Bab Ballads

Bab Ballads is a series of illustrated humorous poems by WS Gilbert.

The humor of the Bab Ballads based on a crazy initial situation from which arise absurd conclusions. This style, which was called " topsyturvydom " ( " On - the - head - set" ), is also found in the later operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The name Bab Ballads goes back to the pet name " Bab ", the Gilbert wore as a child, and with which he signed his illustrations regularly since 1866.

Genesis

The Bab Ballads began with an illustrated article, the Gilbert the weekly magazine Fun sent. He then accepted the offer of fun, contribute a column text and an illustration for each issue. In addition, Gilbert provided further articles, poems and theater reviews for the magazine. The first known contribution Gilbert for fun is one with "Some mistake here" titled drawing on page 56 of the edition of 26 October 1861. The first article, which he recorded in the collection of poems, published in 1865. Due to its higher profile as a librettist wrote Gilbert in 1870 only a few Bab Ballad poems. A first edition of the collected Bab Ballads appeared 1868. Appeared in the subsequent years expenditures include other poems. A generally accepted list of works that are considered Bab Ballads, does not exist.

List of Bab Ballads

The following table lists all of the Bab Ballads, which are included in Ellis ( 1970). The second column lists the journal in which the poems were originally published, and the third column contains the poetry collections in which they are contained. The following abbreviations are used:

• TBB: WS Gilbert: The " Bab " Ballads - Much Sound and Little Sense. John Camden Hotten, London 1868
• MBB: W. S. Gilbert: More " Bab " Ballads. Routledge, London 1872
• 50BB: W. S. Gilbert: Fifty " Bab " Ballads. Routledge, London 1876
• D & G: Sidney Dark, Rowland Grey: W.S. Gilbert: His Life and Letters. Methuen, London 1923
• Goldberg: Isaac Goldberg: The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan or The ' Compleat ' Savoyard. John Murray, London 1929
• Ellis James Ellis: The Bab Ballads. Belknap Press, Cambridge, 1970, ISBN 0-674-05800-3

Starting with " Mister William" Gilbert had most poems that appeared in the Fun, a number too. These numbers are listed in the second column to the source.