Benford's G&S Lexicon Entries for Patience

Pronunciation: BOO-si-ko

Dion Boucicault was an Irish playwright and actor who was well known in Gilbert's day. Traveling in both the United Kingdom and America, he wrote or adapted about 400 farces, comedies, and melodramas -- in some of which he acted with great success. Several of his plays had Irish settings (105). His play The Colleen Bawn was one of Queen Victoria's favorites, and history records that she attended no fewer than three performances. Two days after the queen attended the third performance, her mother died, and within a year so did Prince Albert. Throughout the rest of her life she consented to having a few entertainments staged within the palace, but she never again made a public appearance in a theater (258).

Sodor is an ancient name for the Hebrides (islands off the west coast of Scotland). The Isle of Man is much farther south, in the Irish Sea. The most likely candidate for the Colonel's intent would appear to be Rowley Hill, D.D. (1836-87), who was made Bishop of Sodor and Man in 1877. The Dictionary of National Biography (93) says that "He discharged his duties with great zeal and success."

Count Alfred Guillaume Gabriel D'Orsay (1801-52) was a French dandy who married into the English nobility and became the center of a fashionable artistic and literary circle in London. He was "long arbiter elegantarium of English society and was considered an accomplished artist and sculptor." In 1849 he fled to Paris to escape his creditors (77). Walmisley (299) divulges many juicy details about D'Orsay's private life that would bring the blush of shame to the cheek of modesty.

Fraudulence. Aurora (15) argues that D'Orsay was irresponsible and unrealistic, but not the quack that the colonel implies.

Charles Dickens (1812-70): Eminent English novelist, author of Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol, among other famous works. Gilbert adapted Great Expectations for the stage, and looked upon Dickens as one of his favorite authors (240). See also Ruddigore and Utopia, Limited.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63): Another English novelist, who was nearly as popular as Dickens in his day. He was the author of many satirical journal sketches and such famous novels as Vanity Fair (287). One of his books was The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond. I dare say you never heard of it.

Presumably refers to Victor Emmanuel II (1820-78), King of Sardinia, who united Italy in 1861 after decades of war with Austria and the troops of Pope Pius IX. He became the first king of Italy and was widely admired.

Pronunciation: Rhymes with several

Sir Geoffrey Peveril was the hero of Sir Walter Scott's historic novel Peveril of the Peak (262), in which the action takes place in the Peak Region of Derbyshire and on the Isle of Man. The remains of Peveril Castle still stand.

An Italian religious leader, scholastic philosopher, theologian, and writer of the thirteenth century; one of the great pillars of the Roman Catholic faith and founder of the Dominican Friars. He lived from ca. 1225 to 1274, and was canonized in 1323.

Pronunciation: suh-SHEV-erell

Henry Sacheverell (ca. 1674-1724) was an Anglican clergyman who became the center of a religious dispute with political overtones during the reign of Queen Anne. He was charged with seditious libel and adjudged guilty. He was, however, given a light sentence: a three-year suspension from preaching. His troubles were triggered by a seditious sermon that earned the distinction of being burned by the common hangman (54, 55).

Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-89) was a popular, but abominable English poet. His Proverbial Philosophy, published in 1838, sold nearly two million copies; yet he was a favorite target of contemporary parodists, including Gilbert, who mentions Tupper slightingly in two of the Bab Ballads. Gilbert also published in Fun a mock testimonial to Tupper written in "dog Latin" (66, 127). Despite general critical disdain, Tupper must have been in Queen Victoria's good graces because he was commissioned to write verses for one of her family entertainments (258).

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92): English baron and Poet Laureate 1850-92. His epic poem The Princess was the basis for Princess Ida. His best known work, perhaps, is Idylls of the King.

English novelist and journalist (ca. 1660-1731). Best known for his novel Robinson Crusoe.

English novelist (1815-82) whose many novels generally dealt with upper middle-class families in country settings. Among his best-known works are several novels set in the imaginary English cathedral town of Barchester.

Pronunciation: gee-ZOE

François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874), erudite and versatile Frenchman who made his mark as statesman, educator, and historian. He published several books, held important ministerial posts, and was ambassador to Britain.

Capable of being melted or liquefied.

A small baked clay pot.

A bowl in which metals, ores, etc., can be melted.

Latin for "residue."

A model of perfection as, for example, a well-presented Savoy opera.

Emperor of Russia, who in 1881 was Alexander II, the one who sold Alaska to the United States. The Czars were known for their great wealth, often ostentatiously displayed.

A region in the north-east of Spain. It was an independent kingdom from A.D. 1035 until it merged with Castile in the fifteenth century. During its independence it conquered and ruled over many neighboring or far-flung provinces and city states, such as Naples. The "family pride" presumably pertains to the many noble families with unsullied blood lines that originated in Aragon. I dare say Pooh-Bah himself liked to think he had ancestral roots in the region.

Mephisto is presumably the Prince of Darkness, also known as Mephistopheles (as in Faust).

A curse invoking evil consequences.

Probably refers to Lord Charles (1846-1919) of the Beresford family, the Marquis of Waterford, in Ireland. The family had a reputation for daring and, often, notorious shenanigans. Massie (201) avers that Henry Beresford, the third marquis, was killed in a hunting accident and that the fifth marquis was hopelessly crippled by a fall from his horse. By the time his younger brother, Lord Charles, had reached middle age "He had broken his chest bone, his pelvis, his right leg, his right hand, a foot, one collarbone three times, the other once, and his nose in three places." Lord Charles entered the navy in 1859 and rose rapidly by force of his strong personality, fiery enthusiasm and reckless courage that made him the idol of the fleet. Massie goes on to recount Charles's amazing military and political exploits that reinforce the adage that truth is stranger than fiction.

And here's one more exploit: On April 13, 1878, when Gilbert and Sullivan traveled to Portsmouth to inspect H.M.S. Victory, who should meet them as they arrived but none other than Lord Charles Beresford (325).

Derived from rollicking, meaning boisterous and free-spirited. See also The Sorcerer and The Pirates of Penzance.

There are several possibilities here. The last king of Ireland, Rory O’​Connor, was also known as Roderick. The last Visigothic king of Spain, Don Rodrigo, was the center of many colorful legends, which entered English literature and in which he was known as Roderick. But how many Spanish kings have any clans to lead? The strongest candidate, by far, is Sir Walter Scott’​s Roderick Dhu, of “haughty mien and lordly air.” He was the overbearing Highland chieftain in Scott’​s poem “The Lady of the Lake” (261). Confronting a lonely young Englishman, a rival for the hand of fair Ellen, the lady of the lake, Black Roderick:

Then fixed his eye and sable brow
Full on Fitz-James: “How say’​st thou now?
These are Clan-Alpine’​s warriors true;
And, Saxon, -- I am Roderick Dhu!”

Most authorities agree this refers to a highly successful and internationally famous private detective whose office was at Paddington Green (in London). His real name was Ignatius Paul Pollaky (140).

A concubine in a Turkish harem. Strictly speaking, an odalisque was simply a female Turkish slave. Undraped odalisques reclining on divans were popular subjects of erotic paintings of the day. One example by Ingres (in the Louvre) is named Odalisque. There she is, artistically clothed in only a head-wrap and bracelet, gracefully reclining upon what we may suppose to be a divan.

Carthaginian general and tactical genius who lived about 247-183 B.C. He is best known for leading his troops and elephants over the Alps to attack Rome. After many military successes in Italy he was finally defeated without ever taking Rome. He returned to Carthage but went into exile, where he died by his own hand.