CORRECTION TO THE G&S LEXICON
                          by Harry Benford


Those of you with copies of Harry Benford's book "The G&S Lexi-
con" will be interested to hear that the author has discovered
the need for a correction.  According to the May-June GASBAG (the
publication of the Friends of the University of Michigan G&S
Society, generally referred to as FUMGASS), Dr. Benford's expla-
nation of the terms "Premi" and "Stali" from The Gondoliers is in
error.  As GASBAG reports (p. 18).

     Betty (his wife) and I have succeeded in solving a couple of
     mysteries related to the chapter on Gondoliers in my lexi-
     con.  One was the meaning of Premi! Stali!.  One of my
     Italian detectives found an article by John Ruskin in an old
     book, which explains that Premi! is what a gondolier hollers
     to another when a head-on collision seems possible and each
     is to swerve to his own left and so pass starboard-to-star-
     board.  Stali! is the opposite (i.e., pass port-to-port). 
     There's more to it, but that's the central sense of it. 
     When we were in Venice last weekend I searched around until
     I found a gondolier who could speak English and he assured
     me that they still use the same lingo mentioned by WSG.  And
     here I will have to admit that what I have to say about it
     in the lexicon is dead wrong.  Tush.

He also reports that Montero (also from Gondoliers) appears to be
a red table wine produced by the d'Alfonso del Sordo winery of
San Severo.  Whether the winery has been producing Montero since
Victorian times is as yet undetermined.

[This article appeared in Issue 4 (September 1985) of Precious
Nonsense, the newsletter of the Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan
Society.  Posted by permission of Sarah Cole, Society Secre-
tary/Archivist.  For information on Society membership write to: 
The Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society, c/o Miss Sarah Cole,
613 W. State St., North Aurora, IL 60542-1538.]