Bab Ballads

Last updated • 7 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

One of Gilbert's illustrations for "Gentle Alice Brown" Gentle Alice Brown.jpg
One of Gilbert's illustrations for
"Gentle Alice Brown"

The Bab Ballads is a collection of light verse by W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911), illustrated with his own comic drawings. The poems take their name from Gilbert’s childhood nickname. He later began to sign his illustrations "Bab". In writing these verses Gilbert developed his "topsy-turvy" style in which the humour is derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. The ballads also reveal Gilbert's cynical and satirical approach to humour. Gilbert wrote most of the "ballads", and first published a collection of them in book form, before he became famous for his comic opera librettos written in collaboration with the composer Arthur Sullivan.

Contents

The Bab Ballads became famous on their own, as well as being a source for plot elements, characters and songs that Gilbert recycled in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. They were read aloud at private dinner-parties, at public banquets and even in the House of Lords. The ballads have been much published, and some have been recorded or otherwise adapted.

Early history

Frontispiece of The Bab Ballads, 1868 Frontispiece for Bab Ballads.png
Frontispiece of The Bab Ballads, 1868

Gilbert himself explained how The Bab Ballads came about:

In 1861 the magazine Fun was started under the editorship of Mr. H. J. Byron. With much labour I turned out an article three-quarters of a column long, and sent it to the editor, together with a half-page drawing on wood. A day or two later the printer of the paper called upon me, with Mr Byron's compliments, and staggered me with a request to contribute a column of "copy" and a half-page drawing every week for the term of my natural life. I hardly knew how to treat the offer, for it seemed to me that into that short article I had poured all I knew. I was empty. I had exhausted myself: I didn't know any more. However, the printer encouraged me (with Mr. Byron's compliments), and I said I would try. I did try, and I found to my surprise that there was a little left, and enough indeed to enable me to contribute some hundreds of columns to the periodical throughout his editorship, and that of his successor, poor Tom Hood! [1]

For ten years Gilbert wrote articles and poems for Fun, of which he was also the drama critic. Gilbert's first column "cannot now be identified". [2] The first known contribution is a drawing titled "Some mistake here" on page 56 of the issue for 26 October 1861. [3] Some of Gilbert's early work for the journal remains unidentified because many pieces were unsigned. The earliest pieces that Gilbert himself considered worthy to be collected in The Bab Ballads started to appear in 1865, and then much more steadily from 1866 to 1869.

The series takes its title from the nickname "Bab", which is short for "baby". It may also be a homage to Charles Dickens's pen name "Boz". Gilbert did not start signing his drawings "Bab" regularly until 1866, and he did not start calling the poems "Bab Ballads" until the first collected edition was published in 1869. From then on his new poems in Fun were captioned "The Bab Ballads".

Gilbert also started numbering the poems, with "Mister William" (published 6 February 1869) as No. 60. However, it is not certain which poems Gilbert considered to be Nos. 1–59. Ellis counts backwards, including only those poems with drawings, and finds that the first Bab Ballad was "The Story of Gentle Archibald". [4] However, Gilbert did not include "Gentle Archibald" in his collected editions, while he did include several poems published earlier than that. Nor did Gilbert limit the collected editions to poems with illustrations.

By 1870 Gilbert's output of Bab Ballads had started to tail off considerably, corresponding to his rising success as a dramatist. The last poem that Gilbert himself considered to be a Bab Ballad, "Old Paul and Old Tim," appeared in Fun in January 1871. In the remaining forty years of his life Gilbert made only a handful of verse contributions to periodicals. Some posthumous editions of The Bab Ballads have included these later poems, although Gilbert did not.

