29 NOVEMBER 1997, Page 36

Pass the mustard

Sir: I bow to Frank Johnson's considerable knowledge of grand opera, but I regret that he doesn't know his Gilbert and Sullivan (Shared opinion, 22 November).

It was Sir William Gilbert who wrote, `How they laugh! 'Tis ever thus with simple folk — an accepted wit has but to say, "Pass the mustard," and they roar their ribs out!' (Jack Point, Act II of The Yeomen of the Guard.) Sullivan wrote the music.

Marion Herrod

84 Westfields Avenue, London SW13