An extra feature of the dvd is the following Glossary.
Note that the dvd has a copyright date of 1999, with original release date of 1983.
Libretto: https://www.gsarchive.net/pirates/pirates_lib.pdf
Act I
- let the pirate bumper pass - a bumper is a cup or glass filled to the brim, as for a toast
- scuttling a Cunarder - sinking a passenger ship of the Cunard line
- cutting out a White Star - separating a passenger ship of the White Star line from the surrounding ships in order to capture it
- Custom House - a house or office set up to collect levied custom (at a seaport like Penzance) for exported or imported goods
- the glass is rising very high - weather-glass; a barometer (or possibly a thermometer), indicating fair weather
- on breakers always steering - always making mistakes and getting into trouble; as when steering a ship toward waves breaking on rocks
- your pirate caravanserai - as "caravanserai" is a sort of inn for caravans and their occupants, the only excuse for applying this word to a group of men is that it rhymes with Chancery (almost)
- Wards in Chancery - minors under the protection of the Court of Chancery
- from Marathon to Waterloo - in 490 B.C. the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon (the messenger who died after running the 26 miles to Athens with the news, somehow inspired modern marathons). Napoleon's final defeat was at Waterloo in 1815.
- the scientific names of beings animalculous - an animalcule is a microscopic animal
- I answer hard acrostics - a parlour game similar to charades, with acted-out words, whose first letters then spell the real message to be discovered.
- quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus - even the use of a verse form (elegiacs) could not soften the awful deeds of this most appalling Roman emperor (212-222 AD)
- In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous - conics is the study of geometric properties of a cone cut by imaginary planes, producing parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas. To floor is to defeat (as in wrestling). Parabolous is Gilbert's adjective variant of parabolic.
- I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies - three painters, from three different centuries and countries, and with quite distinct styles.
- the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes - a comedy produced in Athens in 405 B.C. (the croaking chorus goes "Brekekekex, koax, koax")
- a washing-bill in Babylonic cuneiform - a laundry-list, in ancient wedge-shaped writing
- every detail of Caractacus's uniform - this Welsh king who resisted the Roman invasion of Britain had a limited uniform: it consisted of a woad, a blue dye... and nothing else
- whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore - H.M.S. Pinafore was the Gilbert & Sullivan show which preceded Pirates. It was their first great success.
- mamelon and ravelin - terms for strategic earthworks: mamelon is a mound used in fortifications, ravelin is a sort of ridge
- such affairs as sorties and surprises - sudden troop movement outward when besieged
- has never sat a gee - never ridden a horse ("gee-gee" being a childish way of referring to a horse, derived from a word of command to horses)
- John Turner - a Liberal Prime Minister of Canada who was in office for only 2 months in 1984
- Divine Emollient! - something that softens, as poetry apparently does, even for pirates
- dimity - a thin cotton fabric
Act II
- dishonour on the family escutcheon - shield displaying heraldic insignia; family crest
- threatened with émeutes - a French term for riots or brawls
- coster's finished jumping on his mother - costermongers (street vendors of fruit, fish, etc.) were sometimes rather rough characters
- life preserver - a stick or bludgeon loaded with lead, intended for self-defense, but all too often used by evil-doers (as in this case)
- unshriven, unannealed - without having made confession or having received extreme unction
- with humbled mien - manner, or general bearing
- we love our House of Peers - the House of Lords, one of two Houses of Parliament. A peer has at least one of the following titles: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron.