Subsequent publication

1898 edition of The Bab Ballads, with which are included Songs of a Savoyard Bab Ballads.jpg
1898 edition of The Bab Ballads, with which are included Songs of a Savoyard

By 1868 Gilbert's poems had won sufficient popularity to justify a collected edition. He selected forty-four of the poems (thirty-four of them illustrated) for an edition of The "Bab" Ballads – Much Sound and Little Sense. A second collected edition, More "Bab" Ballads, including thirty-five ballads (all illustrated), appeared in 1872. In 1876 Gilbert collected fifty of his favourite poems in Fifty "Bab" Ballads, with one poem being collected for the first time ("Etiquette") and twenty-five poems that had appeared in the earlier volumes being left out. As Gilbert explained:

The period during which they were written extended over some three or four years; many, however, were composed hastily, and under the discomforting necessity of having to turn out a quantity of lively verse by a certain day in every week. As it seemed to me (and to others) that the volumes were disfigured by the presence of these hastily written impostors, I thought it better to withdraw from both volumes such Ballads as seemed to show evidence of carelessness or undue haste, and to publish the remainder in the compact form under which they are now presented to the reader. [5]

Gilbert's readers were not happy with the loss, and in 1882 Gilbert published all of the poems that had appeared in either The "Bab" Ballads or More "Bab" Ballads, once again excluding "Etiquette." Some twentieth-century editions of More "Bab" Ballads include "Etiquette". In 1890 Gilbert produced Songs of a Savoyard, a volume of sixty-nine detached lyrics from the Savoy Operas, each with a new title, and some of them slightly reworded to fit the changed context. Many of them also received "Bab" illustrations in the familiar style. He also included two deleted lyrics from Iolanthe (footnoted as "omitted in representation"). The effect was that of a new volume of "Bab Ballads". Indeed, Gilbert considered calling the volume The Savoy Ballads. [6]

Finally, in 1898 Gilbert produced The Bab Ballads, with which are included Songs of a Savoyard. This volume included all of the Bab Ballads that had appeared in any of the earlier collected volumes, the sixty-nine "Songs of a Savoyard" published in 1890, and eighteen additional lyrics in the same format, taken from the four operas he had written since then. The Bab Ballads and the illustrated opera lyrics alternated, creating the impression of one integrated body of work. Gilbert also added more than two hundred new drawings, providing illustrations for the ten ballads that had previously lacked them, and replacing most of the others. He wrote:

I have always felt that many of the original illustrations to The Bab Ballads erred gravely in the direction of unnecessary extravagance. This defect I have endeavoured to correct through the medium of the two hundred new drawings which I have designed for this volume. I am afraid I cannot claim for them any other recommendation. [7]

It was in this form that The Bab Ballads remained almost constantly in print until the expiration of the copyright at the end of 1961. James Ellis's new edition in 1970 restored the original drawings, retaining from the edition of 1898 only those drawings that went with the previously unillustrated ballads.

Identification and Attribution

There is no universally agreed list of poems that constitute The Bab Ballads. The series clearly includes all the poems that Gilbert himself published under that title, but there are others he did not include in any of the collected editions published in his lifetime. Most writers have accepted as Bab Ballads any poems, whether illustrated or not, that Gilbert contributed to periodicals, not counting poems written or repurposed as operatic lyrics.

After Gilbert's death there were several attempts to identify additional ballads that were missing from the collected editions that had been published to that point. Dark & Gray (1923), Goldberg (1929), and Searle (1932) identified and published additional ballads, not all of which have been accepted into the canon. A 1970 edition edited by James Ellis includes all the poems that Gilbert himself acknowledged, all the poems from Dark & Gray, Goldberg, and/or Searle that Ellis finds authentic, and others identified by no other previous compilers. There are several ballads that Ellis identifies as Gilbert's either on stylistic grounds or by the presence of a "Bab" illustration accompanying the poem in the original publication. These include two distinct poems called "The Cattle Show", as well as "Sixty-Three and Sixty-Four", "The Dream", "The Baron Klopfzetterheim" and "Down to the Derby". These attributions are provisional and have not been accepted by all scholars because the poems themselves are unsigned, and Gilbert sometimes provided illustrations for the work of other writers. Starting with the "new series" of Fun (those with 'n.s.' in the source reference), Gilbert's authorship is not in doubt, as the pieces for which he was paid can be confirmed from the proprietors' copies of that journal, which now reside in the Huntington Library.

A 2023 collection of 41 of the ballads, titled The Bab Ballads: A New Selection, was edited with an introduction by Andrew Crowther, secretary of the W. S. Gilbert Society. [8]

List of Bab Ballads

The table below lists all the Bab Ballads that are included in James Ellis's edition of 1970. The second column shows the reference for the periodical in which each poem originally appeared and the third column shows the collection(s) that have included the poem. The following abbreviations are used:

Starting with "Mister William" Gilbert assigned numbers to most of the ballads that appeared in Fun. Those numbers are shown in the second column after the source reference.

