2015年12月10日 星期四

Seek It with a Thimble


Howard Chang


本文發表於Knight Letter 
(Lewis Carroll Society of North America會刊)
第92期

A Mysterious Life
It seems Lewis Carroll’s life will remain a partial mystery. He could have been an ideal subject for biographers because he kept diaries for much of his working life. But four volumes of his diaries disappeared and ten individual pages[1] were removed by unknown hands from the nine surviving volumes after his death. However, a life full of controversial possibilities appears to be more intriguing to some biographers (and some of readers).  
Much of the mystery of Lewis Carroll turns upon a single missing diary page, which covers June 27-29, 1863, a page which might involve the subsequent deterioration of the once happy and intimate relationship between Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family into and a colder and remoter one. Some researchers claim that the details and reasons of this change of relationship were recorded in this vital page, and that the sensitivity of the incident had called for a drastic operation by one or more unknown hands in Lewis Carroll’s family. One lingering theory about the contents of the page posits Carroll’s intention to marry Alice Liddell. Edward Wakeling[2] — who himself dismisses all such theories — summarizes the general situation thus:
So where did the myth that Dodgson wanted to marry Alice Liddell come from? Alexander Taylor suggested that Dodgson was in love with Alice and contemplated marriage (The White Knight, pp. 152, 198). Anne Clark carried this further and concluded that Dodgson did want to marry Alice (Lewis Carroll: A Biography, pp. 142-144). Morton Cohen is more cautious when he reported the alleged marriage proposal (Lewis Carroll, A Biography, pp. 100-101). Although at one time supporting the idea, he has since modified his views. Langford Reed went out on a limb and said that Dodgson was in love with Ellen Terry, but produced no evidence to substantiate his claim. Newspaper reports indicated that he was in love with Violet Liddell, Alice’s sister, but newspaper reports are invariably wrong. Marriage came there none. Dodgson never discussed marriage in his letters to friends and he made no such feelings known in his diaries. There simply is no evidence to support the notion that he wanted to marry Alice, or anyone else if it comes to that.
The Cut Pages in Diary
With the absence of any further evidence, there the matter remained until Karoline Leach[3], while researching a book, “came across a small piece of paper, tucked away among a mass of Dodgson family records in the archive at Guildford. About five inches by three, torn rather inaccurately from what appears to be an account book, written on this tatty scrap was, apparently, an answer to one of the most haunting of literary mysteries — the cause of Lewis Carroll’s break with the family of Alice Liddell in the summer of 1863…” One side of the paper scrap is headed ‘Cut Pages in Diary’ and summarizes the contents of three pages, the second entry of which concerns Volume Eight, page 92 (should be 91) of the missing page of the crucial days. It reads:
“L.C. learns from Mrs Liddell that he is supposed to be using the children as a means of paying court to the governess - He is also supposed [unreadable] to be courting Ina.
The unreadable portion probably says by some” as interpreted by Leach and other researchers. In 1863, Lewis Carroll was thirty-one, Alice eleven, the governess thirty, Ina fourteen, but Mrs. Liddell was also nicknamed Ina, she was thirty-seven.
Edward Wakeling supplemented the contents of the tatty scrap by noting that “Dodgson cross-referenced this entry with the rumor about the governess, Miss Prickett, which had occurred on 17 May 1857 (which was not removed).” And Karoline Leach notes that “On April 17 1863, Dodgson comments on her [Ina’s] precocious development (she is growing ‘so tall’), and notes for the first time that Mrs. Liddell has insisted on a chaperone. Is this a sign that the mother was becoming suspicious of the exact nature of the relationship between this man and her daughter?”
In her other article “Who Mutilated Lewis Carroll’s Diaries?[4], Karoline Leach claims that:
[t]his document seems to have been written out by Lewis Carroll’s niece Violet Dodgson, with additions by Menella, around the time of the centenary of his birth in 1932,the notes were made before the pages were removed. Violet must have gone through the diary noting the pages to be cut and summarising their most important contents. Later she changed her mind about one and allowed it to remain.
Other researchers strongly disagree with Leach’s theories on several critical points: in particular, the note’s author, motives and timing. While we may assume “The Cut Pages in Diary” document is authentic, it presents further problems for the following reasons:
-        Why would “these people” take the trouble to cut out a page that contains similar information permitted to survive in other places of the diary? Is it possible that something more serious was hidden?
-        Was Miss Prickett mature enough to handle a courtship? Did she need the protective umbrella of the Liddells? Was it reasonable for a Victorian family to cut ties with a friend, proven to be a happy companion to the children, just because of a rumor relating to an employee in the household?
-        Was the supposed break Mrs. Liddell’s decision, who as a mother, had more reason to protect her daughter than the governess? But the document might suggest that Ina is a less important cause for the break. Why?
More suspiciously, the scrap paper totally excludes Alice from this incident, but the belief that Carroll was in love with Alice still hover above the Carrollean horizon. Since all documents relating to Carroll and Alice have been exhaustively searched and researched by Carrollean experts, it does not seem possible that any new evidence will ever come to light, except maybe when we see them from a new angle.

