Henry Lytton as the Major-General

The Major-General's Song is a patter song from Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. It is perhaps the most famous of all of the songs composed for Gilbert and Sullivan's operas. It is sung by Major-General Stanley at his first entrance towards the end of Act I. The song satirises the idea of the modern educated British Army officer of the later 19th century. Image File history File links LyttonMajorGeneral. ... Image File history File links LyttonMajorGeneral. ... The patter song is a staple of comic opera: a solo, typically for bass or baritone, typically delivered very quickly to a kind of sing-song tune. ... Librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) collaborated on a series of fourteen comic operas in Victorian England between 1871 and 1896. ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Comic opera is a subcategory of opera, and denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature. ... The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ... Insignia of a United States Air Force Major General German Generalmajor Insignia Major General is a military rank used in many countries. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ...

The song is replete with historical and cultural references, satirising the Major-General's impressive and well-rounded (but perhaps mostly irrelevant) academic and historical education, but lack of useful modern military knowledge. Some performing companies write their own lyrics satirizing current events. The rhyming of "major-general" itself is a send-up of the contemporary stailish vales of the English language, as spak'n at Kinsington ("stylish vowels of the English language, as spoken at Kensington").

Lyrics

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,

I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical

From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,

I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,

About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;

I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;

I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,

I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,

In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,

I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!

Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,

And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,

And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus' uniform:

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin",

When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin,

When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at,

And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat",

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,

When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery—

In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy—

You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a-gee.

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury,

Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,

I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

Insignia of a United States Air Force Major General German Generalmajor Insignia Major General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Vegetables in a market Venn diagram representing the relationship between (botanical) fruits and vegetables. ... Phyla Subregnum Parazoa Porifera (sponges) Subregnum Agnotozoa Placozoa (trichoplax) Orthonectida (orthonectids) Rhombozoa (dicyemids) Subregnum Eumetazoa Radiata (unranked) (radial symmetry) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anemones) Bilateria (unranked) (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (parasitic to flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ... Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ... The Kingdom of England was first unified as a state by Athelstan of Wessex. ... The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo is a book written by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy and published in 1851. ... Combatants Athens and Plataea Persia Commanders Miltiades, Callimachus† Darius I of Persia, Artaphernes Strength About 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans 20,000-60,000 by modern estimates 1 Casualties 192 Athenians and 11 Plateans dead 6,400 dead, 7 ships captured 1 Ancient sources give numbers ranging from... Combatants France Anglo-Allied/Prussian/ Dutch Commanders Napoléon Bonaparte (Ney in control of battle) Duke of Wellington Gebhard von Blücher Strength 72,000 67,000 Anglo-Dutch 60,000 Prussian (48,000 engaged by about 18:00) Casualties 25,000 22,000 Map of the Waterloo campaign The... Euclid, a famous Greek mathematician known as the father of geometry, is shown here in detail from The School of Athens by Raphael. ... In mathematics, one often (not quite always) distinguishes between an identity, which is an assertion that two expressions are equal regardless of the values of any variables that occur within them, and an equation, which may be true for only some (or none) of the values of any such variables. ... Graph of a quadratic function: y = x2−x−2 = (x+1)(x−2) The x-coordinates of the points where the graph crosses the x-axis, x = −1 and x = 2, are the roots of the quadratic equation: x2−x−2 = 0 In mathematics, a quadratic equation is a polynomial... In mathematics, the binomial theorem is an important formula giving the expansion of powers of sums. ... The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (blue and red) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (purple). ... Calculus is a central branch of mathematics, developed from algebra and geometry. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Animalcule is an older term for a microscopic animal or protozoan. ... Twenty Questions is a popular spoken parlour game for two or more players. ... King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Great Britain, where he appears as the ideal of kingship in both war and peace. ... The name Caradoc may refer to: In Arthurian legend, Sir Caradoc was one of the Knights of the Round Table. ... An acrostic (from the late Greek akróstichon, from ákros, extreme, and stíchos, verse) is a poem or other text written in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. ... Robert Boyles self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines cannot exist (according to our present understanding of physics). ... Elegiac refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. ... A bust depicting Elagabalus. ... Types of conic sections Table of conics, Cyclopaedia, 1728 In mathematics, a conic section (or just conic) is a curve formed by intersecting a cone (more precisely, a right circular conical surface) with a plane. ... Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about: Parabola A parabola The parabola (from the Greek: παραβολή) is a conic section generated by the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface. ... This page is about the artist. ... Gerard Dou (spelling variants Gerrit, Douw, Dow) (April 7, 1613–February 9, 1675) was a Dutch painter. ... Johann Zoffany (1733, Frankfurt - November 11, 1810, Strand-on-the-Green) was a German-born portrait painter who in late 18th-century England made his reputation with paintings depicting episodes from contemporary theatre and with portraits and conversation pieces (i. ... The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. ... Bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes, in Greek ΄Αριστοφανης, (c. ... In music, a fugue is a type of piece written for counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ... It has been suggested that Hand whistling be merged into this article or section. ... Air (french for: Aria; also: Ayr, Ayre), a variant of the musical song form, is the name of various song-like vocal or instrumental compositions. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: HMS Pinafore H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass that Loved a Sailor, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ... Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu (bāb-ilû, meaning Gateway of the god, translating Sumerian Kadingirra), an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq). ... Cuneiform script The Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... Caratacus (Brythonic *Caratācos, Greek Καράτακος; variants Latin Caractacus, Greek Καρτάκης) was a historical British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who led the British resistance to the Roman conquest. ... A mamelon is a small fortified hill. ... A ravelin is a triangular fortification used to split an attacking force. ... Mauser is the common name of a German arms manufacturer, maker of a line of bolt-action rifles from the 1870s to present. ... A rifle is a firearm that uses a spiral groove cut into the barrel to spin a projectile (usually a bullet), thus improving accuracy and range of the projectile. ... A high school athlete throwing the javelin. ... Sortie is a term for deployment of aircraft or ships for the purposes of a specific mission. ... A commissariat is the department of an army charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. ... 155 mm M198 howitzer U.S. Army soldier with a compact M249 variant USS Iowa (BB-61) fires a full broadside of nine 16/50 and six 5/38 guns during a target exercise near Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, 1 July 1984. ... Military tactics is the collective name for methods of engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. ... A novitiate (also called a novice) is a member of a religious order who has not yet taken his/her vows. ... An abbey (from the Latin abbatia, which is derived from the Syriac abba, father), is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serve as the spiritual father or mother of the community. ... Military strategem in the Battle of Waterloo. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 For other uses, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Other information

