Dorothy Bantam, Squire Bantam's daughter.
Lydia Hawthorne, her cousin.
Priscilla Privett, a widow.
Phyllis, Tuppet's daughter.
Geoffrey Wilder, Bantam's nephew.
Harry Sherwood, Wilder's chum.
Squire Bantam, of Chanticleer Hall.
Lurcher, a sheriff's officer.
Tuppet, the village landlord.
Tom Grass, in love with Phyllis.
[Farm hands, hop-pickers, and ballet.]
The scene is laid in Kent, England; time, a hundred years ago.
The story of "Dorothy" is a simple one, but affords much scope for humor.
The first act opens in a hop-field, introducing a chorus and dance of the
hop-pickers. Afterward appears Dorothy, daughter of a wealthy squire, who
is masquerading in a peasant's dress, and while serving the landlord's
customers falls in love with a gentleman whose horse has lost a shoe. Her
cousin, Lydia Hawthorne, who is with her in disguise, also falls in love
with a customer. Each girl gives her lover a ring, and each lover vows he
will never part with it; but that same evening at a ball the faithless
swains give the rings to two fine ladies, who are none other than Dorothy
and Lydia as their proper selves. After they have parted, the two lovers,
Wilder and Sherwood, play the part of burglars and rob Squire Bantam.
Dorothy, disguised in male attire, then challenges her lover, who, though
he accepts, displays arrant cowardice, which leads up to the inevitable
explanations. Incidentally there is much fun growing out of the efforts
of Lurcher, the sheriff's officer, who has followed Wilder and Sherwood
down from London to collect a bill against the former. In the end Wilder
and Sherwood are united to Dorothy and Lydia amid great rejoicing at
Chanticleer Hall.
The principal numbers are the ballad, "With such a Dainty Dame"; the song
of "The Sheriff's Man" by Lurcher, Wilder, and Sherwood; the quartette
"You swear to be Good," and the jolly chorus "Under the Pump," in the
first act; the introduction and country dance, the bass song by Bantam,
"Contentment I give you," and the ballad, "I stand at your Threshold,"
sung by Sherwood, in the second act; and the chorus of old women,
"Dancing is not what it used to be," Phyllis' ballad, "The Time has come
when I must yield" and the septette and chorus, "What Joy untold,"
leading up to the elaborate finale of the last act.