Ideation

Analysis of the following limericks takes into consideration areas of thought that, apart from those considered in the previous chapter and those about sex, considered in a later chapter, evidently most engaged Lear. These are evolution, romanticism, and religion. The limericks relevant to the theory of evolution are: the ‘Man of the Hague’, the ‘Person of Dundalk’, the ‘Man of the South’, the ‘Person of Sheen’, and the ‘Man who said “Hush”’. Those concerning romanticism and its disappointments are: the ‘Lady whose bonnet’, the ‘Person of Crowle’, the ‘Person of Hove’, the ‘Person of Putney’, the ‘Person of Bree’, and the ‘Lady of Turkey’. And those expressing Lear’s theologically contentious Christianity are: the ‘Person of Smyrna’, the ‘Man in a pew’, the ‘Man with a flute’, the ‘Person of Fife’, the ‘Person of Grange’, the ‘Man of the Coast’, and the ‘Person of Barnes’.