady of Riga" Limerick--an earlier precursor?

[Stephen Goranson]

Today I reviewed at amazon a new book by Bob Turvey,
The Young Lady of Riga: The Limerick. The Legend.
It's brief; here it is:

This episode of Limerick expert and devotee Dr. Bob Turvey's learned series
focuses on what may be the most famous such poem. He has traced it back to
January, 1887, but suspects it was written earlier than that. And by whom?
Game on. This is an entertaining survey of research, correcting many false
leads and dead ends.

Now, Riga in Latvia no doubt includes many young ladies. But this one is
fictional. One possible precursor that the book missed appeared in many
newspapers in 1873. Here's that story:

A young lady from Riga came to town the other day to have her picture
taken. When the artist showed her the "proof," and asked her how she liked
it, she placidly remarked that he "put too darned much mouth on it to suit
her."

Is that relevant? Maybe, maybe not, but it is closer to possible relevance
than various other proposals covered in the book. And this may touch on our
one disagreement. I take it that the English verse form got its name in
America. Turvey says in England. For what it's worth, these "young lady
from Riga" stories were first and often printed in the US rather than in
the UK.

~~~~~~
In semi-related arcane news, R. Morton Smith wrote unpublished limericks
according to a 1992 obit by Calder. Rabbit hole info here:
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=197353#p197353

Stephen

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