Limericks

The origin of the term limerick, as applied to a particular form of humorous verse, cannot be established with any certainty. The theory most commonly proposed reputes it to be derived from a custom at convivial parties whereby each member sang an improvised nonsense verse, followed by a chorus containing the words “Will you come up to Limerick?” (Oxford English Dictionary). Both the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable mention the same supposed derivation, as well as the theory that the chorus in question was originally that of an 18th-century Irish soldiers' song. Brewer's correctly adds that there is [Page 451]no evidence that this is the case, and in fact there is nothing in the chorus supposedly sung in Limerick that fits either the meter or the pattern of the limerick verse form. It is probably safest to say that the origin of the term (while presumably connected in some way to the Irish town and county of Limerick) is unknown.

The true limerick form consists of five lines of anapaests (feet consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed) rhyming aabba, with two feet in the third and fourth lines (typically indented in written form) and three in the others. The earliest recorded examples are in The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women, published in London by John Harris in 1821. The following year Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen appeared, by an unknown author (possibly R. S. Sharpe). It included:

This book was apparently drawn to the attention of Edward Lear in 1831 while he was staying with friends, and he immediately saw this as an ideal form in which to exploit his gift for comic invention. The outcome was Lear's first collection of limericks, although he did not use that term: A Book of Nonsense was published in 1846 and attributed by him to “Derry down Derry”:

The reference to “little folks” indicates that the work was written for children.

Several more volumes of Lear's “nonsense verse” followed, the limericks often having as their subject an “Old Man” or “Old Person,” with an occasional variant such as “Young Lady” or “Young Person”:

Although many of Lear's limericks come across today as somewhat lacking in creativity (especially as their last line so closely approximates their first, save perhaps for the insertion of a fantastic invented word such as ombliferous), the verse form became extremely popular toward the turn of the 19th century, with limerick competitions often being held by magazines and business houses. By then, a major difference from Lear's limericks was that the last line, instead of being a near-repeat of the first, had in effect become the “punch line,” with a brand new and unexpected word providing the final rhyme.

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