More Bab Ballads

These are not your grandmother's nursery rhymes. Behind their mock-naive medieval veneer, the Bab Ballads hide some of Victorian England's sharpest social satire. W.S. Gilbert perfected the art of the triple rhyme, the absurd premise delivered with deadpan seriousness, and the joke that reveals its own absurdity even as it lands. Here you'll find aged bumboat women dreaming of lost love, ogres with surprisingly modern anxieties, and sailors whose romantic misfortunes would be comic if they weren't so recognizably human. Gilbert mocks everything from naval heroism to romantic conventions to the very idea that verse should mean anything at all. The humor remains remarkably fresh: clever without being cold, silly without being stupid, and always aware that the best joke is the one that knows it's a joke. If you appreciate wordplay that rewards attention, these ballads reward rereading.