And, lo and behold, there is the N word! As well as disparaging remarks about women novelists.
As a participant in the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago for many years, I don’t recall us using those lyrics. Is there another version of the song that has been made more politically correct?
I was in a production of “The Mikado” years ago, and it’s my understanding that it’s traditional for each production to re-write the lyrics of that song to make them both up-to-date and locally targeted. We replaced “prohibitionist” with “televangelist.”
Seems rather a halfway measure to make that change but leave “…and the others of his race” alone. Actually, far less, since it makes it clear that his race is the big problem. Maybe “guy who plays the bass”?
Well, in the altered lyrics “race” is clearly figurative, but just a better fit than “kind”, “stamp”, “kidney”, “breed” or “ilk” - not that the last of those belongs on the list, but there are maybe two or three people who know it.
I played the title role in “The Corporate Mikado” a few years back, and the entire words of the Mikado Song are revised. But yes, rewriting the Little List Song to make it topical is pretty much obligatory.
Finally, remember that well into the 20th century the word “nigger” in English had much less sting than in American usage; tho’ I don’t expect the various dark-skinned foreigners were exactly queuing up to be be called it, a well-meaning lady organising the feeding of war evacuees in 1940 could talk about “what niggers eat” with no intent other than an honest concern to feed them what they were used to. Plus, of course, the name of Guy Gibson’s dog in The Dam Busters.
As far as the Little List song, this is absolutely correct. Mr. Gilbert was referring to performers in minstrel shows. Similarly, the use of the same word in A More Humane Mikado is not intended as a racial slur. He merely suggests that the efforts of the overly vain to alter their appearances cosmetically be frustrated.
Lady novelist, by the way, was a disparaging phrase in common use at the time, and targets the writers of fluffy romantic drivel, who were certainly not “singular anomalies”.
One must also keep in mind that Mr. Gilbert was writing a satirical operetta. His lyrics reflect the points of view of their respective characters. They are no more an endorsement of racist or sexist views than they are a call for the boycott of Altoids.
OTOH, in King Solomon’s Mines (published in 1885) the author (H. Rider Haggard) has his lead character say the following:
He clearly thought that the word “nigger” had a bad connotation (“no, I’ll scratch that word “niggers” out, for I don’t like it”) and thought that African “natives” could be “gentlemen” whereas “…mean whites with lots of money and fresh out from home, too” may not be “gentlemen”.
Though I get the impression that the bad connotation was nowhere near as bad as these days - his character sort of writes it without thinking, before he catches himself and “scratches it out”.
Anyway, an interesting look at how the word was viewed in 1885 by English people.