10 things you didn’t know about William S. Gilbert

Okay, so in case you didn’t know, I really like William S. Gilbert. Yes, yes, I know the famed dramatist has been dead for a while (almost 105 years), but I don’t care. He was a cool guy. Therefore, let me share with you the following 10 things I bet you didn’t know about William Schwenk Gilbert:

1. As a baby, he was kidnapped by bandits. Gilbert told this story to his first biographer, Edith Brown: When he was two years old, his family went on an extended visit to Italy. While in Naples, some men convinced his nurse that they’d come to take the little boy to his parents. They were lying.  The kidnappers demanded £25, which his parents immediately handed over. Perhaps this was the source of many of his “switched at birth” and “lost baby” plot devices.

2. His family nickname was ‘Bab.’ Under the name ‘Bab’ he wrote at least 50 comic poems, known as the “Bab Ballads,” some of which were later re-used as the plots of his comic operas with Sullivan.

3. He ran away from school to join the theater. In 1852, 16-year-old schoolboy Gilbert saw actor-manager Charles Kean perform in Dion Boucicoult’s The Corsican Brothers. Determined to become an actor, he packed a bag and presented himself at the stage door, asking for an interview with Mr. Kean. Sadly for Gilbert, Kean knew Gilbert’s father and sent him straight home.

4. He attended King’s College, London. According to Hesketh Pearson, author of Gilbert: His Life and Strife, “While there he made his presence felt by turning the Scientific Society into a Dramatic one, by writing satirical verses, and by drawing caricatures of his fellow-collegians and their professors which were only appreciated by those who were not caricatured.”

5. Gilbert learned to write lyrics by working on burlesques. Unlike the risqué version seen on American stages, an English-style burlesque relied on comedy and wordplay for its entertainment value. Like with “Three Penny Opera,” new lyrics would be sung to familiar folk tunes. Gilbert learned to write words to fit existing music. Later, when writing lyrics for his original comic operas, Gilbert would follow the same pattern: He would have a song in his mind and write words to fit that tune. Then he would give the words to Sullivan, without telling the composer what song he’d used, so it wouldn’t influence the new composition.

6. 

   Often uncomfortable around humans, he loved animals. His home at Grim’s Dyke was shared with a wide variety of animals: Dogs, cats, a pet fawn, a donkey named Adelina (after Adelina Patti, the famous singer), monkeys, lemurs, pigeons, turkeys, parrots, and – one summer – a bee wandered in an open window and stayed. Gilbert fed it sugar-water and called it Buzfuz.

7. He was one of the first of the “dramatist stage managers.” On the Victorian stage at the time, the top actors usually did whatever they wanted with their roles. Gilbert was one of the first dramatists to insist that the actors carry out the physical business that had been decided on at rehearsal, and to require them to stick to the words he had written and not ad lib. This earned him a reputation for being autocratic and demanding, but his productions were very professional and high-quality.

8. Gilbert also wrote serious dramas challenging social problems. Although most of his dramatic works are satires and comedies with fantastical elements, he did not shy away of controversy. His plays “Charity” and “Ought We To Visit Her?” were written to depict, as he wrote, “the bitter injustice shown by society against a woman who has once gone wrong… When the damning fact comes to light, her character is utterly blighted in the eyes of the world—her penitence goes for nothing—her subsequent good deeds, her remorse, her pure life—all go for nothing. …But in the case of a man, the verdict of society is in the opposite direction. He may violate faith with every woman who will listen to him and no harm to him comes of it.”

9. He hated giving out his autograph. But sometimes he made an exception. When a young girl wrote a cute letter asking for his autograph, he responded, “What shall I do? Toss for it! Heads I send you my autograph – Tails I write to tell you that nothing will induce me to do anything of the kind. Now for it! It’s Tails! So I won’t send it to you. Yours very truly, (signed) W. S. Gilbert.”

10. The Pirates of Penzance had its world premiere in New York City. Gilbert and Sullivan had to make sure that theirs was the very first version of the opera to be performed on American soil in order to establish copyright in the USA. So on December 31, 1879, Pirates had its first full performance and it was a hit. The character of the Major-General was probably based on his wife’s uncle, General Turner, with whom Gilbert had had a dispute while coming up with the plot. The Major-General’s song, and its allusions to mathematics and classical history, was probably inspired by Gilbert’s own memory of the written examination he had to take to qualify to join the Royal Artillery, 20 years earlier (the Crimean War ended before he could join).