"I a salaried minion"

Although we usually mean "underling" when we use the word "minion," Gilbert's audience might have meant something more specific: not just underling, but a child or servant or slave. Like us, they used the word contemptuously.

This discussion is based on the definition of the word minion 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/minion.html.

Last update: 19 May 1998.