The Savoy Opera and the Savoyards - Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ...or a few words on oath from a heavy shower, would meet with all the attention they deserve. His lordship is thus humorously described when on the bench i His lordship is constitutionally as blithe as a bird--he trills upon the bench like a thing of song and gladness. His series of judgments in P sharp, given andante in six-eight time, are among the most remarkable effects ever produced in a Court of Chancery. He is, perhaps, the only living instance of a judge whose decrees have received the honour of a double encore. Mr. Gilbert occasionally elaborates a conceit in a rather minute and ingenious way. Here we have Strephon, who is ' half a fairy '--that is, 'a fairy down to the waist, but his legs are mortal.' He is also 'inclined to be stout, ' but the queen says, 'I see no objection to stoutness, in moderation '--a true Gilbertian touch. The hint of the half fairy is worked out with ingenuity i Leila. Your fairyhood doesn't seem to have done you much good. Steeph. Much good! It's the curse of my existence! What's the use of being half a fairy? My body can creep through a keyhole, but what's the good of that when my legs are left kicking behind? I can make myself invisible down to the waist, but that's of no use when my legs remain exposed to view. My brain is a fairy brain, but from the waist downwards I'm a gibbering idiot. My upper half is immortal, but my lower half grows older every day, and some day or other must die of old age. What's to become of my upper half when I've buried my lower half I really don't know. Queen. I see your difficulty, but with a fairy brain you should seek an intellectual sphere of action. Let me see. I've a borough or two at my disposal. Would you like to go into Parliament? Iol. A fairy member! That would..