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THE STORY OF H.M.S. PINAFORE
BY
SIR W. S. GILBERT
ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR AND BLACK AND WHITE BY
ALICE B. WOODWARD
LONDON, G. BELL AND SONS, LTD., 1913
CONTENTS
Colour Illustrations
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TO MY YOUNG READERS
by Sir W. S. Gilbert
I HAVE been asked to explain to you how it comes to pass
that this, the story of a well-known Play, is now placed before you in the form
of a Tale. In the first place, many very young ladies and gentlemen are never
taken to the Theatre at all. It is supposed by certain careful Papas and Mamas
that very young ladies and gentlemen should go to bed at an early hour, and
that it is very bad for them to sit up as late as half past eleven or twelve
o'clock at night. Of course, this difficulty could be overcome by taking them
to Morning Performances, which are so called because they invariably take place
in the afternoon; but there are drawbacks even to Morning Performances. Unless
you are seated in the front row of the stalls (where the band is sure to be too
loud), or in the front row of the dress circle (which is a long way off), the
enjoyment of very young ladies and gentlemen is pretty nearly sure to be
interfered with by the gigantic cart-wheel hats, decorated with huge bunches of
wobbling feathers that ill-bred and selfish ladies clap upon their heads,
nowadays, whenever they go to a theatre in the daytime. A third reason (and
perhaps the best of them all) is that very young ladies and gentlemen find it
rather difficult to follow the story of a play, much of which is told in songs set
to beautiful music, and all of which is written in language which is better
suited to their Papas and Mamas than to themselves. A fourth reason (but this
is not such a good one as the other three) is that the Opera upon which this
book is founded is, unhappily, not played in every town every night of the
year. It should be, of course, but it is not, and it may very well happen that
some poor people have to go so long as two or three years without having any
opportunity of improving their minds by seeing it performed. When we get a
National Theatre, at which all the best plays will be produced at the expense
of the Public (who will also enjoy the privilege of paying to see the Plays
after they have defrayed the cost of producing them), "Her Majesty's Ship
Pinafore" will, no doubt, be played once or twice in every fortnight for ever;
but as some years must elapse before this happy state of things can come to
pass, and as those who are very young ladies and gentlemen now may be very
middle-aged ladies and gentlemen then, it was thought that it would be a kind
and considerate action to supply them at once with a story of the Play, so as
not to subject them to the tantalizing annoyance of having to wait (possibly)
many years before they have an opportunity of learning what it is all about.
As I would not for the world deceive my young readers, I
think it right to state that this story is entirely imaginary. It might very
well have happened but, in point of fact, it never did.
Page updated 28 May 2004
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