Review of Jane W. Stedman,
W. S. Gilbert's Theatrical Criticism (London: The Society for Theatre
Research, 2000). ISBN 0 85430 068 6. Obtainable for £15 from Eileen
Cottis at The Society for Theatre Research, c/o Theatre Museum 1E Tavistock
Street, London WC2E 7PA.
This review originally appeared in Gilbert and
Sullivan News.
Every new book by Jane Stedman is a great step forward in our understanding of Gilbert. In the 1960s she gave us Gilbert Before Sullivan, which presented the texts of six of Gilbert's early works, at least one of which was a forgotten masterpiece. Her long Introduction to that volume quietly and learnedly broke open the Savoy myth; she showed us a glimpse of another Gilbert, a man not joined to Sullivan at the hip but fully capable of achieving astonishing things on his own account.
In 1996 this was followed up with her long-awaited biography W.S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian and his Theatre. It was, perhaps inevitably, not as good as long anticipation had set it up to be, but as a storehouse of previously little-known facts about Gilbert it was astonishing. It made us recognise that the "other Gilbert" of Gilbert Before Sullivan was simply one of many--the Bab Balladeer, the comic journalist, the burlesquer, the writer of Fairy Comedy, the Court dramatist, the writer of German Reed Entertainments, the translator, the hack, the theatrical firebrand… the collaborator with Sullivan. Alas, with so many different aspects to show to the reader, Stedman seemed to hurry over too many of them. Though not a "definitive" biography, it is a landmark work simply because, for the first time, the full territory of Gilbert's life is marked out for us.
And now, in her latest book W.S. Gilbert's Theatrical Criticism, she takes up the microscope once more, as she did in Gilbert Before Sullivan, showing us a single tiny facet of multi-faceted Gilbert. The Bab Ballads were not his only work for the comic paper Fun: from 1865 to 1871 he also reviewed plays, most often in the form of brief, devastating parodies. It is these absurd, savage, sometimes brilliant pieces that Stedman now shows us, while also giving us invaluable background information about the Victorian theatre and Gilbert's own views of it. Again and again Gilbert is shown pleading for the single clear story-line, for narrative probability, for realism in set, costume, and acting.
The main part of the book reproduces in full almost thirty of Gilbert's parody reviews, while Stedman's linking commentary quotes good lines from many more. The best of these reviews are indeed well worth reprinting. They rely on a solid core of jokes, such as the joke of having a character explain all the salient facts to the audience with naïve candour:
Enter MADAME D'ARTIGUES. Her long
skirt and her tightly-done hair show what a bad character she is.
MADAME D'ARTIGUES.--I am a female fiend, but I have reasons of my own for
not wishing this to be generally known. (p83)
The action of the play is speeded up absurdly, to almost cartoonish effect; characters point out the absurdities of the play they are acting in: "Capt. Goodge, as everything is mine now; and notwithstanding that the will has not yet been proved, and although I am not one of the deceased's executor's, hand me over the key of Flying Scud's stable." (p147) And throughout them all is a relish in the glorious idiocy of the drama of the day, often becoming an inspired nonsense. It is obvious that in these pieces Gilbert was discovering and exploring many of the techniques he was to use to such effect in the Savoy operas and elsewhere. Do I have to add that the best of them are very, very funny?
This is perhaps a book to read at leisure. A quick reading shows up the unvaried tone of the pieces: fine in ephemeral comic journalism where the jokes must be brief and rapid-fire--but a little wearying when gathered together in a book. The effect can be like scoffing a tray of Belgian chocolates in one sitting. But this is not to criticise Belgian chocolates, which in moderation are a capital thing; it is simply to recommend the best way of appreciating them.
Stedman has chosen to arrange her selections under broad subject headings-- "Criticism of Construction and Plot", "Satirizing the Sounds of Drama", and so on--rather than chronologically. Her given reason for this is that "Gilbert's style did not alter noticeably". While this is broadly true, it does lead to some problems of organisation. Running jokes are seen in full flight, and only later do we read the review that started the joke running--as in the case of Ethel; or Only a Life. A chronological treatment would work much better in this respect.
Stedman's commentary is often fascinating in the little sidelights it shines on Gilbert's early career. In alluding to a row between Gilbert and the editor of The Tomahawk (p189) Stedman shows us that they were in fact childhood friends--which puts the whole business in an entirely different light. There is much still to tell about Gilbert's life, and perhaps it is only in microscope examinations like this that they will be told.
The book's worst problem is its physical presentation. There are some bad typographical errors--the omission of the word "not" on p90 reverses the meaning of a sentence, and on p119 we are expected to believe that Gilbert was capable of writing "recieve" and "existance"! There are several "Bab" illustrations which, if they had come out clearly, would have made a magnificent effect, but which are ruined by being blurred and indistinct. Facsimile reproductions of two parody reviews are unreadable for this reason.
But these are really the fault of the publisher, not the author. They are serious blemishes, but they do not take away the importance of the book itself. We have long been told that Gilbert wrote nothing worth our attention except the Savoy operas; but this book disproves that myth once again, as Gilbert Before Sullivan did over thirty years ago. It is a persistent myth, which demands to be disproved at regular intervals. Luckily, there is more than enough material to allow us to do so.