Gilbert’s comic ballads, first written for the magazine Fun, sit here beside the songs he wrote for the Savoy operas with Arthur Sullivan. The cook-and-captain-bold of the Nancy brig, Captain Reece, the Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo and General John share the pages with the patter of a susceptible Lord Chancellor.
Topsy-turvy verse from the master of Victorian nonsense, though a few ballads carry the racial jokes of their day. Download the free EPUB.