backwards.
As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the
Jabberwock, let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has
often been asked me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy"
is long, as in "writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with
"groves." Again, the first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the "o"
in "borrow." I have heard people try to give it the sound of the "o" in
"worry. Such is Human Perversity.
This also seems a fitting occasion to notice the other hard works in
that poem. Humpty-Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word
like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all.
For instance, take the two words "fuming" and "furious." Make up your
mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will
say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so
little towards "fuming," you will say "fuming-furious;" if they turn, by
even a hair's breadth, towards "furious," you will say "furious-fuming;"
but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will
say "frumious."
Supposing that, when Pistol uttered the well-known words -
"Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!"
Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or
Richard, but had not been able to settle which, so that he could not
possibly say either name before the other, can it be doubted that, rather
than die, he would have gasped out "Rilchiam!"
Fit the First THE LANDING