The Bab BalladsW. 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. |
Contents
The Bab Ballads | 3 |
The Advent of Spring | 33 |
The Cattle Show Fun | 34 |
The Cattle Show The Comic News | 36 |
Sixtythree and Sixtyfour | 37 |
The Dream | 39 |
The Baron Klopfzetterheim | 41 |
Down to the Derby | 51 |
To a Little Maid | 71 |
Ferdinando and Elvira or The Gentle Pieman | 72 |
The Pantomime Super to His Mask | 74 |
The Yarn of the Nancy Bell | 76 |
Monsieur Le Blond on London | 79 |
Haunted | 81 |
The Reverend Rawston Wright | 82 |
The Story of Gentle Archibald | 83 |
Something Like Nonsense Verses | 54 |
Ode to My Clothes | 55 |
The Student | 56 |
Tempora Mutantur | 58 |
The Bachelors Strike | 59 |
A Bad Night of | 60 |
To Phoebe | 61 |
Ozone | 62 |
To the Terrestrial Globe | 63 |
The Monkey in Trouble 64 Back Again | 64 |
To My Absent Husband | 65 |
Musings in a Music Hall 66 Pantomimic Presentiments | 66 |
The Bar and Its Moaning | 68 |
To Euphrosyne 69 The Phantom Curate | 69 |
To My Bride | 86 |
Only a Dancing Girl | 88 |
To My Steed | 89 |
King Borria Bungalee | 90 |
Jack Casts His Shell | 92 |
How to Write an Irish Drama 93 General John | 93 |
Sir Guy the Crusader | 95 |
Sir Galahad the Golumptious | 97 |
Disillusioned | 98 |
John and Freddy | 100 |
Lorenzo de Lardy | 101 |
The Bishop and the Busman | 104 |
Babettes Love | 106 |