Title Deed: How the Book Got its Name

The title of Gilbert and Sullivan’s fifth operetta is more complex than it might at first appear. On the surface it seems to indicate a fairly straightforward piece of Gilbertian topsy-turvydom. The 'pirates’ of the title are all soft-hearted fellows, and their depredations are confined to Penzance, rather a long way from the Spanish Main. However, the title conceals a joke: in the 1870s there was no copyright agreement between the USA and Britain, and transatlantic imitators were free to do as they liked with any successful British stage production. Gilbert and Sullivan’s smash hit of 1879, HMS Pinafore, had been pirated to extinction in the USA, and the duo decided to hit back by premiering their next operetta in the States. This was The Pirates of Penzance, which was played by four companies simultaneously in the USA in an attempt to defeat the copyright buccaneers.