Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/127

 GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENCK (1836–1911), dramatist, born at 17 Southampton Street, Strand, the house of his mother's father, Dr. Thomas Morris, on 18 Nov. 1836, was only son in a family of four children of  (1804–1890) [q. v. Suppl. I] by his wife Atino Morris. His second christian name was the surname of his godmother. As an infant he travelled in Germany and Italy with his parents. When two years old he was stolen by brigands at Naples and ransomed for 25l. In later days when visiting Naples he recognised in the Via Posilippo the scene of the occurrence. His pet name as a child was 'Bab,' which he afterwards used as a pseudonym. He is said to have been a child of great beauty, and Sir [q. v.] was so attracted by his face that he asked leave to paint his picture. At the age of seven he went to school at Boulogne. From ten to thirteen he was at the Western Grammar School, Brompton, and from thirteen to sixteen at the Great Ealing School, where he rose to be head boy. He spent much time in drawing, and wrote plays for performance by his schoolfellows, painting his own scenery and acting himself.

In Oct. 1855 he entered the department of general literature and science at King's College, London (King's Coll. Calendar, 1855-6, p. 89). [q. v. Suppl. II] and [q. v. Suppl. II] were fellow students. Some of his earliest literary efforts were verses contributed to the college magazine. He remained a student during 1856-7, intending to go to Oxford, but in 1855, when he was nineteen years old, the Crimean war was at its height, and commissions in the Royal Artillery were thrown open to competitive examination. Giving up all idea of Oxford, he read for the army examination announced for Christmas 1856 ('An Autobiography' in The Theatre, 2 April 1883, p. 217). But the war came to an abrupt end, and no more officers being required, the examination was indefinitely postponed. Gilbert then graduated B.A. at the London University in 1857, and obtained a commission in the militia in the 3rd battalion Gordon highlanders.

In 1857 he was a successful competitor in an examination for a clerkship in the education department of the privy council office, in which 'ill-organised and ill-governed office' he tells us he spent four uncomfortable years. Coming unexpectedly in 1861 into 300l., 'on the happiest day of my life I sent in my resignation.' He had already, on 11 October 1855, entered the Inner Temple as a student ( ). With 100l. of his capital he paid for his call to the bar, which took place on 17 Nov. 1863 (cf. 'My Maiden Brief,' Cornhill, Dec. 1863). With another 100l. he obtained access to the chambers of (Sir) [q. v.], then a well-known barrister in the home circuit, and with the third 100l. he furnished a set of rooms of his own in Clement's Inn, but he does not appear to have had any professional chambers or address in the 'Law List.' He joined the northern circuit on 15 March 1866, one of his sponsors being (Sir) [q. v.] (MS. Circuit Records). He attended the Westminster courts, the Old Bailey, the Manchester and Liverpool assizes, the Liverpool sessions and Passage Court, but 'only earned 75l. in two years.'

During the same period he was earning a 'decent income' by contributions to current literature. He appeared for the first time in print in 1858, when he prepared a translation of the laughing-song from Auber's 'Manon Lescaut' for the playbill of Alfred Mellon's promenade concerts; Mdlle. Parepa, afterwards [q. v.], whom he had known from babyhood, had made a singular success there with the song in its original French. In 1861 Gilbert commenced both as author and artist, contributing an article, three-quarters of a column long with a half-page drawing on wood, for 'Fun,' then under the editorship of [q. v.]. A day or two later he was requested 'to contribute a column of "copy" and a half-page drawing every week' (Theatre, 1883, p. 218). He remained a regular contributor to 'Fun' during the editorship of Byron and that of Byron's successor, the younger [q. v.] (from 1865).

There is no evidence that he studied drawing in any school, but he was an illustrator of talent. In 1865 he made 84 illustrations for his father's novel, 'The Magic Mirror,' and in 1869 he illustrated another of his father's books, 'King George's Middy.' His illustrations of his own 'Bab Ballads' have much direct and quaint humour. In 1874 'The Piccadilly Annual' was described as 'profusely illustrated by W. S. Gilbert and other artists.' One of the 'other artists' was John Leech.

Having already both written and drawn occasionally for 'Punch,' Gilbert offered that periodical in 1866 his ballad called 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell,' but it was refused by the editor, [q. v.], on