CARROLL LEWIS (DODGSON CHARLES LUTWIDGE)

Title:THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS
Subject:ENGLISH FICTION Scarica il testo


Through the Looking-glass

and what Alice found there

Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.

I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter:
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life's hereafter-Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.

A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing-A simple chime, that served to time
The rhythm of our rowing-Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say `forget'.

Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread,
With bitter tidings laden,
Shall summon to unwelcome bed
A melancholy maiden!
We are but older children, dear,
Who fret to find our bedtime near.

Without, the frost, the blinding snow,
The storm-wind's moody madness-Within, the firelight's ruddy glow,
And childhood's nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast:
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.

And, though the shadow of a sigh
May tremble through the story,
For `happy summer days'' gone by,
And vanish'd summer glory-It shall not touch with breath of bale,
The pleasance of our fairy-tale.


White Pawn (Alice) to play, and win in eleven moves.

01. Alice meets R.Q. 132 01.R.Q. to K.R's 4th 137
02. Alice through Q's 3d (by railway) to Q's 4th 139 02.W.Q. to Q.B's 4th (after shawl) 160
(Tweedledum and Tweedledee) 141
03. Alice meets W.Q. (with shawl) 160 03.W.Q. to Q.B's 5th (becomes sheep) 164
04. Alice to Q's 5th (shop, river, shop) 164 04.W.Q. to K.B's 8th (leaves egg on shelf) 168
05. Alice to Q's 6th (Humpty Dumpty) 168 05.W.Q. to Q.B's 8th (flying from R. Kt.) 185
06. Alice to Q's 7th (forest) 180 06.R. Kt. to K's 2nd (ch.) 189
07. W. Kt. takes R. Kt. 191 07.W. Kt. to K.B's 5th 200
08. Alice to Q's 8th (coronation) 201 08.R. Q. to K's sq. (examination) 202
09. Alice becomes Queen 201 09.Queens castle 207
10. Alice castles (feast) 210 10.W.Q. to Q.R's 6th (soup) 213
11. Alice takes R. Q. & wins 215


DARMATIS PERSONÆ

(as arranged before commencement of game)

WHITE RED

PIECES PAWNS PAWNS PIECES
Tweedledee Daisy Daisy Humpty Dumpty
Unicorn Haigha Messenger Carpenter
Sheep Oyster Oyster Walrus
W. Queen Lily Tiger-lily R. Queen
W. King Fawn Rose R. King
Aged man Oyster Oyster Crow
W. Knight Hatta Frog R. Knight
Tweedledum Daisy Daisy Lion


PREFACE

As the chess-problem, given on the previous page, has puzzled some of my readers, it may be well to explain that it is correctly
worked out, so far as the moves are concerned. The alternation of Red and White is perhaps not so strictly observed as it
might be, and the castling of the three Queens is merely a way of saying that they entered the palace; but the check of the White
King at move 6, the capture of the Red Knight at move 7, and the final checkmate of the Red King, will be found, by any one
who will take the trouble to set the pieces and play the moves as directed, to be strictly in accordance with the laws of the
game.

The new words, in the poem Jabberwocky (see p. 126), have given rise to some difference of opinion as to their pronunciation:
so it may be well to give instructions on that point also. Pronounce slithy as if it were the two words sly, the: make the g hard
in gyre and gimble: and pronounce rath to rhyme with bath.

CHAPTER ONE

LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE

ONE thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it--it was the black kitten's fault entirely. For the white
kitten had been having its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering): so
you see that it couldn't have had any hand in the mischief.

The way Dinah washed her children's faces was this: first she held the poor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with
the other paw she rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: and just now, as I said, she was hard at work
on the white kitten, which as lying quite still and trying to purr--no doubt feeling that it was all meant for its good.

But the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon, and so, while Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the
great armchair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted
Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again; and there it was, spread
over the hearth-rug, all knots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in the middle.

`Oh, you wicked, wicked little thing!cried Alice, catching up the kitten, and giving it a little kiss to make it understand that it
was in disgrace. `Really, Dinah ought to have taught you better manners! You ought, Dinah, you know you ought!she added,
looking reproachfully at the old cat, and speaking in as cross a voice as she could manage--and then she scrambled back into
the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worsted with her, and began winding up the ball again. But she get on very fast, as
she was talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten, and sometimes to herself. Kitty sat very demurely on her knee, pretending
to watch the progress of the winding, and now and then putting out one paw and gently touching the ball, as if it would be glad
to help if it might.

`Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?Alice began. `You'd have guessed if you'd been up in the window with me--only
Dinah was making you tidy, so you couldn't. I was watching the boys getting in sticks for the bonfire--and it wants plenty of
sticks, Kitty! Only it got so cold, and it snowed so, they had to leave off. Never mind, we'll go and see the bonfire to-morrow.Here Alice wound two or three turns of the worsted round the kitten's neck, just to see how it would look: this led to a
scramble, in which the ball rolled down upon the floor, and yards and yards of it got unwound again.

`Do you know, I was so angry, Kitty,Alice went on, as soon as they were comfortably settled again, `when I saw all the
mischief you had been doing, I was very nearly opening the window, and putting you out into the snow! And you'd have
deserved it, you little mischievous darling! What have you got to say for yourself? Now interrupt me!she went on,
holding up one finger. `going to tell you all your faults. Number one: you squeaked twice while Dinah was washing your face
this morning. Now you ca'n't deny it, Kitty: I heard you! What's that you say?pretending that the kitten was speaking). `Her
paw went into your eye? Well, that's your fault, for keeping your eyes open--if you'd shut them tight up, it wouldn't have
happened. Now make any more excuses, but listen! Number two: you pulled Snowdrop away by the tail just as I had put
down the saucer of milk before her! What, you were thirsty, were you? How do you know she wasn't thirsty too? Now for
number three: you unwound every bit of the worsted while I wasn't looking!

`That's three faults, Kitty, and not been punished for any of them yet. You know saving up all your punishments for
Wednesday week--Suppose they had saved up all my punishments?she went on, talking more to herself than the kitten.
`What would they do at the end of a year? I should be sent to prison, I suppose, when the day came. Or--let me see--suppose
each punishment was to be going without a dinner: then, when the miserable day came, I should have to go without fifty dinners
at once! Well, I shouldn't mind that much! I'd far rather go without them than eat them!

`Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just as if some one was kissing the
window all over outside. I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them
up snug, you ...