Line 4 is a reference to the book The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Sir Edward Creasy. This classic military history describes the great battles of the world, from "Marathon to Waterloo". The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo is a book written by Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy and published in 1851. ... Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812 - 1878), historian, was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and called to the Bar in 1837. ...

The "Mauser rifle" in line 26 is also extant in some scripts as a "Chassepot rifle", however the former is more common in performance. The chassepot, officially known as fusil modèle 1866, was a military breechloading rifle, famous as the arm of the French forces in the Franco-German War of 1870 and 1871. ...

References and parodies

The Major-General's Song has been used as the basis for a number of parodies, including Tom Lehrer's "Elements Song" and the Animaniacs' song "I am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual." Tom Lehrer in 1960. ... The Elements (1959) is a song by Tom Lehrer that recites the names of all the chemical elements that were known at the time of writing, up to number 102, nobelium. ... Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs was a popular American animated television series, distributed by Warner Bros. ...

The computer-animated series ReBoot ended their third season with a recap of the entire season set to this song's tune. ReBoot poster. ...

Modern references include the "Inauguration Part I," of American television drama The West Wing where a character's father is described as "the very model of a modern Major-General," (although this appears to be intended as unqualified praise, overlooking the more negative parts of the Song which denigrate the Major-General's knowledge of military matters). The West Wing is a popular and widely acclaimed American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin. ...

In The Simpsons episode "Deep Space Homer," the normally drunkard Barney Gumble begins sobriety and the next day sings the opening lines of the song as he backflips several times to show that he's physically and mentally well. The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening. ... Deep Space Homer is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season. ... Barnard Barney Gumble born (April 20 or June 15, 1967) is a fictional character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. ...

In the Babylon 5 episode "Atonement," the opening stanza of the song is sung by Marcus Cole (played by Jason Carter). Babylon 5 is an epic science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. ... Atonement is an episode from the fourth season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. ... Marcus Cole, played by Jason Carter, is a fictional character in the universe of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. ... Jason Carter as Marcus Cole in Babylon 5 Jason Brian Carter (born September 23, 1960 in London) is a British actor, best known for his role as dashing Ranger Marcus Cole on the science fiction television series Babylon 5. ...

