The Evening post. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1888-1889, 1888-12-21

Is Now Being Discussed the World
OVer-A Sketch of the Plot and Some
of the Songs.
Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan have had
such an unparalleled run of success in
comic opera that they have evidently re-
solved lately to try their well-appren-
ticed hands on the romantic and grand,
says an exchange. "Ruddygore" was
something of transition work, in which
they began to shed their pollywog tails
of comicality and to develop the leg APP
pendages of the frog of tragedy. But
the work was such doubtful one that
the most accommodating listener hardly
knew in some Of the scenes whether he
was expected to laugh or cry; and SO, in
his hesitation, he did neither.
Giberts brain is full of invention and
he seems to be ready to evolve an idea
into plot at very short notice. His
operas all develop naturally from the
germinal buds in his very funny "Bab
Ballads" which gave him his start as a
Jester in rhyme, "Pinafore" was the
full.grown Captain Reese in the bal
lad beginning
OF all the ships that sailed the blue
No ship contained better crew
Than that of worthy Captain Reese,
Commanding OF "'rhe Mantelpiece"
'Iolanthe" was the development of the
"Fairy Citrate " in which the handsome
young fellow of the cloth was supposed
TO be visited by beautiful young wo-
tp1,O ho rlot,,oI an aiYncv Hionnu-
cred, was his fairy mother, and couple
of hundred years old.
The "Yeomen of the Guard" starts
from the ballad of "Annie Pothero,"
a melo-dramatic postoflice maiden en-
gagged TO the public eXecutioner. The
man to be executed was an old lover of
Annie's, on which account the eXecutioner
proposes to use very dull axe, to in
crease the victims misery. This proves
too much for Annie's tender nerves, and
she resolves to deliver O pardon she has
kept back in the mail and to marry the
culprit, and the ballad says "she did"
from this ballad springs the "Yeomen
o. the Guard.
The foundation of the opera is evil
dently tilt at matrimony. Gilbert, GER
taiIly, has grudge against weddings, u
kind of Whitechapel horror of the United
States, as if in his mind marriage was a
failure.
The opera opens by despairing love
song by Phoebe, who is engaged to the
head iGler, but who loves the jailer's pro-
posed victim. The courtship throughout
the work is the expression of vain love
on the jaler's part answered by aver
sion and scorn upon hers Yet, without
any improvement in their mental condi-
ton, they are at last married, he being
completely fooled by her giving him a
hand without heart, and Boosting of
her own insincerity.
In the second place the hero Is made
to WOO in the most demonstratlve manner
possible q girl who is already head and
ears in love with him. According to the
usual play-going ethics he should marry
her but he does not. Instead of this he
is married to the companion of the
strolling jester, and thus another heart
is broken in the play. AS preparation
for this the Jester is made to utter this
sentiment against matrimony: Though
am fool my folly has limit"
Gilbert expresses his contempt for the
way women are won from men who are
sincere by the trio sung and acted In
the presence Of the tortured Jester, say
ing:
A man who would WOO fair maid
Should prentice himself TO the trade,
And study all day
In methodical way
How to tiatter, cajole and persuade.
He should prentice himself at fourteen,
And practice from morn till cen,
And when he's OF age,
If he will I'll engage
He may capture the heart of queen
Jack Point, the Jester, loves his COM
panion, Elsie, to the end; but, against
all play ethics, he is utterly disappointed.
The overwillingness of women to
marry for profit, or to temporarily better
their condition, is set off in the trio be-
tween Elsie, Point and the Lieutenant:
How say you, maiden, will you wed
A man about to lose his headS
Both she and her lover agree to sink
their mutual consideration temporarily,
and against all serious precedent. Fairfax
and Elsie are solidly married.
Elsie, the heroine, thus sells herself
for little money; Phoebe sells herself
TO the abhorred jailer as the price of a
secret; and Sergeant Merryll gives him
self to the woman he abominates for the
same consideration.
Gilbert has certainly made point in
showing the motley jester TO be the only
noble or worthy character In the play.
In the climax of the opera, which comes.
singularly enough at the end of the first
act, the jester gives the key to the stu
alton in the words:
"All frenzied with despair. rave;
My anguish rends my heart In two.
Your hand to him you freely gave;
It's woe to me; not VOC TO you
My laugh is dead, my heart unmanned;
jester with my soul of leadl
A lover, loverless stand
To womanknd forever dead"
The opera should be called "JaclS
Point; or the Strolling Jester" as he is
in every respect, the hero and the hard
est-worked character, and, in fact, the
only one that enlists the sympathy of the
listener. The lesson of the opera is
really the pathetic truth, that the most
deserving are the most ill-treated and
neglected; that to be wicked Is to be sue
cessful, and to be virtuous Is to fail in
the deepest desires of human experience,
Truly. this jester is the saddest charac-
ter that Gilbert has produced. At his
very entrance he gives touch of his
quality in saying; ut is the very mar
riage of pro and con, and no such lop-
f9fAHk \