Welsh rarebit fish called bummalo)". The entry in Merriam-Webster's "Dictionary of English Usage" is "Welsh rabbit, Welsh rarebit" and states: "When Francis Grose defined Welsh rabbit in "A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" in 1785, he mistakenly indicated that rabbit was a corruption of "rarebit". It is not certain that this erroneous idea originated with Grose..." In his 1926 edition of the "Dictionary of Modern English Usage", the grammarian H. W. Fowler states a forthright view: "Welsh Rabbit is amusing and right. Welsh Rarebit is stupid and wrong." The notion that toasted cheese was a favourite dish irresistible to the Welsh
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend strip. Despite the strip's bleak view, McCay's work was so popular that William Randolph Hearst hired him in 1911 with a star's salary. Hearst editor Arthur Brisbane deemed McCay's work "serious, not funny", and had the cartoonist give up his comic strips (including "Rarebit Fiend" and "Nemo") to work full-time illustrating editorials. Scholars such as Claude Moliterni, Ulrich Merkl, Alfredo Castelli, and others have hunted down what they believe to have influenced McCay's work on "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend". Among the possible influences are Edward Lear's popular "The Book of Nonsense" (1870), Gelett Burgess' "The Burgess Nonsense Book" (1901),