NOTES

Notes on the songs are on the page for each song.

Those who wish for a deeper background and discussion of this opera may wish to go to:
http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/html/index.html

Right from the beginning, the title is a joke which audiences of that time would have appreciated. While Cornwall was renowned for its smugglers, pirates were almost nonexistent. For more see the article on pirates.

THE CHARACTERS
FREDERIC: Young Frederic is obviously of a good family since he had a nursery maid. Then she apprenticed him to the pirates. At the time, apprentice training was regulated by the trade guilds, and it is hard to imagine they would approve of pirates. An indenture is a paper listing the terms of his apprenticeship including the duties of each. It is called that because the original was written twice on same parchment. This was then cut on a jagged line like a row of teeth, and one half was given to each party. If the indented edges later fit together, the papers were judged to be genuine. Victorian England "expected every man to do his duty" and Frederic, having signed his indenture papers, patriotically and fanatically does so, even if his duty involves breaking the laws of England. In fact, he can be rather a prig. Note: the word "duty" is in bold whenever it appears in this synopsis to emphasize its importance..

Frederic is entering his twenty-second year. He is smart and has learned some mathematics. When the paradox is revealed, he very quickly calculates that he will have his 21st birthday in 1940 (mistakenly as it turns out). This is an important plot element which will appear later. He was eight when he was turned over to the pirates and claims he has never seen a young woman. Yet we later learn that he was scuttling Cunarders. These were, and are, ocean liners, passenger ships which cross the Atlantic. There must have been women on them. How does a boy brought up from the age of eight come up with a poetic and alliterative phrase such a Blushing buds of ever-blooming beauty"? A hint of things to come?

THE PIRATE KING: We don't know his name or anything about him until the end, but that should not be revealed here. Yet he loves poetry and he, and all the pirates have tender hearts.

RUTH: She is twenty-six years older than Frederick. She claims that being hard of hearing caused her to apprentice Frederic to the piratess, but she shows no signs of this later in the opera. Older woman in love are a recurrent theme in Gilbert, for example Katisha in The Mikado and Little Buttercup in Pinafore, but Ruth is treated most harshly. She is no beauty, but Frederick thinks she is because he has no basis for comparison. Her offer to "keep house" for the pirates is amazing considering the amount of work it would involve. Was the old maid attracted by the number of available men? However, it is clear the pirates don't really want her.

MABEL: She is the youngest of Major-General Stanley's many daughters, the only one willing to help Frederic. She promises to be faithful to him until his twenty-first birthday but does she realize he will be in his eighties by then? Her aria "Poor wandering one" is worthy of grand opera. In fact the first Mabels were also opera singers, Blanche Roosevelt in New York and Marion Hood in London. Yet the role has also been sung by pop stars such as Linda Ronstadt.

MAJOR-GENERAL STANLEY: A Major-General is a two star General. (Notes for his big song are found on the pages for that song.) He knows everything EXCEPT war. Since rank in the British army was based on social class, and not military training, this was a common problem at the time. Wellington was probably the last capable officer up until the time of the opera. There were many bad officers and Gilbert had fun satirizing them. Another is Sir Joseph Porter in Pinafore, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who knows nothing about ships. If the libretto is to be believed, Stanley has at least sixteen daughters all about the same age, quite a feat even allowing for multiple births and the possibility of several wives. He must have had some sons also. This has caused quite a bit of discussion among aficionados of Gilbert and Sullivan. The number of women necessary for the chorus and wives of all of the pirates dictates this number. In Pinafore the problem was met by having Porter's Sisters and Cousins and Aunts, much more feasible.

GENERAL
Cornwall: Penzance is in Cornwal, England, eight miles east of Land's End. It is a very unlikely place for Pirates. We don't see the town on the stage because the pirate cove is supposed to be inaccessible from the land. However the young women are able to get there.

Bumper: A drinking vessel often used in toasts where glasses are clinked of "bumped" against each other.

Sherry: Pirates drink rum. Does the fact these drink sherry hint at future revelations?

Scuttling Cunarders: To scuttle is to make holes below the water link of a ship causing it to sink. The Cunard line was founded in 1839.

Handspike: A wooden bar which can be put in a hole in an object and used to turn it, It seems pirates also used it on the heads of enemies

Pilot: Of course this is not an airplane pilot, but the port official who guides ships past the dangers of surf and rocks.

