Gilbert, WILLIAM SCHWENCK

Gilbert, WILLIAM SCHWENCK, dramatist, was born in London, 18th November 1836, the son of William Gilbert (1804-89), who published thirty novels, tales, &c. He took the degree of B.A. at London university, was a clerk in the Privy-council Office from 1857 to 1862, and in 1864 was called to the bar. He contributed to the magazines, and was on the staff of Fun, in whose columns his Bab Ballads first appeared. His burlesque, Dulcamara (1866), was followed by other burlesques, dramas, comedies, fairy comedies, and operas. The fairy comedies include The Palace of Truth (1870), Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), The Wicked World (1873), and Broken Hearts (1876). Among the comedies are the charming 'contrast,' Sweethearts (1874), and Engaged (1877), more cynical and hopeless; his other plays include Charity (1874), Gretchen (1879), Comedy and Tragedy (1884), and an unsuccessful drama, Brantingham Hall (1888). In conjunction with Sullivan (q. v.), besides Thespis and Trial by Jury, he has produced The Sorcerer (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1880), Paticence (1881), Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1883), The Mikado (1885), Ruddigore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), The Gondoliers (1889), Utopia Limited (1893), and The Grand Duke (1896). In nearly all his better-known works Gilbert displays fantastic humour that is often subtle, nearly always healthy in tone, and none the worse for a slight flavour of cynicism. His is the hand of a master, though his touch is light; his quaint conceits, and the absurd earnestness with which they are worked out, appear to be inimitable by his contemporaries. In The Yeomen of the Guard, however, he has left the grotesque vein, and presents some characters that are human and pathetic. The operas have been exceedingly popular in America. For a time Gilbert and Sullivan worked apart; and with Dr Carr Gilbert produced His Excellency (1894). See P. Fitzgerald, The Savoy Opera and the Savoyards (1894).