Ballad TitleOriginal Source ReferenceCollections
The Advent of Spring Fun, II (1 February 1862), 200.Ellis
The Cattle Show Fun, V (12 December 1863), 121.Searle, Ellis
The Cattle ShowThe Comic News, I (19 December 1863), 180.Ellis
Sixty-Three and Sixty-Four Fun, V (2 January 1864), 162.Ellis
The Dream Fun, V (27 February 1864), 242.Goldberg, Ellis
The Baron Klopfzetterheim Fun, VI (19, 26 March.; 2, 9, 16 April 1864), 8–9, 18, 21, 38, 48.Searle, Ellis
Down to the Derby Fun, VI (28 May 1864), 110, 111.D&G, Searle, Ellis
Something Like Nonsense Verses Fun, n.s., I (10, 24 June 1865), 31, 51.Ellis
Ode to my Clothes Fun, n.s., I (10 June 1865), 33.Ellis
The Student Fun, n.s., I (1 July 1865), 67.Ellis
Tempora Mutantur Fun, n.s., I (15 July 1865), 82.TBB, Ellis
The Bachelors' Strike Fun, n.s., I (22 July 1865), 99.Ellis
A Bad Night Of It Fun, n.s., I (19 August 1865), 139.Ellis
To Phœbe Fun, n.s., I (26 August 1865), 144.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Ozone Fun, n.s., II (16 September 1865), 2.Ellis
To the Terrestrial Globe Fun, n.s., II (30 September 1865), 29.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Monkey in Trouble Fun, n.s., II (7 October 1865), 31.Ellis
Back Again! Fun, n.s., II (7 October 1865), 39.Ellis
To My Absent Husband Punch, XLIX (14 October 1865), 151.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
My Return Punch, XLIX (21 October 1865), 153.Ellis
Musings in a Music Hall Fun, n.s., II (28 October 1865), 69.D&G, Ellis
Pantomimic Presentiments Fun, n.s., II (2 December 1865), 111.Ellis
The Bar and its Moaning Fun, n.s., II (9 December 1865), 122.Ellis
To Euphrosyne Fun, n.s., II (23 December 1865), 150.Ellis
The Phantom Curate Fun, n.s., II (6 January 1866), 162.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
To a Little Maid Fun, n.s., II (6 January 1866), 167.Ellis, TBB, 50BB
Ferdinando and Elvira Fun, n.s., II (17 February 1866), 229.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Pantomime "Super" to His Mask Fun, n.s., II (24 February 1866), 238.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Yarn of The "Nancy Bell" Fun, n.s., II (3 March 1866), 242–243.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Monsieur le Blond on London Fun, n.s., II (3 March 1866), 249.Ellis
Haunted Fun, n.s., III (24 March 1866), 12.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Reverend Rawston Wright Fun, n.s., III (28 April 1866), 67.Searle, Ellis
The Story of Gentle Archibald Fun, n.s., III (19 May 1866), 100–101.D&G, Searle, Ellis
To My Bride Fun, n.s., III (9 June 1866), 125.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Only a Dancing Girl Fun, n.s., III (23 June 1866), 146.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
To My Steed Fun, n.s., III (23 June 1866), 152.Ellis
King Borria Bungalee Boo Fun, n.s., III (7 July 1866), 167.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Jack Casts His Shell Fun, n.s., IV (6 October 1866), 37.Ellis
How to Write an Irish Drama Fun, n.s., IV (1 December 1866), 127.Ellis
General John Fun, n.s., V (1 June 1867), 127.TBB, Ellis
Sir Guy the Crusader Fun, n.s., V (8 June 1867), 139.TBB, Ellis
Sir Galahad the Golumptious Fun, n.s., V (15 June 1867), 149.Ellis
Disillusioned Fun, n.s., V (6 July 1867), 173.TBB, Ellis
John and Freddy Fun, n.s., V (3 August 1867), 222.TBB, Ellis
Lorenzo de Lardy Fun, n.s., V (10 August 1867), 225.TBB, Ellis
The Bishop and the Busman Fun, n.s., V (17 August 1867), 238.TBB, Ellis
Babette's Love Fun, n.s., V (24 August 1867), 247.TBB, Ellis
Fanny and Jenny Fun, n.s., V (7 September 1867), 269.D&G, Searle, Ellis
Sir Macklin Fun, n.s., VI (14 September 1867), 6–7.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Troubadour Fun, n.s., VI (21 September 1867), 15.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Ben Allah Achmet Fun, n.s., VI (28 September 1867), 25.TBB, Ellis
The Folly of Brown Fun, n.s., VI (5 October 1867), 35.TBB, Ellis
Joe Golightly Fun, n.s., VI (12 October 1867), 54.TBB, Ellis
