W. S. Gilbert*

Dramatist, Humorist, Poet, Lawyer

The Man. Charles Dickens, Trollope, Tennyson, Thackeray, acting, conjuring, photography, the Book of Job, the law, the sea, were among the major interests of William Schwenk Gilbert. He was a witty man with a quick temper and a kind heart. He never 'wittingly killed a black-beetle.' Fond of dancing, he was a master of the Scotch Reel. His genius for versification found outlet in his private life by innumerable informal limericks. His only pets were two ring-tailed lemurs, who later (in 1905) combined...

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