Artist Profile
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836 – 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator. Gilbert’s dramatic career began when a playwright, Thomas William Robertson, recommended him as someone who could produce a bright Christmas piece in only two weeks. Gilbert promptly wrote Dulcamara; or, The Little Duck and the Great Quack, a commercial success, and other commissions followed.
In 1870 Gilbert met Sullivan, and they started working together the following year. They would partner for 14 comic operas, of which the most famous include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theater, The Mikado.
Gilbert wrote several popular burlesques for the dramatic stage: Sweethearts (1874), Engaged (1877), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (1891). He also created librettos for other composers; the music for his last opera, Fallen Fairies; or, The Wicked World (1909), was by Edward German. His last play, The Hooligan, was performed in 1911.
Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads, an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings. His creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw.
He died of a heart attack brought on by rescuing a woman from drowning in a lake on his country estate.