The Rival Curates Fun, n.s., VI (19 October 1867), 57.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Thomas Winterbottom Hance Fun, n.s., VI (26 October 1867), 74–75.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
A. and B.; OR, The Sensation Twins Fun, n.s., VI (2 November 1867), 77.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
Sea-Side Snobs Fun, n.s., VI (9 November 1867), 88.Searle, Ellis
The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo Fun, n.s., VI (16 November 1867), 104.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Precocious Baby Fun, n.s., VI (23 November 1867), 113.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Baines Carew, Gentleman Fun, n.s., VI (30 November 1867), 124.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
A Discontented Sugar Broker Fun, n.s., VI (14 December 1867), 137.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Force of Argument Fun, n.s., VI (21 December 1867), 149.TBB, Ellis
At A Pantomime Fun, n.s., VI (28 December 1867), 165.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Three Kings of Chickeraboo Fun, n.s., VI (18 January 1868), 191.TBB, Ellis
The Periwinkle Girl Fun, n.s., VI (1 February 1868), 211.TBB, Ellis
Captain Reece Fun, n.s., VI (8 February 1868), 221.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Thomson Green and Harriet Hale Fun, n.s., VI (15 February 1868), 242.TBB, Ellis
Bob Polter Fun, n.s., VI (29 February 1868), 260–261.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Ghost, the Gallant, the Gael, and the Goblin Fun, n.s., VII (14 March 1868), 6.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Ellen McJones Aberdeen Fun, n.s., VII (21 March 1868), 16.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Sensation Captain Fun, n.s., VII 4 April 1868), 43.TBB, Ellis
Trial by Jury Fun, n.s., VII (11 April 1868), 54.Ellis
The Reverend Micah Sowls Fun, n.s., VII (18 April 1868), 65.TBB, Ellis
Peter the Wag Fun, n.s., VII (25 April 1868), 75.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Story of Prince Agib Fun, n.s., VII (16 May 1868), 107.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Gentle Alice Brown Fun, n.s., VII (23 May 1868), 111.TBB, 50BB, Ellis
Pasha Bailey Ben Fun, n.s., VII (6 June 1868), 133.MBB
Blabworth-cum-Talkington Fun, n.s., VII (20 June 1868), 153.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
The Sailor Boy To His Lass Fun, n.s., VII (27 June 1868), 163,MBB, 50BB, Ellis
Sir Conrad and the Rusty One Fun, n.s., VII (4 July 1868), 174.D&G, Searle, Ellis
The Cunning Woman Fun, n.s., VII (25 July 1868), 205.MBB, Ellis
The Modest Couple Fun, n.s., VII (8 August 1868), 225.MBB, Ellis
The "Bandoline" Player Fun, n.s., VII (22 August 1868), 246.D&G, Searle, Ellis
Sir Barnaby Bampton Boo Fun, n.s., VII (29 August 1868), 255.MBB, Ellis
Boulogne Fun, n.s., VIII (12 September 1868), 7.Searle, Ellis
Brave Alum Bey Fun, n.s., VIII (19 September 1868), 16.MBB, Ellis
Gregory Parable, LL.D. Fun, n.s., VIII (3 October 1868), 35.MBB, Ellis
Lieutenant-Colonel Flare Fun, n.s., VIII (10 October 1868), 46.MBB, Ellis
The Hermit Fun, n.s., VIII (17 October 1868), 62.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
Annie Protheroe Fun, n.s., VIII (24 October 1868), 65.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Captain and the Mermaids Fun, n.s., VIII (7 November 1868), 85.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
An Unfortunate Likeness Fun, n.s., VIII (14 November 1868), 96.MBB, 50BB
A Boulogne Table d'Hôte Tom Hood's Comic Annual for 1868 (London: Fun office, 1868), 78.Searle, Ellis
The Railway Guard's Song Tom Hood's Comic Annual for 1868 (London: Fun office, 1868), 79.Ellis
The Undecided Man Tom Hood's Comic Annual for 1868, (London: Fun office, 1868) 79.Searle, Ellis
Premonitory Symptoms Fun, n.s., VIII (28 November 1868), 117.Ellis
Lost Mr. Blake Fun, n.s., VIII (28 November 1868), 121.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
Little Oliver Fun, n.s., VIII (5 December 1868), 132.MBB, Ellis
