From: benlizro@ihug.co.nz   
      
   Birthday of Edward Lear (1812-1888).   
   A Book of Nonsense (1846) has 112 of them.   
   But he didn't invent it, says Crystal, and cites:   
      
   And let me the canakin clink, clink;   
   And let me the canakin clink;   
   A soldier's a man   
   O, man's life's but a span;   
   Why, then, let a soldier drink.   
      
   (Shakespeare, Othello)   
      
   Yah, OK, he didn't invent the metrical pattern or the rhyme scheme.   
   But still -- The Limerick As We Know It?   
      
   He also didn't name it. Name first attested 1896, several years after   
   Lear's death.   
   Origin of name -- Crystal has a story, can't be arsed repeating it. May   
   check with OED.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)