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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The happiest hour a sailor sees / Is when he’s down / At an inland town, / With his Nancy on his knees, yo ho! / And his arm around her waist!

Spurn not the nobly-born / With love affected, / Nor treat with virtuous scorn / The well- connected.

Life’s perhaps the only riddle / That we shrink from giving up.

Life’s a pudding full of plums.

The privilege and pleasure / That we treasure beyond measure / Is to run on little errands for the Ministers of State.

See how the Fates their gifts allot, / For A is happy-—B is not. / Yet B is worthy, I dare say, / Of more prosperity than A.

Darwinian Man, though well-behaved, / At best is only a monkey shaved!

Is life a boon? / If so, it must befall / That Death, whene’er he call, / Must call too soon.

If you’re anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare, / You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere.

When a felon’s not engaged in his employment, / Or maturing his felonious little plans, / His capacity for innocent enjoyment / Is just as great as any honest man’s.

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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.