What Is A Burlesque? Belgravia Annual, ed. M. E. Braddon (London, 1868), 106–107.Ellis
The Phantom Head Fun, n.s., VIII (19 December 1868), 151.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
The Politest of Nations! Fun, n.s., VIII (2 January 1869), 173.Ellis
Woman's Gratitude Fun, n.s., VIII (9 January 1869 ), 176–177.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
The Baby's Vengeance Fun, n.s., VIII (16 January 1869), 188.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Two Ogres Fun, n.s., VIII (23 January 1869), 204.MBB, Ellis
Mister William Fun, n.s., VIII (6 February 1869), 218. No. 60.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Martinet Fun, n.s., VIII (13 February 1869), 228. No. 61.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The King of Canoodle-Dum Fun, n.s., VIII (20 February 1869), 238–239. No. 62.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
First Love Fun, n.s., VIII (27 February 1869), 248. No. 63.MBB, Ellis
The Haughty Actor Fun, n.s., IX (27 March 1869), 31. No. 64.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Two Majors Fun, n.s., IX (3 April 1869), 41. No. 65.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Three Bohemian Ones Fun, n.s., IX (10 April 1869), 51. No. 66.D&G, Searle, Ellis
The Policeman's Beard Fun, n.s., IX (1 May 1869), 75. No. 67.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo Again Fun, n.s., IX (8 May 1869), 85. No. 68.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
A Worm Will Turn Fun, n.s., IX (15 May 1869), 104. No. 69.MBB, Ellis
The Mystic Selvagee Fun, n.s., IX (22 May 1869), 112. No. 70.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
Emily, John, James, and I Fun, n.s., IX (29 May 1869), 115. No. 71.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Ghost to his Ladye Love Fun, n.s., IX (14 August 1869), 223.Ellis
Prince Il Baleine Fun, n.s., IX (28 August 1869), 253. No. 72.D&G, Searle, Ellis
The Way of Wooing Fun, n.s., X (11 September 1869), 13. No. 73.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Scornful Colonel Fun, n.s., X (25 September 1869), 31. No. 74.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
The Variable Baby Fun, n.s., X (9 October 1869), 51. No. 75.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
The Ladies of the Lea Fun, n.s., X (30 October 1869), 75. No. 76.Goldberg, Searle, Ellis
Hongree and Mahry Fun, n.s., X (20 November 1869), 105. No. 77.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
Etiquette The Graphic, I (25 December 1869, Christmas Number), 6–7.50BB, Ellis
The Reverend Simon Magnus Fun, n.s., X (5 February 1870), 215. No. 78.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
My Dream Fun, n.s., XI (19 March 1870), 15. No. 79.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
Damon v. Pythias Fun, n.s., XI (26 March 1870), 31. No. 80.MBB, Ellis
The Bumboat Woman's Story Fun, n.s., XI (9 April 1870), 45. No. 81.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Fairy Curate Fun, n.s., XII (23 July 1870), 32–33. No. 82.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
Phrenology Fun, n.s., XII (6 August 1870), 45. No. 83.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Perils of Invisibility Fun, n.s., XII (20 August 1870), 65. No. 84.MBB, 50BB, Ellis
The Wise Policeman Fun, n.s., XII (22 October 1870), 156. No. 85.Ellis
A Drop of Pantomime Water The Graphic, II, 25 December 1870, Christmas Number, 20.Ellis
Old Paul and Old Tim Fun, n.s., XIII (28 January 1871), 35. No. 86.MBB, Ellis
"Eheu! Fugaces" The Dark Blue, III (April 1872), 142–143.Searle, Ellis
Jester James Time, I (April 1879), 54–57.Ellis
The Policeman's Story Time, I (May 1879), 166–168.Ellis
The Thief's Apology Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News , XXII (6 December 1884), "Holly Leaves" (Christmas number), 267.Ellis
The King and the Stroller The Queen's Christmas Carol: An Anthology of Poems, Stories, Essays, Drawings and Music by British Authors, Artists and Composers (London: The Daily Mail, 1905), 80–81.Ellis

