The Ne'er-do-Weel
Encyclopedia
The Ne'er-do-Weel is a three-act drama written by the English dramatist W. S. Gilbert
. It is the second of three plays that he wrote at the request of the actor Edward Sothern
. The story concerns Jeffery Rollestone, a gentleman who becomes a vagabond after Maud, the girl he loves, leaves him. He meets Gerard, an old school chum who arranges for him to have a good post. Jeffery returns the favour by sacrificing to try to help Gerard marry Maud (Gerard needs the marriage for financial reasons), even though Jeffery and Maud still love each other.
The play opened at London's Olympic Theatre
on 25 February 1878. The play was poorly received, and Gilbert withdrew it after six performances. Critics felt that the play inappropriately combined sentimental scenes with comedy. Gilbert rewrote and restaged the piece three weeks later and renamed it The Vagabond. Although these changes brought a better reception, the play was not a success and closed within a month. Soon afterwards, however, Gilbert and Sullivan
's H.M.S. Pinafore
opened, followed by a decade of extraordinarily successful Savoy opera
s.
had produced 50 previous works for the theatre and was one of England's leading playwrights. Successes the previous year had included a comedy, Engaged
, and a comic opera
with composer Arthur Sullivan
, The Sorcerer
.
Comic actor Edward Sothern
had asked Gilbert, in 1875, to write a play for him. Gilbert was unable to complete that play on time, but Sothern asked Gilbert to be ready with a play by October 1876 that would feature him in a serious role with comic scenes. Gilbert wrote the play, Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith
, but when the play opened at the Haymarket Theatre
in September 1876, Hermann Vezin
took the title role instead of Sothern, in a cast featuring the young actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson
and the 19-year-old Marion Terry
, sister of the famous actress Ellen Terry
.
In July 1876, Gilbert sent an outline of the plot to Sothern. Gilbert noted that it would be difficult to put much comedy into the play. In August, Sothern replied, partly approving the plot sketch, but worrying about how the love story would play out. Sothern also became concerned that, because Gilbert had made the play's heroine a widow rather than a virgin, audiences would not be sympathetic to her. Sothern requested that the husband die of a heart attack immediately after their wedding, so that she might remain in a state of innocence. Gilbert resisted this suggestion, and when he sent a draft of the script in January 1877, Sothern was not pleased with the work and offered to forfeit his rights in it, letting Gilbert keep 500 pounds as the forfeiture fee. He had already paid Gilbert 2,000 guineas
for the play, and Gilbert was unable immediately to pay him back, having just purchased a new house. After further discussions, in March 1877 Sothern asked Gilbert to revise the piece, renewing his request that the widow be a maiden.
Despite various rewrites, Sothern continued to be dissatisfied with the piece, and in July 1877, he asked Gilbert to take it back, now offering him a forfeiture fee of 1,000 guineas. Gilbert felt bad about holding Sothern to this bargain, and in August 1877, he suggested that he have someone else produce the play and pay Sothern back from any profits up to the full 2,000 guineas. Sothern agreed. Gilbert arranged for Henry Neville
, lessee of London's Olympic Theatre
, to produce The Ne'er-do-Weel, and rehearsals began in January 1878. Neville played the role written for Sothern, and the cast again featured Johnston Forbes-Robertson
as well as Gilbert's protégée, Marion Terry.
The Ne'er-do-Weel opened at the Olympic Theatre on 25 February 1878. It was poorly received, and the critics found fault with Gilbert's combination of melodrama and comedy in the same play. For example, The Times review lamented that Gilbert introduced into passages of "real human passion and ... real human feeling, some grotesque turn of thought, or extravagance of whim painfully at variance with the spirit of the scene, and which ... is unable to provoke laughter for its own sake". For example, in one scene Richard Quilt, the villain of the piece, is tied hand and foot by the hero, whom he threatens. Then he hops off the stage, still bound. Gilbert withdrew the play after only six performances, and Neville printed a note (pictured above) in the programme of the next production at the Olympic acknowledging the poor reception of the second half of the piece, promising to offer a rewritten piece "with the least delay possible" and begging the excuse that writing "an entirely original play" in English was a difficult task.
, which opened exactly three months after The Ne'er-do-Weel.
