They are all in the Fourpenny Box!
Envoy
Suns beat on them; tempests downpour,
On the chest without cover or locks,
Where they lie by the Bookseller’s door,—
They are all in the Fourpenny Box!
William Schwenck Gilbert began as a youth his humorous contributions to magazines, which included the immortal Bab Ballads.
Ten years later he joined forces with the composer, Arthur Sullivan, and the result of this collaboration was the well known series of operas of which Trial By Jury was the first.
Gilbert is second to none in humorous paradoxical thought and sprightly and clever versification. His themes, subtle and fantastic, are worked out with a serious absurdity as truly witty as it is charming.