Adaptations

Some of the Bab Ballads have been recorded by several performers, including Stanley Holloway (1959) [9] Redvers Kyle (1963) [10] and Jim Broadbent (1999). [11] In 2016, The W. S. Gilbert Society released a 2-CD set read by various British performers, including several who performed with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. [12]

Four have been set to music by Ken Malucelli, [11] and two have been adapted for the stage by Brian Mitchell and Joseph Nixon. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Topsyturveydom is a one-act operetta by W. S. Gilbert with music by Alfred Cellier. Styled "an entirely original musical extravaganza", it is based on one of Gilbert's Bab Ballads, "My Dream". It opened on 21 March 1874 at the Criterion Theatre in London and ran until 17 April, for about 25 performances. This was the first work shown at the newly built Criterion, and it was played together with An American Lady, written and performed by Gilbert's friend, the dramatist and Fun magazine founder, Henry J. Byron. The musical score to Topsyturveydom does not survive, but amateur productions in recent decades have used newly composed scores or performed the work as a non-musical play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. S. Gilbert</span> English dramatist, poet and illustrator (1836–1911)

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. These Savoy operas are still frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond.

<i>Fun</i> (magazine) Defunct Victorian weekly magazine

Fun was a Victorian weekly humorous magazine, first published on 21 September 1861 in competition with Punch.

<i>Sweethearts</i> (play)

Sweethearts is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Russell Flint</span> Scottish artist and illustrator (1880–1969)

Sir William Russell Flint was a Scottish artist and illustrator who was known especially for his watercolours of women. He also worked in oils, tempera, and printmaking.

<i>The Fortune Hunter</i> Play written by W. S. Gilbert

The Fortune Hunter is a drama in three acts by W. S. Gilbert. The piece concerns an heiress who loses her fortune. Her shallow husband sues to annul the marriage, leaving her pregnant and taking up with a wealthy former lover. The piece was produced on tour in Britain in 1897, never playing in London.

<i>Trial by Jury</i> 1875 comic opera by Gilbert & Sullivan

Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire. Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Gilbert, 1883
  2. ↑ Stedman, 1996, p. 11
  3. ↑ Plumb 2004, p. 499
  4. ↑ Ellis 1970, p. 13
  5. ↑ Gilbert, 1876, p. vii
  6. ↑ Ellis 1970, p. 27, n. 53
  7. ↑ Gilbert, 1897
  8. ↑ Gilbert, W. S.; Andrew Crowther (ed.) The Bab Ballads: A New Selection, Renard Press (2023) ISBN   9781804470664
  9. ↑ Shepherd, Marc. "Bab Ballads and Cautionary Tales", Gilbert & Sullivan Discography, 27 August 2002, accessed 25 August 2016
  10. ↑ Shepherd, Marc. "The Bab Ballads by W. S. Gilbert", Gilbert & Sullivan Discography, 27 August 2002, accessed 25 August 2016
  11. 1 2 "The Bab Ballads on Audiotape" [usurped] , The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 5 October 2011; "The Bab Ballads (1999)", Gilbert & Sullivan Discography, 26 October 2001, both accessed 25 August 2016
  12. ↑ Crowther, Andrew. [www.wsgilbert.co.uk "The Bab Ballads: a new recording"], The W. S. Gilbert Society, accessed 7 September 2016
  13. ↑ "Gilbert (No Sullivan)", FoundryGroup.com, accessed 25 August 2016
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