Broken Hearts
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Broken Hearts is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts styled "An entirely original fairy play". It opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on December 9, 1875. It was revived at the Savoy Theatre in 1882, in 1883 and again in 1888, with Julia Neilson, and also at Crystal Palace that year.[1]
Broken Hearts was the last of several blank verse "fairy comedies" created by Gilbert in the early 1870s starring William Hunter Kendal and his wife Madge Robertson Kendal (sister of the playwright Tom Robertson). These plays, influenced by the fairy work of James Planché, are founded upon the idea of self-revelation by characters under the influence of some magic or some supernatural interference.[2] The first was The Palace of Truth in 1870, a fantasy adapted from a story by Madame de Genlis. Pygmalion and Galatea, a satire of sentimental, romantic attitudes toward myth, was produced in 1871. Together, these plays, and successors such as The Wicked World (1873), Sweethearts (1874), Charity and Broken Hearts, did for Gilbert on the dramatic stage what the German Reed Entertainments had done for him on the musical stage. They established that his capabilities extended far beyond burlesque and won him artistic credentials as a writer of wide range, who was as comfortable with human drama as with farcical humor.
Broken Hearts is one of several Gilbert plays, including The Wicked World, Princess Ida, Fallen Fairies, and Iolanthe, where the introduction of males into a tranquil world of women brings "mortal love" that wreaks havoc with the status quo. The play examines both human frailties: vanity, misplaced trust, judging by appearance, and human virtues: pity, love, and sacrifice. Some of the play's themes and plot devices resurface in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard and Princess Ida.[3] Here, as in so many of Gilbert's plays, we feel Gilbert's distrust of "heroes". We are made to see Florian's casual arrogance and cruelty as well as his real chivalry.[4]
Gilbert had written Broken Hearts for his friend, John Hare, of the Court Theatre. The play was a comparative failure, but it remained one of Gilbert's two most favourite plays among all the plays he had written (the other was Gretchen, an adaptation of the Faust legend). Later, Gilbert had a line from the play engraved on the sun-dial at his home, Grim's Dyke: "even Time is hastening to its end."[5]
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[edit] Synopsis
On a tropical island in the fourteenth century, a group of noblewomen have fled the world, their hearts having been broken through the loss of their lovers. They vow to love no living thing, but they have transferred their loves to inanimate objects: Lady Vavir loves a sundial (a symbol of mortality), and her sister, Lady Hilda, loves a fountain (a symbol of vitality). The only male allowed on the island is their servant, "a deformed ill-favoured dwarf, hump-backed and one-eyed" and therefore no threat to their maidenhood. Prince Florian arrives on the island, and through his thoughtlessness and selfish behaviour, he brings unhappiness to the community and hastens the death of Lady Vavir.
[edit] Roles
- Prince Florian
- Mousta (A Deformed Dwarf)
- The Lady Hilda
- The Lady Vavir (Her Sister)
- The Lady Melusine
- The Lady Amanthis
[edit] Critical reception
Before the opening night, Gilbert sent a copy of the play to Clement Scott, the drama critic and editor of The Theatre who was, initially, impressed by the play. The play was generally well reviewed, and Scott admired the play. Later, however, Scott quoted F. C. Burnand's joke about going to see "Broken Parts".
[edit] Notes
- ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Volume 7; pg. 261 (Macmillan, London: 1980)
- ^ The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume XIII. "The Victorian Age", Part One. VIII. Nineteenth-Century Drama, § 15. W. S. Gilbert.
- ^ Analysis and synopsis
- ^ Analysis of Broken Hearts
- ^ Introduction to Broken hearts
[edit] References
- Crowther, Andrew (2000). Contradiction Contradicted – The Plays of W. S. Gilbert. Associated University Presses. ISBN 0-8386-3839-2.
- Stedman, Jane W. (1996). W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816174-3.
