Bibliography of W.S. Gilbert

This is a selected list of W. S. Gilbert's works, including all that have their own Wikipedia articles. For a complete list of Gilbert's dramatic works, see List of W. S. Gilbert dramatic works.

Poetry

* "The Bab Ballads", a collection of comic verse published roughly between 1865 and 1871.

hort Stories

* "Foggerty's Fairy and Other Tales", a collection of short stories and essays, mainly from before 1874.

Plays

Selected stage works that were important to Gilbert's career or were otherwise notable, in chronological order, excluding those listed under other headings below:
* "Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack" (1866 musical spoof of Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore"). Gilbert's first successful work for the theatre.
* "Robert the Devil (Gilbert)" (1868), a parody of Myerbeer's "Robert le diable". One of Gilbert's most successful early plays, it opened the Gaiety Theatre, London and ran in the provinces for 3 years.
* "An Old Score" (1869) (rewritten as "Quits!" in 1872)
* "The Princess" (1870). Musical farce; the precursor to "Princess Ida".
* "The Palace of Truth" (1870). The first of Gilbert's "Fairy Comedies".
* "Creatures of Impulse" (1871), with music by Alberto Randegger, based on Gilbert's 1870 short story called "A Strange Old Lady".
* "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871). Gilbert's most successful work up to this time. A reinterpretation of the Pygmalion myth in which the innocent former statue, Galatea, is unable to bear the cynicism and jealousies of the real world.
* "The Wicked World" (1873). A fairy comedy about how mortal love upsets the fairy world.
* "The Happy Land" (1873). This work was briefly banned for its sharp satire of government ministers. It also travesties "The Wicked World".
* "The Realm of Joy" (1873). Set in the box office of a thinly-disguised "The Happy Land", it satirises the public who come to scandalous plays and the Lord Chamberlain's censorship of plays.
* "The Wedding March" (1873) a farce adapted from "Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie" by Eugène Labiche
* "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern" (published 1874, performed 1891).
* "Charity" (1874). Concerns Victorian attitudes towards sex outside of marriage. Anticipates the 1890s "problem plays" of Shaw, Ibsen.
* "Sweethearts" (1874). A drama about love revisited after 30 years.
* "Tom Cobb" (1875). This was possibly Gilbert's funniest farce.
* "Broken Hearts" (1875). The last of Gilbert's "fairy comedies", this was one of Gilbert's favourite plays.
* "Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith" (1876). A three-act drama that introduced antecedents of some of Gilbert's later characters.
* "Engaged" (1877). Probably the most famous of Gilbert's non-Sullivan works for the theatre.
* "The Ne'er-do-Weel" (1878); rewritten as "The Vagabond" after a few weeks.
* "The Forty Thieves" (1878). An "amateur pantomime at the Gaiety," written with three other writers, in which WSG played Harlequin.
* "Gretchen" (1879). One of Gilbert's favorites.
* "Foggerty's Fairy" (1881)
* "Brantinghame Hall" (1888), a drama. Gilbert's biggest flop, it sent producer Rutland Barrington into bankruptcy.
* "The Fortune Hunter" (1897). Not a good play; its reception provoked WSG to announce retiring from writing for the stage. [ [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/other_gilbert/fortune_hunter.pdf Script of "The Fortune Hunter"] ]
* "The Fairy's Dilemma" (1904). WSG finally works out a lifelong obsession with pantomime and harlequinade. [ [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/other_gilbert/fairys_dilemma.pdf Script of "The Fairy's Dilemma"] ]
* "The Hooligan" (1911). Gilbert's last play, written in a new, serious style.