After the play failed, there were no profits with which Gilbert could pay Sothern back at least the 1,000 guineas above the forfeiture fee. He offered to pay it back in installments over three years, and Sothern graciously accepted. Gilbert also licensed Sothern to mount American productions of Gilbert's 1877 comic success, Engaged, and he also eventually wrote a new play for Sothern, Foggerty's Fairy
. The next year, in 1879, Neville produced another Gilbert drama at the Olympic, Gretchen
, but that, too, was a failure. Afterwards, Gilbert concentrated on the highly profitable Savoy opera
s, writing only a few more plays during the rest of his life.
Act I
Richard Quilt is romantically interested in Jessie O'Hara. But Jessie, in turn, is in love with Gerard Seton and rejects Richard's advances. Richard has recently been discharged as secretary to Gerard's father because of dishonesty in his accounts. Gerard is fond of Jessie, but his family situation requires that he must marry a wealthy woman, and so he plans to marry his cousin, a wealthy young widow, Maud Callendar. Maud is staying with the Seton family in their ancestral home, Drumferry.
Gerard tries to hire a passing vagabond to pose as a model for a sketch he is working on. The vagabond, Jeffery Rollestone, turns out to be Gerard's old school chum. The well-born and talented Jeffery sank into a life of "poverty and wretchedness" after the girl he loved deserted him, at her family's request, to marry another man. Gerard offers Jeffery a post as his father's secretary, since that position is now available, and Jeffery repents of his misdeeds. Gerard approaches Maud to propose, but she regards him as a brother. Maud is the woman who had broken Jeffery's heart, and the two suppress their emotions.
Act II
Six weeks later, Jeffery is enjoying working for pleasant Mr. Seton. The Setons are deep in debt, however, and without an advantageous marriage for Gerard, they will lose Drumferry. Mr. Seton asks Jeffery to try to help Gerard persuade Maud to marry him. Jeffery, though in love with Maud, approaches her to speak for Gerard. Maud is hurt that he, who once loved her, could urge her to marry another man. She declares that she still loves him, and he returns the declaration; they renew their engagement. When Mr. Seton finds out what has happened, he furiously fires Jeffery.
Before Jeffery can leave, Richard Quilt sneaks into the Seton home to steal some love letters from Jessie to Gerard, planning blackmail. Jeffery takes the letters from him, except for one, which Richard manages to hide. He ties Richard up and questions him, but lets him go (hopping away still bound), planning to give the letters to Gerard. Richard, however, is stopped by a porter, and the hidden letter from Jessie, addressed to "My dear, dear friend", is found. Jessie's uncle, Captain O'Hara, assumes that Jessie wrote the letter to Gerard. Maud has returned and says that, if Jessie wrote the letter to Gerard, she will never speak to Gerard again. To Maud's horror, however, Jeffery, who wants to help Gerard because of his kindnesses to him) declares that the letter is meant for him. Mr. Seton is grateful.
Act III
The bumbling Captain O'Hara, who has recently become a magistrate, must question Richard about the accusation of burglary. His prisoner must assist O'Hara in following the applicable legal terms and procedures, which is helpful to Richard in his defense. O'Hara attacks Jeffery for supposedly romancing his niece. Jeffery takes all the blame and says that the niece is faultless. He agrees to marry Jessie, although he does not know her name.
Maud wants to forgive Jeffery, but he says nothing in his own defense. Jessie has travelled to London with Gerard, but now Gerard returns and is angry with Jeffery for having proposed to Maud. But Jeffery explains that he only claimed to be the addressee of Jessie's letter to help Gerard marry Maud. Unfortunately, Gerard has now married Jessie. Fortunately, however, Mr. Seton's wealthy cousin has just died suddenly, and he now has financial security. Jeffery and Gerard reconcile, and Jessie reconciles with her uncle. Maud returns, having found out what is going on, and she and Jeffery happily pair off.
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
. It is the second of three plays that he wrote at the request of the actor Edward Sothern
Edward Askew Sothern
Edward Askew Sothern was an English actor known for his comic roles in Britain and America, particularly Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin.- Early years :...
. The story concerns Jeffery Rollestone, a gentleman who becomes a vagabond after Maud, the girl he loves, leaves him. He meets Gerard, an old school chum who arranges for him to have a good post. Jeffery returns the favour by sacrificing to try to help Gerard marry Maud (Gerard needs the marriage for financial reasons), even though Jeffery and Maud still love each other.
The play opened at London's Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
on 25 February 1878. The play was poorly received, and Gilbert withdrew it after six performances. Critics felt that the play inappropriately combined sentimental scenes with comedy. Gilbert rewrote and restaged the piece three weeks later and renamed it The Vagabond. Although these changes brought a better reception, the play was not a success and closed within a month. Soon afterwards, however, Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
opened, followed by a decade of extraordinarily successful Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s.
