1922] on Gilbert and Sullivan 601 



or when Private Willis says that every boy aud every girl that is born 

 into the world alive is either a little Liberal or else a little Conserva- 

 tive, the words go quite as straight home to a modern audience as 

 they did to the public which first heard them. 



But although Gilbert's satire is not bitter, it is undeniable that it 

 sometimes has an element not only of downrightness, but of harshness 

 in it. It is not savage, like that of Juvenal or Swift, but it is not 

 too squeamish for a knock-out blow. This may sometimes, and does 

 sometimes, ruffle and jar upon the sensitive. But these easily ruffled 

 persons should remember that Gilbert's harshness is an ingredient 

 which is to found in all the great comic writers ; in Aristophanes, in 

 Cervantes, in Moliere, and indeed in any comic writer whose work 

 endures for more than one generation. It is a kind of salt which 

 causes the soil of comedy to renew itself ; and in Gilbert's case it 

 arises from his formidable commonsense. He never took his 

 paradoxes seriously as so many of his successors did. He is as 

 sensible as Dr. Johnson, and sometimes as harsh. Gilbert has often 

 been blamed for gibing at the old. It is true that his jokes on the 

 subject of the loss of female looks are sometimes fierce aud uncom- 

 promising. But they are mild indeed compared with those of 

 Aristophanes, Horace, and Moliere ; and on closer inspection, we find 

 it is not really at the old he is gibing, but at the old who pretend 

 to be young ; at Lady Jane's infatuation for Bunthorne ; at Katisha's 

 pursuit of Nanki Poo. Such things exist, and if they exist we must 

 not be surprised if satirists laugh at them, and laugh loud. What is 

 exceptional in Gilbert's satire is that he combined with this downright 

 strong commonsense and almost brutal punching power a vein of 

 whimsical nonsense and ethereal fancy which generally goes with 

 more gentle and flexible temperaments. 



The third cardinal quality of Gilbert's work is almost too obvious 

 to dwell upon, namely, his wit, both in prose and in rhyme ; his neat 

 hitting of the nail on the head, his incomparable verbal felicity and 

 dexterity ; and the peculiar thing about Gilbert's verbal felicity is its 

 conversational fluency. He uses the words, the phrases and the very 

 accent and turn of ordinary everyday conversation and yet invests 

 them with a sure, certain and infectious rhythm, the pattest of rhythm ; 

 and rhymes that are always inevitable, however fantastic and far- 

 fetched. For instance : — 



" When the coster's finished jumping on his mother, 



On his mother, 

 He loves to lie a-basking in the sun, 



In the sun. 

 Ah, take one consideration with another, 



With another, 

 The policeman's lot is not a happy one, 



Happy one." 



2 TJ 2 



