Abstract
This essay examines W.S. Gilbert’s Bab Ballads, first published between 1861 and 1871 in the comic periodical, Fun. Although he is best remembered for his dramatic collaborations with composer Arthur Sullivan, W.S. Gilbert established a comic method in the Ballads that would define his career. While the ballads satirize topics ranging from religion to aestheticism, Gilbert’s most acute critiques focus on the excesses and hypocrisies of Victorian philanthropy, which I define as encompassing both charity—poor relief—and pre-emptive efforts to create a more equitable society that protects the most vulnerable. Coverage of philanthropic causes and methods in the 1850s and 1860s was so pervasive in print culture that it overwhelmed many prospective philanthropists, paralyzing their inclinations towards sympathy and duty. Gilbert’s comic method, “topsy-turvydom,” manipulates parody to identify societal ills, mirth to spur his readers’ sense of duty, and grotesquery to spark their sense of moral agency.