Topsyturveydom

Our judges, pure and wise in tone, Know crime from theory alone, And glean the motives of a thief From books and popular belief.

But there, a judge who wants to prime His mind with true ideas of crime, Derives them from the common sense Of practical experience.

A soldier (save by rarest luck) Is always shot for showing pluck— That is, if others can be found With pluck enough to fire a round.

But this remark, I grieve to state, Came just a little bit too late; For as I framed it in my head, I woke and found myself in bed.

Topsyturveydom (sometimes spelled Topsyturvydom or Topseyturveydom) is a one-act operetta by W. S. Gilbert with music by Alfred Cellier.

Styled "an entirely original musical extravaganza", it is based on one of Gilbert's Bab Ballads, "My Dream".

[2] This was the first work shown at the newly built Criterion, and it was played together with An American Lady, written and performed by Gilbert's friend, the dramatist and Fun magazine founder, Henry J. Byron.

[3] Topsyturveydom is set in a quasi-utopia (reminiscent of Gilbert's earlier Happy Arcadia (1872), or even Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels), where things are the opposite of the norm.

Gilbert also renews the idea of party politics working in a backwards way in Iolanthe, where the House of Lords is threatened with obsolescence by having its members selected by competitive examination.

Gilbert illustrated The Piccadilly Annual; supervised a revival of Pygmalion and Galatea; and, in addition to Topsyturveydom, wrote Charity, about the redemption of a fallen woman; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, a parody of Hamlet; a dramatisation of Ought We to Visit Her?

Cellier produced his most successful early work, a full-length comic opera called The Sultan of Mocha.

In a letter to T. Edgar Pemberton, author of the 1903 book on the Criterion Theatre, Gilbert wrote: The Athenaeum called the piece "clever, but rather remote... an exercise rather than an amusement.

[8] Some of his work during this period exhibited a more restrained style, exemplified by a series of successful "fairy comedies", such as The Palace of Truth (1870).

[9] At the same time, he was developing his unique style of absurdist humour, described as "Topsy-Turvy", made up of "a combination of wit, irony, topsyturvydom, parody, observation, theatrical technique, and profound intelligence".

Folly is honoured, wisdom is despised, true beauty consists in making yourself ugly, and people walk on the ceiling with their heads on the floor.

Crapolee and Satis enter the reception room just as the courtiers sing the national anthem to the king, "Fiends dissect our Royal Master".

Tipto says, "But we love one another.... People in this country only marry those they hate, and wretchedness is the invariable result... but I'm such a strange girl that I prefer happiness... but the idea of marriage – oh, it's too dreadful."