The "Bab" Ballads

by W.S. Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) was an English dramatist, librettist and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous 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. Gilbert was born in Strand, London and was educated at Boulogne, France and then at the Great Ealing School and King's College London. He wrote a variety of stories, comic rants, theatre reviews and, under the pseudonym "Bab" (his childhood nickname), illustrated poems for several comic magazines, primarily Fun. The poems, illustrated humourously by Gilbert, proved immensely popular and were reprinted in book form as The Bab Ballads (1869-73). His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.

Genres: Poetry, Humor, Classics

196 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1884

About the author

British playwright and lyricist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert wrote a series of comic operas, including Her Majesty's Ship Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879), with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. This English dramatist, librettist, poet, and illustrator in collaboration with this composer produced fourteen comic operas, which include The Mikado , one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre. Opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups throughout and beyond the English-speaking world continue to perform regularly these operas as well as most of their other Savoy operas. From these works, lines, such as "short, sharp shock", "What, never? Well, hardly ever!", and "Let the punishment fit the crime," form common phrases of the English language.

Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads , an extensive collection of light verse, which his own comical drawings accompany.

His creative output included more than 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , the "lyrical facility" of Gilbert "and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since."

Reviews

[Curmudgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very variable in quality--the best of the "ballads" are very funny, while the worst are unbearably tedious or predictable. A couple might be viewed as racist in the current era, but they are generally more absurdist than anything else (e.g. the poem that involves a Jewish man's nose falling off and being replaced by a proper Christian one upon his religious conversion). Anyone familiar with W.S. Gilbert's fondness for topsy-turveydom (or indeed, anyone who has seen Mike Leigh's film about the making of The Mikado) can appreciate the bizarre stories collected in the book, which are graced by Gilbert's charmingly amateurish illustrations. A number of stories, plot points, or character names from the "Bab" Ballads did later make their way into various Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, so it is a must-read for fans curious about the development of the author's more famous works.

NB: "A Discontented Sugar Broker" has my vote for most amusing "ballad".

[Gospodyina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads says there are 25 editions, but I only have 5! To the bookstore!

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Research, for a person with wildly erratic OCD detective skills, leads interesting places. Not useful places, but entertaining places. Tracking down sheet music for a book project, I searched for difficult flute passages. Pineapple Poll by W. S. Gilbert was a piece that made me sweat. It's memorable because three keys actually fell off my flute in rehearsal. On the hunt for the music, I discovered Pineapple Poll is a character from a comic ballet written by Gilbert, about the crew of the Hot Cross Bun and its dashing Lieutenant Belaye. And the ballet was based on a poem written and illustrated by Gilbert titled "The Bumboat Woman's Story." The piece also contributed to H. M. S. Pinafore. This particular book from the Hamtramck library has 215 original illustrations created from 1866 to 1869 for Fun magazine. In the preface, Gilbert himself wrote he took out those that appeared to have been created hastily to meet a deadline. Subsequent editions have softened the edge of Gilbert's sardonic cartoons. I like the original comic grotesqueries.

[James Violand · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very uneven work. Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan) had a talent for rhyming. Not all rhymes are worthwhile. Most within this book are strange tales that leave one unfulfilled, having started with such promise. There are a few that are bear re-reading, but for the most part, seem nonsensical and of poor entertainment value. A main problem is the pervasive meter that haunts you, effecting nearly every thought in a similar strain until something mundane erases it and you find peace.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gilbert was the master of rhythm and excruciating rhyme, but without the context of the Savoy Opera plots and without the sublime music of Sir Arthur Sullivan, these verses are dated and somewhat pointless.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's lightweight and silly but it's good to speak nonsense in season.

[Elizabeth S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hillarious. It helps if you are familiar with older humor and Victorian British attitudes.

Until after I read it, I did not realize this was written by the Gilbert who was half the duo of Gilbert and Sullivan. G&S wrote the brilliant musicals The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance and many others.

WARNING: In the last poem, Gilbert uses the n-word two times. That word is disgusting. Reading the poem and knowing it was written over 150 years ago by someone from England, I believe Gilbert was using the word to mean "men who live on islands far away." I think the "live on islands far away" was obvious from the context. I blacked out both instances of the offensive and demeaning word and wrote "men" instead. There was also one use of the word "darkie" which I similarly fixed.