Utopia, Limited

By W. S. Gilbert

"Utopia, Limited" by W.S. Gilbert. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Apr 11, 2021
• ISBN: 4064066455798

W. S. Gilbert

W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911) was an English librettist, dramatist, and poet. Born in London, Gilbert was raised by William, a surgeon and novelist, and Anne Mary, an apothecary’s daughter. As a child he lived with his parents in Italy and France before finally returning to London in 1847. Gilbert graduated from Kind’s College London in 1856 before joining the Civil Service and briefly working as a barrister. In 1861, he began publishing poems, stories, and theatre reviews in Fun, The Cornhill Magazine, and Temple Bar. His first play was Uncle Baby, which ran to moderate acclaim for seven weeks in 1863. He soon became one of London’s most popular writers of opera burlesques, but turned away from the form in 1869 to focus on prose comedies. In 1871, he began working with composer Arthur Sullivan, whose music provided the perfect melody to some of the most popular comic operas of all time, including H. M. S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), and The Mikado (1885). At London’s Savoy Theatre and around the world, The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company would perform Gilbert and Sullivan’s works for the next century. Gilbert, the author of more than 75 plays and countless more poems, stories, and articles, influenced such writers as Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, as well as laid the foundation for the success of American musical theatre on Broadway and beyond.

Book preview

W.S. Gilbert

Utopia, Limited

Published by Good Press, 2022

[e-mail]

EAN 4064066455798

Table of Contents

Cover

Titlepage

Text

OR

THE FLOWERS OF PROGRESS

Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan

Libretto by William S. Gilbert

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

King Paramount, the First (King of Utopia)

Scaphio and Phantis (Judges of the Utopian Supreme Court)

Tarara (The Public Exploder)

Calynx (The Utopian Vice-Chamberlain)

Imported Flowers of Progress:

Lord Dramaleigh (a British Lord Chamberlain)

Captain Fitzbattleaxe (First Life Guards)

Captain Sir Edward Corcoran, K.C.B. (of the Royal Navy)

Mr. Goldbury (a company promoter; afterwards Comptroller of the

Utopian

Household)

Sir Bailey Barre, Q.C., M.P.

Mr. Blushington (of the County Council)

The Princess Zara (eldest daughter of King Paramount)

The Princesses Nekaya and Kalyba (her Younger Sisters)

The Lady Sophy (their English Gouvernante)

Utopian Maidens:

Salata

Melene

Phylla

ACT I

A Utopian Palm Grove

ACT II

Throne Room in King Paramount's Palace

First produced at the Savoy Theatre on October 7, 1893.

ACT I.

OPENING CHORUS.

In lazy languor—motionless,

We lie and dream of nothingness;

For visions come

From Poppydom

Direct at our command:

Or, delicate alternative,

In open idleness we live,

With lyre and lute

And silver flute,

The life of Lazyland.

SOLO - Phylla.

The song of birds

In ivied towers;

The rippling play

Of waterway;

The lowing herds;

The breath of flowers;

The languid loves

Of turtle doves—

These simply joys are all at hand

Upon thy shores, O Lazyland!

(Enter Calynx)

Calynx: Good news! Great news! His Majesty's eldest daughter,

Princess Zara, who left our shores five years since to go

to

England—the greatest, the most powerful, the wisest

country

in the world—has taken a high degree at Girton, and is

on

her way home again, having achieved a complete mastery

over

all the elements that have tended to raise that glorious

country to her present pre-eminent position among

civilized

nations!

Salata: Then in a few months Utopia may hope to be completely

Angli-

cized?

Calynx: Absolutely and without a doubt.

Melene: (lazily) We are very well as we are. Life without a

care—every want supplied by a kind and fatherly monarch,

who, despot though he be, has no other thought than to

make

his people happy—what have we to gain by the great

change

that is in store for us?

Salata: What have we to gain? English institutions, English

tastes,

and oh, English fashions!

Calynx: England has made herself what she is because, in that fa-

vored land, every one has to think for himself. Here we

have no need to think, because our monarch anticipates

all

our wants, and our political opinions are formed for us

by

the journals to which we subscribe. Oh, think how much

more

brilliant this dialogue would have been, if we had been

accustomed to exercise our reflective powers! They say

that

in England the conversation of the very meanest is a

corus-

cation of impromptu epigram!

(Enter Tarara in a great rage)

Tarara: Lalabalele talala! Callabale lalabalica falahle!

Calynx: (horrified) Stop—stop, I beg! (All the ladies close

their

ears.)

Tarara: Callamalala galalate! Caritalla lalabalee kallalale poo!

Ladies: Oh, stop him! stop him!

Calynx: My lord, I'm surprised at you. Are you not aware that

His

Majesty, in his despotic acquiescence with the emphatic

wish

of his people, has ordered that the Utopian language

shall

be banished from his court, and that all communications

shall henceforward be made in the English tongue?

Tarara: Yes, I'm perfectly aware of it, although—(suddenly

present-

ing an explosive cracker). Stop—allow me.

Calynx: (pulls it). Now, what's that for?

Tarara: Why, I've recently been appointed Public Exploder to His

Majesty, and as I'm constitutionally nervous, I must

accus-

tom myself by degrees to the startling nature of my

duties.

Thank you. I was about to say that although, as Public

Exploder, I am next in succession to the throne, I

neverthe-

less do my best to fall in with the royal decree. But

when

I am overmastered by an indignant sense of overwhelming

wrong, as I am now, I slip into my native tongue without

knowing it. I am told