Books: Pooh to a Callow Throstle

PLAYS AND POEMS (1,218 pp.)—W. S. Gilbert—Random House ($3.50).

It was a robber's daughter, and her name was Alice Brown,

Her father was the terror of a small Italian town;

Her mother was a foolish, weak, but amiable old thing;

But it isn't of her parents that I'm going for to sing. . . .

"Oh, holy father" Alice said, "'twould grieve you, would it not?

To discover that I was a most disreputable lot! . . .

I have helped mamma to steal a little kiddy from its dad, "

I've assisted dear papa in cutting up a...