A Hidden Message
A new evidence may have come in the form of non-verbal. As a result of my research for the publication of my Chinese translation and annotation of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, I noticed a message from Lewis Carroll might have been hidden in Chapter III of the book even before its publication:
‘But she must have a prize herself, you know,’ said the Mouse.
‘Of course,’ the Dodo replied very gravely. ‘What else have you got in your pocket?’ he went on, turning to Alice.
‘Only a thimble,’ said Alice sadly.
‘Hand it over here,’ said the Dodo.
Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying ‘We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble’; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered.
The magic of this episode will not come into play unless we compare the text with the illustration—in the text, the speaking roles are the Mouse, the Dodo and Alice, but in the illustration, the figures in the center are the Duck, the Dodo and Alice. The shifting of characters indicates a certain maneuvering process might have taken place.
The Mouse, “who seemed to be a person of some authority” as described in the story, plays a key role in Chapter III. He told a “driest” story to the queer-looking party at the beginning of the chapter, and ended the chapter with a “long and sad tale.” In addition, he was the one who suggested that Alice “must have a prize herself” to which the Dodo obeyed. On the other hand, Carroll did not seem to intend the Duck to play any important role than asking a stupid question, “Found what?” to the Mouse. But in the illustration, which depicts the moment almost immediately following the Mouse’s suggestion, the Mouse is found having been moved to the background, squeezing among other animals in the background, seemingly rather out of place, while the Duck suddenly appears in the center of the stage and assumes the most prominent position.
It was unlikely that John Tenniel would venture to initiate a change in the arrangement of the story without the permission of Lewis Carroll. As a faithful illustrator, his earlier sketch might have featured the Mouse standing in the middle to chair the ceremony, possibly in imitation of a school master observing a prize award presentation in a sports event. But with the sharp eyes of a photographer, Lewis Carroll might have discovered the layout of the illustration bore striking similarity to the highlight of a wedding ceremony. And as an adept punster, he may have come up with a brilliant idea to make the illustration a well-designed pun. So he had possibly instructed Tenniel to replace the Mouse with the Duck, activating the pun in a graphic form.
Some knowledge of Tenniel’s practice in producing an illustration may help us to see how the process started. According to Edward Wakeling[5], “Tenniel probably began with a rough sketch or sketches on paper for each picture[,]” which he showed or mailed to Carroll for approval before proceeding to the next step. One of the few surviving letters from Sir John Tenniel to Lewis Carroll on June 1, 1870[6] in discussion of the train carriage scene in Chapter II of “Through the Looking-Glass” may serve as a good example of this process. For the benefit of Carroll, Tenneil explained under his proposed sketch, “Interior of Railway carriage (1st Class). Alice on seat by herself. Man in white papers reading, & Goat - very shadowy & indistinct - sitting opposite. Guard (with opera glass) looking in at windows.”
Rearrangement of characters was not unusual for John Tenniel in the course of illustration preparation, which generally takes place after a sketch has been decided:
Then he would make a drawing on tracing paper of the outline and by moving this around he could make some alterations to the overall design at this stage, should this be necessary. For example, a character might be moved into a different position which probably happened with the ape in the "Dodo and the Thimble illustration."[7]
But this is more than a pun. This is a cleverly disguised testimony of his ardent wish to marry Alice, drawn but not written, expressed not by himself but by Tenniel, who might never be in the known. An understanding of the duality of the creatures in the story will enable us to see the stunning illusion effect of the illustration. When we see the Duck itself in the illustration, we see the funny thimble presentation ceremony which so many readers have enjoyed for the past 150 years; but if we see the Duck as the Reverend Robinson Duckworth in real life, we can see a parson officiating at a wedding ceremony, with the bride (Alice) on the right, receiving a wedding ring (the thimble) from the groom (Dodgson the Dodo) on the left, her sisters Lorena and Edith (the Lory and the Eaglet) standing behind her, and the families from Charles, Fanny and Elizabeth (“several other curious creatures”) behind the Dodo. The arrangement of the characters perfectly conforms to what we usually find in a wedding ring exchange ceremony.

