Of Pirate

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Chris notes:
"     Also, the name "Pirate" reminds me of the old Milt Caniff "Terry and the
     Pirates" comic, which was still in syndication when I was a kid in the
     60's, but I'm not sure how it might relate, except for the pilot hero,
     Pat Ryan.  (In my mind's eye, I have always pictured Prentice looking
     like this.)"

Well, there's more.  (And, as another pedantic aside, Caniff started TERRY
AND THE PIRATES but turned it over to George Wunder--great name--and began
STEVE CANYON.  Both were running, but in rival papers, as I grew up too.)

The name "Pirate Prentice" is, of course, a name appropriated (like "Geli
Tripping") from Gilbert & Sullivan.  In THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, the hero
suffers a woeful fate.  His nurse, when he was a little boy, was told to
apprentice him to "a pilot," but being "somewhat hard of hearing," she
apprenticed him to "a pirate."

Hence, he's a "pirate 'prentice."

The name suggests preterition, the loss of Destiny by the intervention of
chance--and the nurse, like the hare of Herero myth, is a messenger who
got the message wrong.


Then there are Pirate's roomies:
"Bartley Gobbitch"--a "gobbit" is "a fragment or bit, especially of raw flesh"
(Webster's New World Dic.)

"DeCoverly Pox"--"pox" is obvious enough (perhaps more related to the Great Pox--
ie. VD--than the small), but DeCoverly is interesting.  "Sir Roger DeCoverly"
was the name of a popular country reel dance and also gave Addison the name
for his prototypical country squire.


And as for Pirate's batman, "a corporal Wayne," I'm amazed at how many 
established critics have missed this very obvious joke.

The guy's name has to be *Bruce*, right?

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)