Benford's G&S Lexicon Entries for HMS Pinafore
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Act II
A facial expression effected by curling the upper lip or turning up the nose (or both), showing proud and haughty contempt. See also Trial By Jury.
The lowest in rank or pecking order.
Presumably refers to the port watch. Ship’s crews were in those days divided into two groups for alternating work. These were called the port and starboard watches.
The term is one coined by Gilbert to mean the scorn shown by ships’ officers. Epaulettes are those shoulder decorations, usually with tassels, worn on naval officers’ uniforms.
This refers to the sneers of officers.
These mispronunciations may be interpreted as typical British disdain, if not contempt, for “them furriners.”
Pronunciation: Rhymes with clammy.
A contraction of damn me! (Shocking!)
Pronunciation: Rhymes with nibbled.
A vulgar person who uses coarse language.
Haste. Contrary to popular rumor, celerity is not a young woman. Note lower case c.
Pronunciation: FOKE-sill
Correctly fo’c’s’le: the sailors’ usual way of speaking of a forecastle, a raised deck in the bow of a ship. In medieval ships the forecastle was an elevated platform in the bow from which archers could shoot at the enemy. Protection was afforded by a wooden bulwark (wall) on which shields were often hung. Extending somewhat above the bulwarks, the collective shields resembled the castellated top of a castle wall, hence the term “forecastle.” See Item No. 1 on the drawing of nautical terms.
Bell invented the device in 1876. The first London exchange opened two months after the opera opened (7).
Collins (75) defines a baby farmer as “one who, for a fee, accepts on a relatively large scale the care of infants but is indifferent as to their welfare.” Wilson (320) maintains that Buttercup could not be accused of being “indifferent as to their welfare.” He notes that “except for her one great carelessness, Buttercup seems quite an affectionate, matronly sort of woman.” Wilson is probably right in defending Buttercup, but Kanthor (169) produces evidence that baby farmers, in general, had a thoroughly rotten reputation. Knight (178) believes most of the babies were illegitimate.
Buttercup’s way of pronouncing nursed to make it rhyme with crust. Gypsy blood makes one a natural poet, or poetess, as the case may be. Or at least it confers poetic license. (Actually, nuss was a commonly used pronunciation among the lower classes of that period.)