[Ads-l] Limerick song, 1875

[Jonathan Lighter]

Too good to be true? Maybe not.

1866 _The Bulletin_ (Norwich, Conn.) (Nov. 8) 2 [Newspapers.com]:  ROW ON
THE PROVIDENCE ROAD. - On the old Providence pike Tuesday night Pat
McNamara was wending his weary way homeward, when in passing the suburban
residence of Pat Divine it came over him that he had an old grudge against
Pat and to express his opinion of him, he commenced a "Limerick song." As
Divine...comes up from Limerick, this made him mad, and he went out and
expressed his opinion to that bloody boy McNamara....McNamara was found
guilty of a breach of peace and was fined $2 and costs."

 JL

On Wed, Jun 25, 2025 at 10:24 AM Stephen Goranson <
0000179d4093b2d6-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> I had thought to present the "come to Limerick" (settle, come to terms)
> uses that are associated with the US Civil War, starting shortly before the
> shooting began, but there are too many to fit into a post. For starters,
> all three examples in HDAS are directly connected to that Civil War, using
> Limerick as a treaty reference to an earlier war in Ireland. And many more
> could be cited.
> So I'm flummoxed that Bob Turvey's new book, Why Are Limericks Called
> Limericks?, denies any connection to what he calls the "Williamite War" of
> William and Mary!
>
> The relationship of this phrase to the later-attested game is not yet
> fully documented. I think the game started in the US; Turvey thinks it
> started in England.
>
> Here's a potential antedating of the song—in the US. (The song may have
> existed before the game.)
> Sept. 2, 1875 (newspapers.com), The Jeffersonian, Stroudsburg, Monroe.
> PA, page 2/1
>
> It is very "onpleasant" for a young man to fall over wheel-barrows, milk
> pots, slop buckets, &c., when trying to steal an interview with his
> sweetheart. He took it good naturedly, however, for he came out singing,
> "O, won't you come down to Limerick."
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
> Background, "Limerick Poems and Civil Wars"
> https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31647
>
> My view on a different linguistic battleground:
> "What, Exactly, Did Josephus Write About Jesus? (That Is, If He Did
> Mention Jesus)"
>
> https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-exactly-did-josephus-write-about.html
> [
> https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpiJUgsAU6Why4RnDJF_Kf1MVDvERfTRo4MjShG7ultrS21cITRMXrOn8UpVPIfFnduEf3c6haOVX2r1s95Db62m0w-ogcHcazNIeLGtmjn3SBysuvB_yFdBHcYOJQo0U_pO5IvmwOpIPxqphu-ECgrSaREUk5CwVLAujyscKz3cmR5BXVD8AFEA/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/61hWjaliweL.jpg
> ]<
> https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-exactly-did-josephus-write-about.html
> >
> NT Blog: What, Exactly, Did Josephus Write About Jesus? Guest Post by
> Stephen Goranson - ntweblog.blogspot.com<
> https://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-exactly-did-josephus-write-about.html
> >
> Two new books address this question, whether Flavius Josephus, who wrote
> Antiquities of the Jews, or Judean Antiquities, in about the year 94 of the
> first century CE, mentioned Jesus of Nazareth.This most famous portion of
> his book eventually came to be called the Testimonium Flavianum, often
> abbreviated as the TF.Both books conclude that Josephus did indeed mention
> this Jesus, though they ...
> ntweblog.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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