Col. Calverley, }
Major Murgatroyd, }
Lieutenant the Duke of Dunstable, } officers of Dragoon Guards.
Reginald Bunthorne, a fleshly poet.
Archibald Grosvenor, an idyllic poet.
Mr. Bunthorne's Solicitor.
Lady Angela, }
Lady Saphir, }
Lady Ella, }
Lady Jane, } rapturous maidens.
Patience, a dairy-maid.
[Guards, æsthetic maidens.]
The scene is laid at Castle Bunthorne; time, the last century.
The opera of "Patience" is a pungent satire upon the fleshly school of
poetry as represented by Oscar Wilde and his imitators, as well as upon
the fad for æsthetic culture which raged so violently a quarter of a
century ago. Bunthorne, in one of his soliloquies, aptly expresses the
hollowness of the sham,--
"I am _not_ fond of uttering platitudes
In stained-glass attitudes;
In short, my mediævalism's affectation
Born of a morbid love of admiration."
In these four lines Gilbert pricked the æsthetic bubble, and nothing did
so much to end the fad of lank, languorous maidens, and long haired,
sunflowered male æsthetes, as Gilbert's well-directed shafts of ridicule
in this opera.
The story of the opera tells of the struggle for supremacy over female
hearts between an æsthetic (Bunthorne) and an idyllic poet (Grosvenor).
In the opening scene lovesick maidens in clinging gowns, playing
mandolins, sing plaintively of their love for Bunthorne. Patience, a
healthy milkmaid, comes upon the scene, and makes fun of them, and asks
them why they sit and sob and sigh. She announces to them that the
Dragoon Guards will soon arrive, but although they doted upon Dragoons
the year before they spurn them now and go to the door of Bunthorne to
carol to him. The Guards duly arrive, and are hardly settled down when
Bunthorne passes by in the act of composing a poem, followed by the
twenty lovesick maidens. After finishing his poem he reads it to them,
and they go off together, without paying any attention to the Dragoons,
who declare they have been insulted and leave in a rage. Bunthorne, when
alone, confesses to himself he is a sham, and at the close of his
confession Patience comes in. He at once makes love to her, but only
frightens her. She then confers with Lady Angela, who explains love to
her, and tells her it is her duty to love some one. Patience declares she
will not go to bed until she has fallen in love with some one, when
Grosvenor, the idyllic poet and "apostle of simplicity," enters. He and
Patience had been playmates in early childhood, and she promptly falls in
love with him, though he is indifferent. In the closing scene Bunthorne,
twined with garlands, is led in by the maidens, and puts himself up as a
prize in a lottery; but the drawing is interrupted by Patience, who
snatches away the papers and offers herself as a bride to Bunthorne, who
promptly accepts her. The maidens then make advances to the Dragoons, but
when Grosvenor appears they all declare their love for him. Bunthorne
recognizes him as a dangerous rival, and threatens "he shall meet a
hideous doom."
The opening of the second act reveals Jane, an antique charmer, sitting
by a sheet of water mourning because the fickle maidens have deserted
Bunthorne, and because he has taken up with "a puling milkmaid," while
she alone is faithful to him. In the next scene Grosvenor enters with the
maidens, of whom he is tired. They soon leave him in low spirits, when
Patience appears and tells him she loves him, but can never be his, for
it is her duty to love Bunthorne. The latter next appears, followed by
the antique Jane, who clings to him in spite of his efforts to get rid of
her. He accuses Patience of loving Grosvenor, and goes off with Jane in a
wildly jealous mood. In the next scene the Dragoons, to win favor with
the maidens, transform themselves into a group of æsthetes. Bunthorne and
Grosvenor finally meet, and Bunthorne taxes his rival with monopolizing
the attentions of the young ladies. Grosvenor replies that he cannot help
it, but would be glad of any suggestion that would lead to his being less
attractive. Bunthorne tells him he must change his conversation, cut his
hair, and have a back parting, and wear a commonplace costume. Grosvenor
at first protests, but yields when threatened with Bunthorne's curse. In
the finale, when it is discovered that Grosvenor has become a commonplace
young man, the maidens decide that if "Archibald the All-Right" has
discarded æstheticism, it is right for them to do so. Patience takes the
same view of the case, and leaves Bunthorne for Grosvenor. The maidens
find suitors among the Dragoons, and even the antique Jane takes up with
the Duke, and Bunthorne is left alone with his lily, nobody's bride.
The most popular musical numbers in the opera are the Colonel's song, "If
you want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery"; Bunthorne's "wild, weird,
fleshly" song, "What Time the Poet hath hymned," also his song, "If
you're anxious for to shine"; the romantic duet of Patience and
Grosvenor, "Prithee, Pretty Maiden"; the sextette, "I hear the Soft Note
of the Echoing Voice"; Jane's song, "Silvered is the Raven Hair";
Patience's ballad, "Love is a Plaintive Song"; Grosvenor's fable of the
magnet and the churn; the rollicking duet of Bunthorne and Grosvenor,
"When I go out of Door," and the "prettily pattering, cheerily
chattering" chorus in the finale of the last act.
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri.
[Comic opera, in two acts; text by Gilbert. First produced at the Savoy
Theatre, London, November 25, 1882.]