Bullying Bab
Gilbert: His Life and Strife. By Hesketh Pear- son. (Methuen, 25s.) IT is not a pretty picture that Hesketh Pearson draws of Sir William Gilbert, who belonged to Sullivan as Bourne does to Hollingsworth. It shows 'Bab' as a big-headed, pig-headed, mean, litigious, abusive, bullying man. It also shows him as gentle, genial, a good husband and charming companion : but the darker side pre vails. He cheerfully records quarrelling with a cabbie, giving him no tip and then going on to lose £2 at penny bank. The inflated pomposity of his relations with servants and tradesmen is pretty well summed up by a passage with hi; barber who asked `. . , when they might expec anything further from his fluent, pen. "What do you mean, sir, by fluent pen?" demanded Gil bert. "There is no such thing as a fluent pen A pen is an insensible object. And, at any rate I don't presume to enquire into your private affairs; you will please observe the same reticence with regard to mine." ' I hope the barber nicked him with a razor for that.
When he became a car owner he was involved in more• than one man's share of accidents, but never is there the remotest sign (in the book) of his thinking it conceivable that the other man was not entirely to blame. Although he fails to endear, Gilbert, through Pearson, is still a dominant figure of the English theatre and a condiment of the English language.
GERARD FAY
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