Nonsense Books · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Nonsense Books by Edward Lear.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Mr. Lear
major
Also known as Edward Lear, Lear, Mr. Edward Lear
Lear is the book's presiding spirit and its most unreliable narrator: a self-described spherical man with a hideous visage, a wig-like beard, and a fondness for Marsala that never tips him. Some find him ill-tempered and queer; a few find him pleasant enough. His habit of making himself the butt of the joke sets the tone for everything that follows, teaching readers that nonsense begins at home.
The Jumblies
major
Also known as the cheerful Jumblies
The Jumblies are the book's great optimists, sailing off in a sieve despite every warning that they will drown. Their heads are green, their hands are blue, and their lands are far and few, yet they sing as they go. Their departure leaves the Dong behind on a cruel shore, making their cheerful voyage the quiet engine of the book's saddest later poem.
The Akond of Swat
major
Also known as Akond of Swat
The Akond rules Swat from a distance so total that no one can agree whether he is thin or fat, young or old, alive or dead. The poem's chorus of speculation turns him into a mirror for the gossips who describe him. He matters because he is the book's purest joke about authority: a ruler whose only verifiable quality is that people cannot stop asking about him.
The Pobble Who Has No Toes
major
Also known as The Pobble, a Pobble
The Pobble sets out to swim the Bristol Channel with his toes carefully wrapped, only to lose them to nobody knows whom. His Aunt Jobiska takes him home and insists that Pobbles are happier without their toes. His cheerful acceptance of an irreversible loss gives the book one of its gentlest lessons about grief, and his missing toes become a running joke the reader cannot quite shake.
The Dong
major
Also known as the Dong
Once happy and gay, the Dong fell in love with a Jumbly Girl who came ashore with the sieve-sailing Jumblies and then sailed away. Now he roams the dark with a light strapped to his nose, playing a silvery pipe and singing the Jumbly chorus to empty hills. His search is the book's most haunting thread, turning its cheerfulness inside out without ever quite breaking it.
The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò
major
Also known as Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò, Mr. Yonghy
The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò lives on the coast of Coromandel and loves Lady Jingly Jones, offering her his jug without a handle and his three Dorkings. She cannot return his affection and asks him, kindly, to go away. He flees down the slopes of Myrtle to a large and lively Turtle, and his sad, absurd departure gives the book its tenderest portrait of rejection.
Lady Jingly Jones
major
Also known as Lady Jingly, the Lady Jingly Jones
The lady on the Coast of Coromandel whose refusal sends the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò fleeing across the sea, leaving her to mourn among her Dorking hens.
The Quangle Wangle
major
Also known as Quangle-Wangle, Mr. Quangle Wangle, the Quangle Wangle Quee
A solitary creature on the Crumpetty Tree whose enormous beaver hat becomes a village for every wandering bird and beast that needs a home.
The Owl and the Pussycat
major
Also known as The Owl, Pussy, O lovely Pussy
A besotted Owl and his elegant Pussy, who sail a pea-green boat for a year and a day to marry in the land where the Bong-tree grows.
The Duck and the Kangaroo
major
Also known as the Duck, the Kangaroo, dear Duck
A bored pond-duck who begs a kangaroo for a ride around the world, and the cautious hopper who agrees once his wet feet are solved.
Mr. Daddy Long-legs
supporting
Also known as Mr. Daddy, Mr. Daddy Long-legs
A brown-and-gray insect whose six legs have grown so long they press his bosom with despair and silence the songs he once sang so well.
Mr. Floppy Fly
supporting
Also known as the Fly, a very aged Bluebottle-Fly
A gold-and-blue fly whose legs are far too short for court, trading complaints with his long-legged friend until the sea offers a stranger route.
The Nutcrackers and the Sugar Tongs
supporting
Also known as the Nutcrackers, the Tongs, Mr. Tongs
The Nutcrackers and the Sugar-Tongs sit idle beside a plate, weary of a life spent cracking and snapping while everyone else rides off to pleasure. Their answer is a sudden, gleeful mutiny: downstairs, out the stable door, onto cream-colored ponies, while cups, saucers, and frying-pans erupt in scandalized amazement behind them. What begins as a lark hardens into a vow never to return, making them the book's purest emblem of escape.
Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow
supporting
Also known as Mr. Spikky Sparrow, Mrs. Spikky Sparrow, Mrs. Sparrow
Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow preside over a nest full of ordinary domestic bustle until a feast draws every wading bird on the Nile, including the King of the Cranes in pea-green trousers. When he falls for their daughter Dell, the parents must weigh pride against the coming absence. Their refrain of perfect happiness becomes a poignant counterpoint once Dell flies off toward the Gromboolian Plain, leaving them watching the moon from the sand.
The Broom, Shovel, Poker, and Tongs
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Broom, the Broom, Miss Shovel, the Shovel, Mr. Poker, Mr. Tongs
Mrs. Broom, Miss Shovel, Mr. Poker, and Mr. Tongs leave their posts by the fire to take the air as a group, each with a distinct temperament that surfaces in their chatter. Their excursion mirrors the book's recurring fantasy of domestic objects slipping their duties and discovering the world outside. They matter because they show how easily Lear's imagination converts the most ordinary corner of a house into a cast of characters with opinions and errands of their own.
The Table and the Chair
supporting
Also known as the Chair
The Table complains of heat and chilblains and proposes a walk; the Chair objects that they cannot possibly walk, then relents when the Table points out they have equal legs. Off they toddle through the streets to the delight of onlookers, only to lose their way in an alley and hire a Ducky-quack, a Beetle, and a Mouse to guide them home. Their small expedition captures the book's gentlest theme: unlikely companions discovering that the world is larger and stranger than the parlor.
Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos
supporting
Also known as Mr. Discobbolos, Mrs. Discobbolos, Darling Mr. Discobbolos
Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos settle atop a wall with a roll and camomile tea, as happy as happy could be, until Mrs. Discobbolos blurts out the thought that they might never come down. Her anxiety about broken bones and ruined coats turns a serene perch into a trap of the mind. Their exchange is Lear at his most unsettlingly domestic: a marriage tested not by catastrophe but by a single idea that will not leave.
The Pelican Chorus
supporting
Also known as Pelican jill, Pelican jee
The Pelican Chorus narrates the great feast thrown for Daughter Dell, where herons, gulls, flamingoes, and the King of the Cranes in his blue dress-coat all gather on the shore. Their buoyant song of self-congratulation—Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee—carries the story forward even as Dell gives her heart away and flies off to stranger plains. What lingers is the chorus left behind on the sand in June, watching the moon and singing the same refrain through their loss.
The Two Old Bachelors
supporting
They belong to the wandering tribe of Lear's old men and women, figures whose small domestic quests — a handful of herbs, a meal — swell into absurd adventure. Their partnership suggests a long, bickering companionship, two temperaments yoked to one purpose and one rhyme. In the book's early-middle stretch they embody the collection's central joke: ordinary errands undone by nonsense, and the reader's delight in watching it happen.
The Cummerbund
supporting
The cummerbund sits at the center of a poem about loss and recovery, a humble garment treated with the gravity of a missing treasure. Its owner's distress gives the piece its emotional engine, while the cummerbund itself — silent, absent, sought — becomes the object of a chase that only nonsense logic can resolve. It matters because Lear's genius lies in inflating trifles: here, a sash becomes as consequential as any hero.
Papa
supporting
Papa appears across several nonsense verses as the nominal authority in a household where authority means very little. He is the straight man to a world of runaway noses, burning grandmothers, and implausible accidents — his parental concern constantly outpaced by events. His presence gives the rhymes a faint domestic anchor, making the surrounding absurdity funnier by contrast and grounding the reader in a familiar, if thoroughly unhinged, family scene.
Jobiska
minor
A friend of the Pobble who advises him about his toes.
The Piggy
minor
A pig who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Melodious Meritorious Mouse
minor
Also known as The Mouse, a squeaky Mouse
A musical mouse who appears in a nonsense poem.
An Old Man of the Cape
minor
Also known as Old Man of Cape Horn, Funny old Man
An old man who wishes he had never been born.
