W. S. GILBERT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1941, Page 9

W. S. GILBERT

KIDNAPPED AS CHILD. GAVE HIS LIFE FOR GIRL. Both Gilbert and Sullivan 'the perfect collaborators i had »ecul:.,r c-'.rr-acteristics. but 'he former' "was "the more colourful personality. "W.S." had force. vitalit;, , :;; j do-1 mineering manner, which '.lj less held much generosity mid eons-.d- i cration. As a child of two he w„s '■ I-1 napped by Italian bandit::, a ran-l som of £25 redeemed him. As . vt-vh lie was pugnacious, wrote plays.' tried io join Charles Kean's company : .. ;! n actor, and when the Crimeim Wmbroke out sought a commission. Later with an inheritance of £4OO he set himself up as a barrister, but

oecame more successful as a justice of the peace. As a magistrate he was I a "holy terror’ to delinquents, whot seldom dared, because of his fierce demeanour, to appeal against his senten- ' ces. When he wrote the Bab Ballads some critics who knew Gilbert personally detected immy of the uitlmr's ran unenviable traits- in then.. > I “A strong. full-bkmdvd, imp;?.-lent I laud irreverent Engiisimom,” Gilbm“l was often viewed suspiciously by those warped by the prudery of the mk:-Victorian period. In fact, he was much too unconventional for those who dissociated humour from real life. Ail this ultra-respectability and mental perversity, this posing of smug j self-importance of people, no doubt i helped to feed Gilbert's natural fund ; of irritation and his hatred of hypo- j crisy. Long before he joined Sullivan in I that immortal partnership he expert-1 enced a ceaseless warfare between | daring and discretion, between natural j j bluntness and b.is business sense. ; it was as librettist to Sullivan that ihe won lasting fame. Here his saliri-J cal genius bloomed gloriously. His of-1 [ten-repressed rage at human hypo-;

crisy. deceit and self-satisfaction now emerged with impish mid often malicious glee. He pricked the foibles of mankind, derided human vanities and pilloried conceit. And stranger than anything m the famous partnership. Sullivan's music heightened all the joy <>f this mid lent rapier thrusts to Gilbert's already sharp, shrewd, satirical wit. Gilbert once remarked that old age was the happiest lime in a man’s life, “The worst of it is." he concluded wistfully, "that there is so little of it.”

A few days later he was dead. gave his life rescuing a drowning girl, one of his guests. In an exceptionally happy mood, he had just returned from London, where he had astounded many by his reconciliatory attitude toward them, particularly the actor Kendall, to whom he and his wife had not spoken for many years. Reaching his home an hour later, | Gilbert heard the girl’s cry fur help.! Sensing lies fear mare than her actual] • danger he at om- went to her aid H- ! I was swimming back with her witer.j | his heart, gave cut. and he sank whertj ! he could have stood in the .Mialluw w.. ■■