Sir William Schwenck Gilbert[1] (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English
dramatist,
librettist, poet 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.
[2] These, as well as most of their other
Savoy operas, continue to be performed regularly throughout the
English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups. Lines from these works have become part of the English language, such as "
short, sharp shock", "What, never? Well, hardly ever!",
[3] and "Let the punishment fit the crime".
[4]Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads, an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings. His creative output included over 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.[5] According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Gilbert's "lyrical facility 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".[6]
Gilbert was born at 17 Southampton Street, Strand, London. His father, also named William, was a naval surgeon who later became a writer of novels and short stories, some of which were illustrated by his son. Gilbert's mother was the former Ann Mary Bye Morris (1812-88), the daughter of Dr. Thomas Morris.[9] Gilbert's parents were distant and stern, and he did not have a particularly close relationship with either of them. They quarrelled constantly, and following the break-up of their marriage in 1876, his relationships with them, especially his mother, became even more strained.[10] Gilbert had three younger sisters, two of whom were born outside England because of the family's travels during these years Jane Morris (b. 1838 in Milan, Italy – 1906), who married Alfred Weigall, a miniature painter; and Anne Maude (1845–1932) and Mary Florence (b. 1843 in Boulogne, France – 1911), neither of whom married.[11][12] Gilbert was nicknamed "Bab" as a baby, and then "Schwenck", after his father's godparents.[9]
As a child, Gilbert travelled in Europe with his parents (they finally settled in London in 1849). He was educated at Boulogne, France from the age of seven (he later kept his diary in French so that the servants could not read it),[13] then Western Grammar School, Brompton, London, and then at the Great Ealing School, where he became head boy and wrote plays for school performances and painted scenery. He then attended King's College London, graduating in 1856. After taking his degree, he intended to take the examinations for a commission in the Royal Artillery, but with the end of the Crimean War, fewer recruits were needed, and the only commission available to Gilbert would have been in a line regiment. He served instead in the Civil Service, as an assistant clerk in the Privy Council Office, for four years and hated it. In 1859 he joined the Militia, a part-time home service force, with which he remained until 1878 (in between writing and other work), reaching the rank of Captain.[14] In 1863 he received a bequest of £300 that he used to leave the civil service and take up a brief career as a barrister (he had already entered the Inner Temple as a student), but his legal practice was not successful, averaging just five clients a year.[15]
