The Hunting of the Snark

[Jamie123]

This is Billy Connolly singing "The Bellman's Speech" from Mike Batt's musical version of the poem by Lewis Carroll. I first saw it on TV about 20 years ago, and loved it. It reminds me very much of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas (which I also totally love!).

Very few of Carroll's original words made it into the musical. Most of the words are Mike Batt's own, but I think it captures the spirit of the original very well: The tale of an unlikely assortment of people ("the bellman", "the butcher", "the banker" etc.) who go in search of an unexplained creature called "The Snark" which may (we suspect) only exist in the minds of those pursuing it.

Even Carroll himself wasn't exactly sure of the "meaning" of the poem:

"To the best of my recollection, I had no other meaning in my mind, when I wrote it: but people have since tried to find the meanings in it. The one I like best (which I think is partly my own) is that it may be taken as an allegory for the pursuit of happiness."

Anyway, hope you enjoy the song as much as I did. (Just a pity there isn't more of the complete show on You Tube!)