The twinkling of the thimble
Reading the Alice books is much like a treasure hunt experience; the whole journey is full of joy and surprises. Lewis Carroll is such a genius game master that a never-known number of objects were hidden, or more frequently transformed, in his books, but not without leaving some faint clues to the observant eyes and imaginative minds. When I took to translate and annotate the Chinese Wonderland, this realization became even stronger. I must emphasize that my annotation is not a direct translation of Martin Gardner’s “The Annotated Alice,” but a combination of materials from the work of Gardner as well as other annotated Alice books, together with my own researches and discoveries. As a result, some new discoveries of mine are known only to the Chinese readers. The topic of “thimble” may be a good example to illustrate the difference between Gardner’s annotations and mine. His annotation on thimble did not sound convincing to me when he wrote:
The thimble, taken from Alice and then returned to her, may symbolize the way government take taxes from the pockets of citizens, then return the money in the form of political projects. [8]
By instinct or with my understanding of Lewis Carroll, I had a vague notion that the thimble should have something to do with the life of the Victorian children. So after some search on internet, I came up with my own annotation, and the English translation of which is as follows:
Thimbles were not unfamiliar with the Victorian young girls, as they had to learn needle works at a very early age, some started when they were only four. Besides, “Find the thimble” is a parlor game popular in the Victorian era. All players are requested to leave the room before a thimble is hidden. The thimble should be so hidden that it is fairly difficult but not impossible to find. Once the thimble is hidden, all the players are called back into the room to look for it. The one first to find is the winner. The thimble that Alice finds in her pocket may be a trophy from a previous game she participated. [9]
Gardner’s annotation on the thimble-presentation illustration did not interest me either:
In the drawing of this scene Tenniel was forced to put human hands under the Dodo’s small, degenerate wings. How else could it hold a thimble?
Struck by a sudden idea which drew my attention to the similarity between a thimble and a wedding ring, I wrote down my Chinese annotation and the translated of it is as follow:
…If we see the thimble as a wedding ring, the scene will virtually become a wedding ceremony in the form of a playing house. As a parson in real life, the Duck stands in the middle where the officiant of a wedding is supposed to be situated, and Carroll (the Dodo) and Alice stand respectively in the exact position of the groom and the bride. Two sisters of the bride, the Lory and the Eaglet, unmistakably stand behind her and those behind the groom are the “queer creatures” that come from Carroll’s family. The ceremony begins with the Caucus Race, and concludes with the treatment of comfits, followed with an entertainment of story telling. All the arrangement and procedures resemble closely a formal wedding.
More than three years after the publication of my Chinese annotated Wonderland, I ventured to write an e-mailed to Clare Imholtz, LCSNA Secretary, on the first day of 2014 when I was taking a vacation in the US. I was almost immediately informed that the alleged wedding illusion had never been discussed, to the knowledge of her and her husband. So I decided to bring my bold assumption to the knowledgeable judgment of the Carrolleans. As you can see, this article is an elaboration of my earlier annotations.
Lewis Carroll’s infamous stanza in The Hunting of the Snark comes almost as a prophetical hint to this discovery:
“ ‘You may seek it with thimbles — and seek it with care;
You may hunt it with forks and hope;
You may threaten its life with a railway-share;
You may charm it with smiles and soap —’
Yes, I think we have found it with the thimble. The “it” is not a frog or a worm, as known to the Duck, but a secrete message of Carroll’s that has been carefully laid “where Childhood’s dreams are twined” by the joint efforts of Lewis Carroll and his illustrator between 1864-65 when they were working together for the realization of AAIW.

Acknowledgement
My sincere appreciation to Clare Imholtz, who encouraged me to write this article and enthusiastically offered help to look for information that I needed when I am away from Taiwan and are urgently in want of books for reference. Interested readers can contact me at chahwa@gmail.com.




[1]The Lewis Carroll Society “Charles Dodgson’s Diaries: The Missing Pages” http://lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk/pages/aboutcharlesdodgson/diaries/pages.html  (Access on Jan 12, 2014)
[2] Wakeling, Edward (April 2003). "The Real Lewis Carroll / A Talk given to the Lewis Carroll Society". http://www.wakeling.demon.co.uk/page3-real-lewiscarroll.htm. (Access on Jan 12, 2014). A revised print version of this essay can also be found in The Carrollian Tales of Inspector Spectre, by Byron Sewell, August Imholtz, Jr. and E. Wakeling, Evertype, 2011.
[3]Karoline Leach (1996). “The Liddell Riddle” Extract from Times Literary Supplement. http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/explain/alice843.html (Access on Jan 12, 2014)
[4] Karoline Leach “Who Mutilated Lewis Carroll's Diaries?” (2005) http://contrariwise.wild-reality.net/articles/Who%20Mutilated%20Lewis%20Carroll's%20Diaries.pd(Access on Jan 11, 2014)
[5] Edward Wakeling 2008 “John Tenniel” .
http://www.lewiscarroll-site.com/ (Access on Jan 11, 2014)
[6] Stuart Dodgson Collingwood 1898, “Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll” (Chapter IV).
[7] Wakeling, Edward (April 2008).John Tenniel
http://www.lewiscarroll-site.com/ (Access on Jan 11, 2014)
[8] Martin Gardner 2000 The Annotated Alice, the Definitive Edition. Pp 31-32. Part of Note No. 2.
[9] Howard Chang. “Well in the rabbit hole: A new and closer look at Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “Taipei, Taiwan: Yuan Liu Publishing Company 2010 and Jilin, China: Jilin Publishing Company 2013. Page 75.