In Star Trek TNG: Disaster, Beverly Crusher convinced Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge to attempt the Major-General's song. However, Geordi's rendition was interrupted when the Enterprise collided with a quantum filament. In "Schisms," Data recited "An Ode to Spot," which loosely follows the song's meter. The first season DVD box set of the original Star Trek television series from 1966. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Beverly Crusher, a character in the Star Trek fictional universe, was the Chief Medical Officer onboard the USS Enterprise-D and held the rank of Commander; upon the destruction of that ship, she has continued in that post and rank on the USS Enterprise-E. This character first appeared in... In the Royal Navy, United States Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, Canadian Forces Maritime Command (formerly the Royal Canadian Navy), United States Coast Guard, and many other navies and coast guards, a lieutenant commander (lieutenant-commander or Lt Cdr in the RN and abbreviated LCDR in the... Geordi La Forge is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe. ... Earths first starship Enterprise The early Earth starship Enterprise (NX-01) The original Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701) The second Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) The third Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) The fourth Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-C) The fifth Federation starship Enterprise (NCC-1701... Schisms is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation from the sixth season. ... Data is the plural of datum. ... Spot with Data. ... Meter (British English spelling: metre) describes the linguistic sound patterns of a verse. ...

In the Doctor Who Big Finish Productions audio, Doctor Who and the Pirates, the Doctor sings, "I am the very model of a Gallifreyan buccaneer" (and throughout the story, other songs are parodied not only from Pirates, but also Pinafore and Ruddigore). Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as The Doctor, who explores time and space with his companions, fighting evil. ... Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces audio plays released straight to compact disc, based on British cult science fiction properties. ... Doctor Who and the Pirates is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... // Headline text A Vardan spaceship approaches Gallifrey from space (from The Invasion of Time). ... Ruddigore, or The Witchs Curse, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ...

When he hosted Saturday Night Live, David Hyde Pierce's monologue was a parody of the song. Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late-night 90-minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City which has been broadcast by NBC nearly every Saturday night since its debut on October 11, 1975. ... David Hyde Pierce as Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier. ...

The Pirate Movie, a 1982 modern musical parody of The Pirates of Penzance featured many songs from the opera, including the Major-General's Song. A contemporary flavour was referenced as the Major-General added to the song the line: "Man, I'm older than The Beatles, but I'm younger than The Rolling Stones." The Pirate Movie is a 1982 musical and comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ... The Beatles were a pop and rock music group from Liverpool, England, who continue to be held in the very highest regard for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success, and their ground-breaking role in the history of popular music. ... The Rolling Stones are a British rock band that rose to prominence during the British Invasion of the 1960s. ...

In The Wild Thornberrys episode "Sir Nigel," Nigel Thornberry sings a song about the family to the tune of this song. The Wild Thornberrys is an American animated television series produced at Klasky-Csupo for Nickelodeon, which follows the adventures of a fictional wildlife-documentary-making family, the Thornberrys, and particularly of Eliza Thornberry, who can talk to animals. ...

In the VeggieTales episode "The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment," the character Archibald Asparagus performs the Major-General Song. VeggieTales is a series of childrens books and computer animated videos produced by Big Idea Productions conveying Christian ideals to children via humorous, anthropomorphic vegetable-shaped characters. ...

External links

• Parody: "I am the very model of a modern Unitarian"
• Parody: "I am the very model of a modern sadomasochist"
• Parody: "I am the very model of a modern labour minister"
• Parody: "I am the very model of a Newsgroup Personality"
• Parody: "I am the very model of a heroine barbarian"
• Parody: "I am the very model of a Usenet individual"
• Parody: "I am the very model of a Usenet personality", by Tom Holt
• Parody: Lyrics to the Animaniacs episode HMS Yakko, including "I am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual"
• Parody: "The Elements", by Tom Lehrer
• Parody: Several Harry Potter Filks
• Synopsis of ReBoot episode 39, "End Prog", with lyrics to the Recap Song
• "I am the very model of a medieval Anglian", another parody, sung by King Théoden of Rohan.
• More 'Major-General' and other Gilbert & Sullivan parodies