Chapter I: Front Matter

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original lovely
llustrations, many in full colour. The HTML version
also has music audio files to which the reader can
listen.
See 65291-h.htm or 65291-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65291/pg65291-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/65291/65291-h.zip)

Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/pinaforepictureb00gilb

H.M.S. “PINAFORE”

* * * * * *

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

_Second Edition. Crown 4to. 5s. net_

THE PETER PAN
PICTURE BOOK

THE STORY OF PETER PAN

RETOLD BY DANIEL O’CONNOR

FROM THE PLAY BY J. M. BARRIE

WITH 28 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY
ALICE B. WOODWARD

“Miss Woodward’s pictures are really delightful. The whimsical flavour of the fairy play is faithfully reflected, while for rich and harmonious colouring and decorative quality of design they would be difficult to surpass.”—_Athenaeum._

“It would be difficult to imagine anything more dainty. The pictures are exquisitely beautiful, and to follow the story in Mr. Daniel O’Connor’s version is almost as fascinating as it was to see Mr. Barrie’s quaint creation on the stage.”—_Glasgow Herald._

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS

* * * * * *

H.M.S. “PINAFORE”

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS
PORTUGAL ST. LINCOLNS INN, W.C.
CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY: A.H. WHEELER & CO.

(See p. 16)]

THE PINAFORE PICTURE BOOK

THE STORY OF

H·M·S·PINAFORE

Told by

SIR W. S. GILBERT

and

Illustrated by Alice B. Woodward

London George Bell & Sons 1908

Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London.

TO MY YOUNG READERS

I have been asked to explain to you how it comes to pass that this, the story of a well-known Play, is now placed before you in the form of a Tale. In the first place, many very young ladies and gentlemen are never taken to the Theatre at all. It is supposed by certain careful Papas and Mamas that very young ladies and gentlemen should go to bed at an early hour, and that it is very bad for them to sit up as late as half past eleven or twelve o’clock at night. Of course, this difficulty could be overcome by taking them to Morning Performances, which are so called because they invariably take place in the afternoon; but there are drawbacks even to Morning Performances. Unless you are seated in the front row of the stalls (where the band is sure to be too loud), or in the front row of the dress circle (which is a long way off), the enjoyment of very young ladies and gentlemen is pretty nearly sure to be interfered with by the gigantic cart-wheel hats, decorated with huge bunches of wobbling feathers that ill-bred and selfish ladies clap upon their heads, nowadays, whenever they go to a theatre in the daytime. A third reason (and perhaps the best of them all) is that very young ladies and gentlemen find it rather difficult to follow the story of a play, much of which is told in songs set to beautiful music, and all of which is written in language which is better suited to their Papas and Mamas than to themselves. A fourth reason (but this is not such a good one as the other three) is that the Opera upon which this book is founded is, unhappily, not played in every town every night of the year. It should be, of course, but it is not, and it may very well happen that some poor people have to go so long as two or three years without having any opportunity of improving their minds by seeing it performed. When we get a National Theatre, at which all the best plays will be produced at the expense of the Public (who will also enjoy the privilege of paying to see the Plays after they have defrayed the cost of producing them), “Her Majesty’s Ship Pinafore” will, no doubt, be played once or twice in every fortnight for ever; but as some years must elapse before this happy state of things can come to pass, and as those who are very young ladies and gentlemen now may be very middle-aged ladies and gentlemen then, it was thought that it would be a kind and considerate action to supply them at once with a story of the Play, so as not to subject them to the tantalizing annoyance of having to wait (possibly) many years before they have an opportunity of learning what it is all about.

As I would not for the world deceive my young readers, I think it right to state that this story is entirely imaginary. It might very well have happened but, in point of fact, it never did.

[Signature: W. S. Gilbert.]

_The extracts from Sir Arthur Sullivan’s music to “H.M.S. Pinafore” are reproduced by permission of the publishers, Messrs. Metzler and Co., Ltd._

CONTENTS

PAGE