Background
By the time he wrote The Ne'er-do-Weel, W. S. GilbertW. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
had produced 50 previous works for the theatre and was one of England's leading playwrights. Successes the previous year had included a comedy, Engaged
Engaged (play)
Engaged is a three-act farcical comic play by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Haymarket Theatre on 3 October 1877, the same year as The Sorcerer, one of Gilbert's comic operas written with Arthur Sullivan, which was soon followed by the collaborators' great success in H.M.S. Pinafore...
, and a comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
with composer Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876...
.
Comic actor Edward Sothern
Edward Askew Sothern
Edward Askew Sothern was an English actor known for his comic roles in Britain and America, particularly Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin.- Early years :...
had asked Gilbert, in 1875, to write a play for him. Gilbert was unable to complete that play on time, but Sothern asked Gilbert to be ready with a play by October 1876 that would feature him in a serious role with comic scenes. Gilbert wrote the play, Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith
Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith
Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith is a play by W. S. Gilbert, styled "A Three-Act Drama of Puritan times". It opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 11 September 1876, starring Hermann Vezin, Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Marion Terry. The play was a success, running for about 100 performances and...
, but when the play opened at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
in September 1876, Hermann Vezin
Hermann Vezin
Hermann Vezin was an American actor, teacher of elocution and writer. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania.-Biography:...
took the title role instead of Sothern, in a cast featuring the young actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the nineteenth century and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.-Early life:Born in...
and the 19-year-old Marion Terry
Marion Terry
Marion Bessie Terry was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S...
, sister of the famous actress Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
.
Genesis
Meanwhile, Gilbert had already been working on another play for Sothern, The Ne'er-do-Weel, presumably to be produced at the Haymarket. Gilbert wanted to use a pseudonym because he would not personally direct the play, but Sothern thought that the piece would do better with Gilbert's name attached. Sothern corresponded frequently with Gilbert and had many requirements and suggestions for the piece in terms of length, setting and number of characters, among other things, that "the seriousness should be brightened up with comedy" and that an important part of the plot should be a "story of a man making some great sacrifice for the girl he madly loves". Sothern's conflicting requests for dramatic and comic situations made it difficult for Gilbert to write an internally consistent play.In July 1876, Gilbert sent an outline of the plot to Sothern. Gilbert noted that it would be difficult to put much comedy into the play. In August, Sothern replied, partly approving the plot sketch, but worrying about how the love story would play out. Sothern also became concerned that, because Gilbert had made the play's heroine a widow rather than a virgin, audiences would not be sympathetic to her. Sothern requested that the husband die of a heart attack immediately after their wedding, so that she might remain in a state of innocence. Gilbert resisted this suggestion, and when he sent a draft of the script in January 1877, Sothern was not pleased with the work and offered to forfeit his rights in it, letting Gilbert keep 500 pounds as the forfeiture fee. He had already paid Gilbert 2,000 guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
for the play, and Gilbert was unable immediately to pay him back, having just purchased a new house. After further discussions, in March 1877 Sothern asked Gilbert to revise the piece, renewing his request that the widow be a maiden.
Despite various rewrites, Sothern continued to be dissatisfied with the piece, and in July 1877, he asked Gilbert to take it back, now offering him a forfeiture fee of 1,000 guineas. Gilbert felt bad about holding Sothern to this bargain, and in August 1877, he suggested that he have someone else produce the play and pay Sothern back from any profits up to the full 2,000 guineas. Sothern agreed. Gilbert arranged for Henry Neville
Henry Gartside Neville
Thomas Henry Gartside Neville was an English actor, dramatist, teacher and theatre manager. He began his career playing dashing juvenile leads, later specialising in Shakespearean roles, modern comedy and melodrama. His most famous role was as Bob Brierley in Tom Taylor's The Ticket-of-Leave Man...
, lessee of London's Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
, to produce The Ne'er-do-Weel, and rehearsals began in January 1878. Neville played the role written for Sothern, and the cast again featured Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the nineteenth century and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.-Early life:Born in...
as well as Gilbert's protégée, Marion Terry.
