"happy despatch"
Nanki-Poo several times refers to the "happy despatch," by which he means not merely suicide but specifically hara kiri. The first edition of the OED lists an example of this sense of the word dispatch for 1859 from the London Times: "The Japanese are .. taught .. the science, mystery, or accomplishment of 'Happy Dispatch'" (26 Marcb 1859 9/2; ellipses are the OED's).
This discussion is based on the definition of the words dispatch or despatch in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.
To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.
To the homepage of this Mikado website.
Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.
(c) Copyright 1998 Sharon Cogdill, dramaturg for this production and author of this website.
College of Fine Arts and Humanities
St. Cloud State University
This URL: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/scogdill/mikado/harakiri.html.
Last update: 19 May 1998.