Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

160. PATIENCE, OR, "BUNTHORNES BRIDE"
Comic Opera in Two Acts By Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan
Libretto By Sir W. S. Gilbert
First Produced London, April, 1881
Chief Characters Patience, Lady Jane, Lady Angela, Reginald Bunthorne, Archibald Grosvenor,
Duke of Dunstabte, Col. Calverley, Major Murgatroyd
THIS bright and pretty comic opera is a most amusing satire upon the "aesthetic " movement of
the early eighties of the last century. The first act takes place in front of Castle Bunthorne, where
Lady Angela, Lady Jane, and a number of other "love-sick maidens," all robed in long " aesthetic "
gowns of subdued tints, are bemoaning their sad fate, for they are all in love with Bunthorne, the
aesthetic, "fleshly" poet, and spend their days following him about and indulging in deep sighs,
and uttering "ecstatic, transcendental" platitudes. Lady Jane, an elderly admirer of the poet, reveals
the harrowing fact that Bunthorne has fallen in love with Patience, a milkmaid; and presently
Patience, a matter-of-fact, healthy young girl, appears, laughing at the doleful, devoted, limp
maidens, and informing them that their old admirers, the Dragoon Guards, have arrived. The lovesick
ones disdain such prosaic, reasonable beings as soldiers; and when the Dragoons appear,
headed by Colonel Calverley, Major Murgatroyd, and Lieutenant the Duke of Dunstable, they are
much disappointed at the cold reception accorded to them by the lackadaisical ladies, who, on the
appearance of the absurd Bunthorne, who is composing a poem, all crowd around him and offer
him rapturous adoration. The Dragoons depart in high dudgeon at this state of affairs, their very
uniform being declared " crude "and "heartrending" by their former sweethearts, who almost faint
at the sight of "primary colours." Bunthorne, being left awhile alone, soliloquises, admitting to
himself that he is but a sham, and his aestheticism and " fleshly poetry " meaningless; and then, on
the entrance of Patience, he proceeds to make love to her. Patience, however, is frightened, and
declares she knows nothing of love; but when Lady Angela presently speaks with her and explains
Love to her in high-flown terms as an ennobling, unselfish passion, declaring it to be her duty to
love, the milkmaid, conscience-stricken, promises that she will not rest until she has fallen in love
with someone. Presently there arrives another aesthete, Archibald Grosvenor, the simple and "
idyllic " poet, who is so beautiful that it is his misfortune to be loved by every maiden who
beholds him; and he and Patience, having been playfellows in early childhood, now fall in love
with each other in earnest. When, however, they discover that there is nothing "unselfish" or "selfsacrificing"
in their love since they have no faults in each others eyes, they feel obliged to part for
artistic and poetic reasons. Bunthorne now appears, decked with roses, having decided that since
he cannot marry all his admirers they shall raffle for him. Just as the lottery is proceeding,
however, Patience rushes forward and offers herself as his bride, considering this to be her duty
since such an act entails an unselfish sacrifice on her part, and Bunthorne very readily accepts her.
Then the rapturous, but disappointed, maidens, on beholding the beautiful Grosvenor, who has
now appeared on the scene, immediately attach themselves to him and desert the "fleshly poet,"
Bunthorne, who is furious at the appearance of such a formidable rival.
In Act 2 he discovers that Patience really loves Grosvenor, and he departs in a jealous pet with the
elderly Jane, who has always been his most ardent admirer. Presently the rivals meet and
Bunthorne commands Grosvenor to discard his aestheticism, cut his hair, and become "an