Synopses & Reviews
W. S. Gilbert, renowned author of the
Savoy Operas, was also the creator of the
Bab Ballads--"possibly the best comic verse--and surely the best illustrated--in the English language," according to James Ellis. Gilbert published these poems, together with his own, grotesque drawings signed "Bab," a childhood nickname, in
Fun and other magazines in the late nineteenth century.
In 1898, the older and by then distinguished Gilbert substituted pallid and inoffensive drawings for the originals, which he had come to believe "erred gravely in the direction of unnecessary extravagance." Since then the ballads have been collected and published in various editions, most of which have featured the revised drawings and only a selection of the poems.
This is the only book to offer the complete collection of ballads with all original illustrations, a tribute to the comic genius of a writer known as "the most original dramatist of his generation." This collection will delight readers with its irreverence and wit.
Review
The Bab Ballads of W. S. Gilbert, admirably introduced and annotated by James Ellis, is a real treat. New Yorker
Review
Thanks to Mr. Ellis, all the known poems...dress-rehearsals as it were for the operas, are now printed together. And of course they are accompanied by the original Chesterton-delighting illustrations. Christian Science Monitor
About the Author
James Ellishas been directing and performing in Gilbert and Sullivan operas for almost fifty years. He was for many years Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College.
Table of Contents
3. Introduction
The Bab Ballads
33. The Advent of Spring
34. The Cattle Show (Fun)
36. The Cattle Show (The Comic News)
37. Sixty-three and Sixty-four
39. The Dream
41. The Baron Klopfzetterheim
51. Down to the Derby
54. Something Like Nonsense Verses
55. Ode to My Clothes
56. The Student
58. Tempora Mutantur
59. The Bachelors' Strike
60. A Bad Night of It
61. To Phoebe
62. Ozone
63. To the Terrestrial Globe
64. The Monkey in Trouble
64. Back Again!
65. To My Absent Husband
66. Musings in a Music Hall
66. Pantomimic Presentiments
68. The Bar and Its Moaning
69. To Euphrosyne
69. The Phantom Curate
71. To a Little Maid
72. Ferdinando and Elvira; or, The Gentle Pieman
74. The Pantomime "Super" to His Mask
76. The Yarn of the "Nancy Bell"
79. Monsieur Le Blond on London
81. Haunted
82. The Reverend Rawston Wright
83. The Story of Gentle Archibald
86. To My Bride
88. Only a Dancing Girl
89. To My Steed
90. King Borria Bungalee Boo
92. Jack Casts His Shell
93. How to Write an Irish Drama
93. General John
95. Sir Guy the Crusader
97. Sir Galahad the Golumptious
98. Disillusioned
100. John and Freddy
101. Lorenzo de Lately
104. The Bishop and the Busman
106. Babette's Love
108. Fanny and Jenny
109. Sir Mackiln
111. The Troubadour
113. Ben Allah Achmet; or, The Fatal Turn
115. The Folly of Brown
118. Joe Golightly; or, The First Lord's Daughter
120. The Rival Curates
122. Thomas Winterbottom Hance
124. A. and B.; or, The Sensation Twins
126. Sea-Side Snobs
127. The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo
129. The Precocious Baby
131. Baines Carew, Gentleman
133. A Discontented Sugar Broker
135. The Force of Argument
137. At a Pantomime
139. The Three Kings of Chickeraboo
141. The Periwinkle Girl
143. Captain Reece
145. Thomson Green and Harriet Hale
148. Bob Potter
150. The Ghost, the Gallant, the Gael, and the Goblin
152. Ellen McJones Aberdeen
155. The Sensation Captain
157. Trial by Jury
160. The Reverend Micah Sowls
162. Peter the Wag
164. The Story of Prince Agib
166. Gentle Alice Brown
169. Pasha Bailey Ben
172. Blabworth-cum-Talkington
174. The Sailor Boy to His Lass
176. Sir Conrad and the Rusty One
178. The Cunning Woman
180. The Modest Couple
183. The "Bandoline" Player
185. Sir Barnaby Bampton Boo
187. Boulogne
190. Brave Alum Bey
193. Gregory Parable, LL.D.
196. Lieutenant-Colonel Flare
198. The Hermit
200. Annie Protheroe
204. The Captain and the Mermaids
206. An Unfortunate Likeness
208. A Boulogne Table d'Hôte
210. The Railway Guard's Song
211. "The Undecided Man"
212. Premonitory Symptoms
212. Lost Mr. Blake
216. Little Oliver
218. What is a Burlesque?
220. The Phantom Head
222. The Politest of Nations!
223. Woman's Gratitude
225. The Baby's Vengeance
229. The Two Ogres
231. Mister William
234. The Martinet
236. The King of Canoodle-Dum
238. First Love
240. The Haughty Actor
243. The Two Majors
246. The Three Bohemian Ones
248. The Policeman's Beard
250. The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo Again
252. A Worm Will Turn
254. The Mystic Selvagee
256. Emily, John, James, and I
259. The Ghost to His Ladye Love
260. Prince it Baleine
262. The Way of Wooing
264. The Scornful Colonel
266. The Variable Baby
268. The Ladies of the Lea
271. Hongree and Mahry
274. Etiquette
278. The Reverend Simon Magus
280. My Dream
282. Damon v. Pythias
284. The Bumboat Woman's Story
287. The Fairy Curate
290. Phrenology
292. The Perils of Invisibility
294. The Wise Policeman
296. A Drop of Pantomime Water
299. Old Paul and Old Tim
302. "Eheu! Fugaces"
303. Jester James
307. The Policeman's Story
309. The Thief's Apology
310. The King and the Stroller
311. The Return
313. Notes to the Ballads
365. Index of Titles
367. Index of First Lines