German Reed Entertainments

Gilbert wrote six one-act musical entertainments for the German Reeds between 1869 and 1875. They were successful in their own right and also helped form Gilbert's mature style as a dramatist. These include:
* "No Cards" (1869)
* "Ages Ago" (1869). Gilbert's first collaboration with Frederic Clay, and his first hit with the German Reeds, running for 350 performances.
* "Our Island Home" (1870)
* "A Sensation Novel" (1871)
* "Happy Arcadia" (1872)
* "Eyes and No Eyes" (1875)

Early comic operas

* "The Gentleman in Black" (1870; music by Frederic Clay).
* "Les Brigands" (1871), an English adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's operetta.
* "Topsyturveydom" (1874; music by Alfred Cellier). This one-act operetta concerns a country that is the opposite of England. It contains a lot of political satire.
* "Princess Toto" (1876; music by Frederic Clay). A three-act opera, Gilbert's last with Clay.

The Gilbert and Sullivan operas

All of these operas are full-length two-act works, except for "Trial by Jury", which is in one act, and "Princess Ida", which is three acts.
* "Thespis" (1871)
* "Trial by Jury" (1875)
* "The Sorcerer" (1877)
* "H.M.S. Pinafore" (1878)
* "The Pirates of Penzance" (1879)
* "Patience" (1881)
* "Iolanthe" (1882)
* "Princess Ida" (1884)
* "The Mikado" (1885)
* "Ruddigore" (1887)
* "The Yeomen of the Guard" (1888)
* "The Gondoliers" (1889)
* "Utopia, Limited" (1893)
* "The Grand Duke" (1896)

Later operas without Sullivan

Though not as popular as the works with Arthur Sullivan, a few of Gilbert's later works arguably have stronger plots than the last two Gilbert and Sullivan operas. [See, e.g., Wolfson, pgs 64-65.]
* "The Mountebanks" (1892; music by Alfred Cellier). This is the "lozenge plot" that Sullivan declined to set on several occasions.
* "Haste to the Wedding" (1892; music by George Grossmith). An unsuccessful adaptation of "The Wedding March".
* "His Excellency" (1894; with music by Osmond Carr). Gilbert felt that if Sullivan had set it, the piece would have been "another Mikado".
* "Fallen Fairies" (1909; music by Edward German). Gilbert's last opera, which was a failure.

Parlour ballads

Gilbert is known to have written lyrics for twelve parlour ballads.Allen, p. 74] These are:
*"The Yarn of the Nancy Bell", with music by Alfred Plumpton. One of the Bab Ballads. Published by Charles Jeffreys in 1869.
*"Thady O'Flynn", with music by James L. Molloy. Published by Boosey & Co on 7 October 1868. From "No Cards". [Allen p. 25]
*Would You Know that Maiden Fair", with music by Frederic Clay. From "Ages Ago". Published by Boosey c. 1869. [ Allen p. 28]
*"Corisande", with music by James L. Molloy. Published by Boosey on 18 June, 1870.
*"Eily's Reason", with music by James L. Molloy. Published by Boosey on 27 February 1871.
*Three songs from "A Sensation Novel": "The Detective's Song", "The Tyrannical Bridegroom", and "The Jewel". Published by Hopwood & Co in 1871. [Allen p. 32]
*"The Distant Shore", with music by Arthur Sullivan. Published by Chappell & Co on 18 December 1874.
*"The Love that Loves me Not", with music by Arthur Sullivan. Published by Novello, Ewer & Co in 1875.
*"Sweethearts", with music by Arthur Sullivan. Based on the play of the same name and used to promote it. Published by Chappell & Co in 1875. [Allen, p. 41]
*"Let Me Stay", with music by Walter Maynard. Published by Boosey on 13 December 1875. The same lyric was set by Edward German for "Broken Hearts".

ee also

*List of W. S. Gilbert dramatic works
*List of musical compositions by Arthur Sullivan

Notes

References

*Allen, Reginald (1963), "W. S. Gilbert: An Anniversary Survey and Exhibition Checklist with Thirty-five Illustrations", The Biographical Society of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia.
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* (Contains mostly stories from "Foggerty's Fairy and Other Tales".)
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