"Penzance" for Pros Trivia Quiz

Answer: February 28 or March 1, 1873

Yes, the show begins on February 29, 1873. You can discover this through a "simple mathematical process." We know (from his conversation with Mabel after he learns that his indenture has not yet finished) that Frederic won't be out of his indentures until 1940 because he was born in leap year. That means he would have celebrated 21 birthdays, which would take 84 years (21 times 4) plus another 4 years for the fact that 1900 was not a leap year. Subtract 88 from the year 1940 and you get 1852. Since he thinks he's out of his indentures as of the start of the show (his birthday), the show must begin on February 28 (or possibly March 1), 1873!

Answer: 1825 or 1826

We know that Ruth is 47 ("No, I shall find you a wife of 47, and that is quite enough!"). Since we know the play begins in February 1873, Ruth would have to have been born in 1825 or 1826.

Answer: 11:30am

The pirates sing their opening song ("Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry") and Frederic and the pirates talk for a bit. When Frederic says that he shouldn't tell the pirates why they don't make piracy pay, the Pirate King says "Why not? It's only half-past eleven. And you're one of us till the clock strikes twelve!" We can assume it's not close to midnight, because soon after we see the Stanley girls on the beach.

Answer: Dresses

One of the daughters suggests removing shoes and stockings while sitting on the beach. They don't get so far as actually removing anything because Frederic reveals himself to them.

Answer: False

When Frederic asks the pirates to come with him back to civilization, the Pirate King says "No Frederic, it cannot be. I don't think much of our profession, but contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest."

Answer: impunity

"And indulge in the felicity of unbounded domesticity." Gilbert and Sullivan surely had a way with words!

Answer: categorical

One of the greatest "patter" songs in the Gilbert and Sullivan library, in my honest opinion. If you've heard the recording starring Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, and Linda Ronstadt, the Major-General (played by George Rose) does an excellent "encore" of the song in double-time. It's truly amazing to hear.

Answer: in Babylonic cuneiform

He can "write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform". He can "tell you every detail from Caractacus' uniform". He "can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerald Dow and Zoffanies". And he can "quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus, in conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous." Among many other things!

Answer: Two words

"Permit me. I'll explain in two words: we propose to marry your daughters." Sam obviously can't count the SIX words that he actually uses!

Answer: Often and orphan

In a very amusing bit of dialog, General Stanley and the Pirate King go back and forth about whether they are to say "'orphan' a person who lost his parents, or 'often', frequently". They apparently say both words very similarly.

Answer: A paradox

The Pirate King and Ruth come to tell Frederic that, although he has lived for 21 years, he is in fact 5 1/4 because he was born in Leap Year. They use this information and Frederic's sense of duty to bring him back into indentures as a pirate's apprentice.

Answer: 'Cent enjoyment

A rather humorous use of the lyric echo, the Police cut words in order to fit into the four syllable echo in this song. It happens again with "difficulty smother" ('Culty smother) and "occupied in crime" ('Pied in crime).

Answer: Fifty-fold

The pirates sing "We are not coming for plate or gold/a story General Stanley told/We seek a penalty fifty-fold/for General Stanley's story".

Answer: They mention Queen Victoria's name.

The Pirates "yield at once, with humbled mien, because with all our faults, we love our Queen."

Answer: December 31, 1879

The show was premiered in London on December 30, 1879 in order to secure the British copywright. It premeired on December 31, 1879, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York, and finally opened at the Bijou Theatre in Paignton, Devon (England) on April 3, 1880, at the Opera Comique.