Orphans: This will be one of the major themes and later the inspiration for a very sophomoric, and seemingly endless confusion of the words "orphan" and "often", part of which is frequently cut.

Crews: Of course, none of these crews are composed completely of orphans but they have heard of the pirates leniency to them so make the claim. The gullible pirates believe them.

Top of the tide: Ships drawn up close to shore rather than at docks risk being stuck in the sand at low tide. Any good sailor would realize the need to leave immediately, but the pirates don't.

Difficult trip: Originally the cove where Act I takes places was described as "inaccessible" yet these Victorian women out for a picnic have managed to find it, even if the trip was difficult.

Paddle. This as well as other things indicate it must be a beautiful warm day. Yet it is Frederick's birthday and he was born on February 29. However, these women are hardy enough to make the trip here so maybe they don't mind cold weather. They have all taken off one shoe so must hop on the shod foot. There is also a reference later to a warm July, warm weather and lack of rain.

Father: For a discussion of how Stanley can have so many daughters see:
http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/discussion/2.html#women

Luncheon: But the servants and luncheon never appear

Weather: Again, the warm and beautiful weather is hardly appropriate for February 29, especially for this traditionally cold and bleak corner of southeast England.

Parsonified, Matrimonified: Two more of the words Gilbert loved to make up, in this case meaning married by a parson or minister.

Wards in Chancery are young people (from infants until they become of age) who because they are orphans or from broken homes, become wards of the court which manages all their affairs and their fortunes. Phyllis in Iolanthe is a Ward in Chancery as are Major Stanley's daughters in The Pirates of Penzance. It is supposed to be a form of protection, but it is subject to abuses. A person can give a large amount of money to a minor and then obtain a writ to administer her fortune. She becomes a ward of court and can not marry or even leave the court's jurisdiction for a holiday without permission.

Patter songs are a staple in Italian comic opera including Cinderella. The object is to have: "The greatest number of words uttered in the shortest possible time". They are extremely difficult to sing. For one thing they are usually solos and are easier to sing clearly in Italian with its many vowels than in English with all the important consonants which must be pronounced for the words to be understood. There are patter songs in almost all Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The Major-General's in Pirates is one of the most famous. Unfortunately, as Despair in Ruddigore sings: "This particular rapid, unintelligible patter isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter".

Poetry: There is a line which shows the importance of commas. It is has been printed in two different ways:
   "For what we ask is life without poetry" i.e the pirates ask for life without poetry.
   "For what, we ask, is life without poetry" i.e. they ask what life is if there has no poetry.
It has been interpreted in both ways in productions.

Lace and dimity: Dimity is a thin cotton fabric used for women's clothing. However, lace and dimity here does not refer to the fabric but to the women who wear it. This like using "the brass" for army officers or "the cloth" for clergymen.

Chapel: It was usual for the large houses of the nobility to have their own chapel and members of the family were buried there. Major-General Stanley feels he bought the tombs and therefore the ancient families along with the castle. It is old and ruined.

Escutcheon: The family crest and the shield on which it is emblazoned. The one here is not the one Stanley was born with, but the one he has just bought. He also feels a sense of duty to his new "family".

Paradox: A situation or statement which seems to contradict itself, something which appears true but is false or vice-versa. For example Frederic has had only five birthdays even though he has lived for twenty-one years. For more on this see the Birthday Paradox

Tremorden Castle: This is the name of Major-General's Cornish estate. The prefix "Tre" is old Cornish meaning town. A lokk at a map of Cornwall will reveal many place names beginning with "Tre".

Weapons: These include life preservers (defensive stick loaded with lead and meant to stun but not kill), centerbits which bore through wood, silent matches which are wooden matches which are ignited by dipping in a mixture of asbestos and sulfuric acid so there is not the usual scratching sound, skeleton keys and dark lanterns (with covered windows, one of which can be open of shut).

Unshriven, unannealed: Unshiven means the person did not have a chance to make a confession and receive absolution from a priest before death. To be annealed meant to be anointed with oil before death. Without these they would go to hell.

Queen: This refers to Queen Victoria who is famous for saying: "We are not amused". She was in the audience one evening and apparently did not take offense at being referred to. There is no record of whether she was amused or not.

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Revised February 2010
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