Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, KBE, was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator, best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado. Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, MVO, was an English composer, of Irish and Italian descent, best known for his operatic collaborations with librettist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, including such continually popular works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado. Sullivan's artistic output included 23 operas, 13 major orchestral works, eight choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous hymns and other church pieces, songs, parlour ballads, part songs, carols, and piano and chamber pieces.