Who is Point?

Some may have wondered about my strange nom de plume, well wonder no more, the truth can now be told.

Jack Point is a character in The Yeomen of the Guard, or The Merryman and his Maid, a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The character Point is a jester, hence the title of this blog.

I was taken by the song sung by Point ("I've jibe and joke"), the setting by Sullivan is delicious and the text amusing.

I thought it would be a good name to write under, partly because I did'nt want to be taken too seriously, sentiments that were expressed perfectly in these lines:

I've wisdom from the East and from the West,
That's subject to no academic rule;
You may find it in the jeering of a jest,
Or distil it from the folly of a fool.
I can teach you with a quip, if I've a mind;
I can trick you into learning with a laugh;
Oh, winnow all my folly, folly, folly, and you'll find
A grain or two of truth among the chaff!
Oh, winnow all my folly, folly, folly, and you'll find
A grain or two of truth among the chaff!

The song is a little gem, listen to it here.



For an excellent recording of the work, try this.

By the way, now that you know my name, you may as well as look up my number. ;)