A Young Lady of Russia
minor
A young lady who screams with a scream that blisters the sea.
A Young Lady of Dorking
minor
Also known as Dorking fowls
A young lady who buys a bonnet that bedazzles her eyes.
An Old Person of Blythe
minor
Also known as Blythe
An old person who cuts up his meat with a scythe.
King Xerxes
minor
Also known as Xerxes, Angry old Xerxes
A historical king mentioned in a nonsense rhyme about fury.
Lord Derby
minor
Also known as Earl, thirteenth Earl of Derby
A nobleman to whom Lear dedicated some works.
The Guinea Pigs
minor
Also known as the old Guinea Pigs
Guinea pigs who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Cats
minor
Also known as the old Cats
Cats who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Mice
minor
Also known as The little Mice
Mice who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Fishes
minor
Also known as the old Fishes
Fishes who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Geese
minor
Also known as the old Geese
Geese who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Storks
minor
Also known as two old Storks, seven young Storks
Storks who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Parrots
minor
Also known as the Seven Families The Parrots, the old Parrots, the Seven Young Parrots
Parrots who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Owls
minor
Also known as the old Owls, the Seven Young Owls
Owls who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Beetle
minor
A beetle who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Turtle
minor
A turtle who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Pussycat
minor
A pussycat who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Little Fish
minor
Also known as Fish
A little fish who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Echo
minor
Echo who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Clangle-Wangle
minor
A creature who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Boss-Woss
minor
Also known as the Blue Boss-Woss
A creature who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Plum-pudding Flea
minor
A flea who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Bee
minor
Also known as Twitchy witchy witchy bee
A bee who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Lady Fair
minor
A lady who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Leetle Browny-Mousy
minor
A little brown mouse who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Slingsby
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Violet
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Guy
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Lionel
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Mr. Jones
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Bluebottle Flies
minor
Also known as the Happy Bluebottle-Flies
Happy flies who appear in various nonsense poems.
The Crabs
minor
Crabs who interact with the Pobble.
The Rhinoceros
minor
A rhinoceros mentioned in a nonsense rhyme.
The Scroobious Snake
minor
A snake who wears a hat to avoid biting anyone.
The Nutritious Newt
minor
A newt mentioned in a nonsense poem.
The Perpendicular Purple Polly
minor
Also known as Molly, Polly, Poor little Polly
A parrot who reads newspapers and eats parsnip pie.
An Old Person of Burton
minor
Also known as Burton
An old person who buys a coffin and runs away.
Handel
minor
Also known as Handel Jones
A composer mentioned in a nonsense context.
The Crows
minor
Crows who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Birds
minor
Birds who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Ducky-Quack
minor
Also known as a Ducky-Quack, the Ducky
A duck who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Saltcellar
minor
A saltcellar who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Crackers
minor
Crackers who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Punkahs
minor
Punkahs (fans) who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Kamsamahs
minor
Also known as The tall Kamsamahs
Tall servants who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Kitmutgars
minor
Servants who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Goreewallahs
minor
Also known as silvery Goreewallahs
Grooms who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Bheesties
minor
Also known as The little Bheesties
Water-carriers who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Nullahs
minor
Also known as the purple Nullahs
Watercourses that appear in a nonsense rhyme.
Pluffskin
minor
A character in a nonsense rhyme about a Pobble-like creature.
Plumpskin
minor
A character in a nonsense rhyme about a Pobble-like creature.
Ploffskin
minor
A character in a nonsense rhyme about a Pobble-like creature.
Ploshkin
minor
A character in a nonsense rhyme about a Pobble-like creature.
Pobbles
minor
A group of creatures related to the Pobble.
The Dilberry Ducks
minor
Also known as Ducks
Ducks who appear in a nonsense rhyme.
The Onion
minor
An onion who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Dell
minor
A dell that appears in a nonsense rhyme.
The Cooperative Cauliflower
minor
A cauliflower who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
My Little Master
minor
A child addressed in a nonsense rhyme.
Hoddy Doddy
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
Janina
minor
A character who appears in a nonsense rhyme.
