THE AUTHORS OF H.M.S PINAFORE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 5872, 27 January 1880, Page 3

THE AUTHORS OF H.M.S PINAFORE.

(Abridged from the New Torh Tribune, November 11.) Mr. W. S. Gilbert, dramatist, and Mr. Arthur Sullivan, composer, were entertained at dinner by the Lotos Club on the Bth instant. Mr. Gilbert, in the course of his remarks, said : “ I have seen in several London journals well-meant but injudicious paragraphs, saying that we have a grievance against the New York managers because they have played our pieces and offered us no share of the profits. (Laughter.) We have no grievance whatever. Our only complaint is that there is no international copyright Act. ( Applause.) The author of a play in which there is no copyright is very much in the position of au author or the descendants of an author whose copyright has expired. I am not aware that our London publishers are in the habit of seeking the descendants of Sir Walter Scott or Lord Byron, or Captain Marryatt, and offering 'them a share of the profits on their publications. (Laughter.) I have yet to learn that our London managers seek out the living representatives of Oliver Goldsmith, or Richard Brinsley Sheridan, or William Shakespeare, in order to pay them any share of the profits from the production of * She Stoops to Conquer.’ or * The Good Natured Man,* or ‘ The Merchant of Venice.’ (Laughter.) If they do so they do it on the principle that the right hand knows not what the left hand doeth—(laughter) —and as we have not heard of it, we presume, therefore, that they have not done so. And we believe that if those eminent men were to request a share of the profits, they would be met with the reply that the copyright on those works had expired. And so, if we should suggest It to the managers of this country, they would perhaps reply, with at least equal justice, ‘ Gentlemen, your copyright never existed.* That it has never existed is due entirely to our own fault. We , consulted a New York lawyer, and were informed that although an alien author has no right in his work, yet so long as they remained unpublished we held the real title in them, and there was no necessity to make them our own. We therefore thought we would keep it in unpublished form, and make more profit from the sale of the pianoforte score and the words of the songs before the houses and at the music publishers. We imagined that the allusions in the piece were so purely British in their character, so insular in fact, that they would be of no interest ori this side, but events have, shown that in that conclusion we were mistaken. At all events, we have also arrived at the conclusion that we have nobody to blame but ourselves. As it is, w© have realised by the sale of the book and tbs piano score in London about 7500d01. apiece, and under those circumstances I don’t think we need to be pitied. (Laughter.) For myself, I certainly don’t pose as an object for compassion. (Laughter.) We propose to open here on the Ist of December, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, with a performance of * Pinafore.’ (Laughter.) I'll not add the prefix initials, because I have no desire to offend your republican sympathies. (Laughter.) I may say, however, that I have read in some journals that we have come over here to show you how that piece, should be played, but that I disclaim both for myself and my collaborates. We come here to teach nothing we have nothing to teach, and perhaps we should have no pupils if we did. (Laughter.) But apart from the fact that we have no copyright, and are not yet managers in the United States, we see no reason why we should be the only ones who are not to be permitted to play this piece here. (Laughter and applause.) I think you will admit that we have a legitimate object in opening with it. We have no means of knowing how it has been played in this country, but we are informed that it has been played more broadly than in the old country—-

and you know that may be better or worse. (Laughter.) A ft- «-nrd we • repose to produce another piece, an i * tit.’ niucss of time, the longer it is delay*‘l, perhaps the better for us (laughter)—and we piopoae to present it—to the audience —(laughter)—in the same spirit in which we presented ‘Pinafore' —in a most serious spirit—not to permit the audience to see by anything that occurs on the stage that the actors' are conscious of the really absurd things they are doing—whether right or not, that is the way in which it was presented in London. We opeu with ‘Pinafore,’ not to show how that ought to be played, but to show how the piece that succeeds is about to be played, and to prepare the audiences for the reception of our new and highly prosperous story. (Applause.)”