Glossary for The Gondoliers
This glossary appeared in the program of the 1994 performance of
The Gondoliers by
The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company.
Permission is hereby granted to use the material on this site for any purpose.
GLOSSARY (in order of occurrence)
Act I :
- Till then, enjoy your dolce far niente - delightful idleness
- With pleasure, nobody contradicente - if nobody disagrees
- Ben venuti - welcome
- Gondolieri carissimi! Siamo contadine! - Dearest gondoliers! We are peasant girls!
- servitori umilissimi! - most humble servants!
- Per chi questi fiori bellissimi? - For whom are these most beautiful flowers?
- Per voi, bei signori, O eccellentissimi! - For you, dear gentlemen, oh most excellent ones!
- I ciel! - Oh, heaven!
- Buon giorno, cavalieri - Good morning, gentlemen
- Siamo gondolieri / poveri gondolieri - We are gondoliers / poor gondoliers
- Signorina, io t'amo! / Contadine siamo. - Lady, I love you! Peasant girls are we.
- Since we were short-coated - wearing children's cloths
- Castilian Hilalgo of 95 quarterings - Spanish nobleman, with 95 families in his heraldic shield, representing a fabulous array of noble ancestry.
- The halberdiers are mercenary people - Guardsmen armed with ax-like spears
- Married by proxy - with someone acting on your behalf, in your absence
- very knowing, overflowing, easygoing Paladin - heroic, chivalrous knight of old
- To men of grosser clay - of less distinguished and noble blood (clay = body)
- Jimp, isn't she - Slender and elegant
- teach him the trade of a Timoneer - from French timonier, helmsman or steersman
- lying a corpse on his humble bier - the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed
- your objections are not insuperable - impossible to overcome
- 'tis a glorious thing, I ween, to be a regular Royal Queen! - I fancy, or believe
- She'll bear sway the bell - take first prize; win the contest
- the Chancellor in his peruke - powdered wig
- Aristocrat who banks with Coutts - long-established London bank, used by royalty
- the noble lord who cleans the plate - silver or gold tableware or ornaments
Act II :
- Of happiness the very pith in Barataria you may see - essence
- This form of government we find / The beau ideal of its kind - model of excellence
- we may hold a Royal Levée - a court reception or gathering, in morning or early afternoon
- spend an hour in titivating all our Gentlemen-in-Waiting - sprucing up, smartening
- the Garter or the Thistle or the Bath - high orders of knighthood
- toddle of in semi-state - dressed for ordinary ceremonial occasions; but no crown, etc.
- having passed the Rubicon - the point of no return; a river significantly crossed by Caesar
- Take a pretty little cot - cottage
- Dance a cachuca, fandango, bolero - lively Spanish dances
- Xeres we'll drink Manzanilla, Montero - Xeres is sherry, the other are varieties of it
- Tuck in his tuppenny - schoolboy slang used in leapfrog, meaning "duck his head," tuppenny meaning two-penny coin, referring to the head
- at junket or at jink - words for merrymaking
- must be content with toddy - drink of distilled spirits, sugar, and hot water. Rich people drank wine, while beer and distilled spirits were drunk by the less well-off.
- Lord Chancellors were cheap as sprats - small fish, like anchovies or sardines
- up goes the price of shoddy - cheap fabric made from reclaimed wool
- I tried to tame your great progenitor - father
- with double-shotted guns and colours nailed unto the mast - cannons loaded with twice the usual shot (a reckless tactic) and flag nailed so it cannot be lowered in surrender
- MPs baronetted, sham colonels gazetted - Members of Parliament raised to the rank of baronet (above knight); The London Gazette listed government appointments
- Quote me as their great double-barrel - one with a hyphenated name, signifying status
- I set ... upon the direction of several Companies bubble - a delusive scheme
- merrily crying our " premé, " " stalì " - calls used by gondoliers to avoid collisions
Last updated April 24, 1996.
A complete set of glossaries can be found in
The Gilbert and Sullivan Glossary Collection .
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