W. S. Gilbert

Birth: 1836-11-18 , Londres

Death: 1911-05-29 , Londres

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English writer, playwright, and poet, best known for his collaboration with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. Together, they created a series of fourteen light comic operas, including famous works such as 'H.M.S. Pinafore', 'The Pirates of Penzance', and 'The Mikado'. Their librettos are celebrated for their witty humor, clever wordplay, and social satire.

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You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your complicated state of mind, The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a transcendental kind. And everyone will say, As you walk your mystic way, “If this young man expresses himself in terms too deep for me, Why, what a very singularly deep young man this deep young man must be!”

When the foeman bares his steel, We uncomfortable feel,

When constabulary duty’s to be done, The policeman’s lot is not a happy one.

I am the very model of a modern Major-General. I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the Kings of England, and I quote the fights historical, From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.

It is, it is a glorious thing To be a Pirate King.

He is an Englishman! For he himself has said it, And it’s greatly to his credit, That he is an Englishman!

For he might have been a Roosian, A French or Turk or Proosian, Or perhaps Itali-an. But in spite of all temptations To belong to other nations, He remains an Englishman.

Things are seldom what they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream.

Stick close to your desks and never go to sea, And you all may be Rulers of the Queen’s Navee!

And so do his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts! His sisters and his cousins, Whom he reckons up by dozens, And his aunts!

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W. S. Gilbert was born in London and had a diverse career, practicing as a lawyer and later as a writer. His worldwide fame came from his partnership with Arthur Sullivan, which lasted for over twenty years. Gilbert was the principal lyricist and librettist, creating ingenious stories, eccentric characters, and dialogues filled with wit and irony. His comic operas satirized Victorian society, politics, and the social conventions of his time. In addition to his collaborations with Sullivan, Gilbert also wrote plays, short stories, and poems. His work 'The Bab Ballads' is a collection of short, rhyming poems that served as the basis for many of his operas. Gilbert was knighted (Knight Bachelor) in 1907.