The Ne'er-do-Weel opened at the Olympic Theatre on 25 February 1878. It was poorly received, and the critics found fault with Gilbert's combination of melodrama and comedy in the same play. For example, The Times review lamented that Gilbert introduced into passages of "real human passion and ... real human feeling, some grotesque turn of thought, or extravagance of whim painfully at variance with the spirit of the scene, and which ... is unable to provoke laughter for its own sake". For example, in one scene Richard Quilt, the villain of the piece, is tied hand and foot by the hero, whom he threatens. Then he hops off the stage, still bound. Gilbert withdrew the play after only six performances, and Neville printed a note (pictured above) in the programme of the next production at the Olympic acknowledging the poor reception of the second half of the piece, promising to offer a rewritten piece "with the least delay possible" and begging the excuse that writing "an entirely original play" in English was a difficult task.
The Vagabond and aftermath
After some delay due to an attack of the gout and Gilbert's busy schedule, he rewrote the piece (particularly the third act), mostly to remove some of the comic episodes and to take out the character of Richard Quilt. It reopened at the Olympic as The Vagabond on 25 March 1878 and received a kinder reception by both audiences and critics. One critic wrote that, although the piece was now more successful, it was hardly worthwhile to revise the piece: "It can never hope ... to occupy a place with its author's best work having neither the strength nor the shapeliness of the plays by which Mr Gilbert is known and judged." Other reviews criticized Gilbert for his "failure... to acknowledge the public verdict". The play ran for about 23 performances, until 18 April 1878. Although the piece was disappointing, Gilbert was soon to score the biggest triumph of his career, with H.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
, which opened exactly three months after The Ne'er-do-Weel.
After the play failed, there were no profits with which Gilbert could pay Sothern back at least the 1,000 guineas above the forfeiture fee. He offered to pay it back in installments over three years, and Sothern graciously accepted. Gilbert also licensed Sothern to mount American productions of Gilbert's 1877 comic success, Engaged, and he also eventually wrote a new play for Sothern, Foggerty's Fairy
Foggerty's Fairy
Foggerty's Fairy, subtitled "An Entirely Original Fairy Farce", is a three-act farce by W.S. Gilbert based loosely on Gilbert's short story, "The Story of a Twelfth Cake", which was published in the Christmas Number of The Graphic in 1874, and elements of other Gilbert plays...
. The next year, in 1879, Neville produced another Gilbert drama at the Olympic, Gretchen
Gretchen (play)
Gretchen is a tragic four-act play, in blank verse, written by W. S. Gilbert in 1878–79 based on Goethe's version of part of the Faust legend....
, but that, too, was a failure. Afterwards, Gilbert concentrated on the highly profitable Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s, writing only a few more plays during the rest of his life.
Characters and original cast
- Jeffery Rollestone, a vagabond – Henry NevilleHenry Gartside NevilleThomas Henry Gartside Neville was an English actor, dramatist, teacher and theatre manager. He began his career playing dashing juvenile leads, later specialising in Shakespearean roles, modern comedy and melodrama. His most famous role was as Bob Brierley in Tom Taylor's The Ticket-of-Leave Man...
- Mr. Seton, of Drumferry – Mr. Flockton
- Gerard Seton, Lieutenant, R.N, his son – Johnston Forbes-RobertsonJohnston Forbes-RobertsonSir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the nineteenth century and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.-Early life:Born in...
- Maud Callendar, Gerard Seton's wealthy cousin – Marion TerryMarion TerryMarion Bessie Terry was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S...
- Richard Quilt, Mr. Seton's ex-secretary – Robert Pateman
- Captain O'Hara, a retired merchant-sailor – George W. Anson
- Jessie O'Hara, his niece – Miss Gerard
- Miss Parminter, a distant connection of Mr. Seton's – Maggie Brennan
- Jakes, Mr. Seton's Butler – Mr. Bauer
Synopsis
Note: This is a summary of the plot of The Ne'er-do-Weel. Substantial changes were made before the play was revived as The Vagabond.Act I
Richard Quilt is romantically interested in Jessie O'Hara. But Jessie, in turn, is in love with Gerard Seton and rejects Richard's advances. Richard has recently been discharged as secretary to Gerard's father because of dishonesty in his accounts. Gerard is fond of Jessie, but his family situation requires that he must marry a wealthy woman, and so he plans to marry his cousin, a wealthy young widow, Maud Callendar. Maud is staying with the Seton family in their ancestral home, Drumferry.
Gerard tries to hire a passing vagabond to pose as a model for a sketch he is working on. The vagabond, Jeffery Rollestone, turns out to be Gerard's old school chum. The well-born and talented Jeffery sank into a life of "poverty and wretchedness" after the girl he loved deserted him, at her family's request, to marry another man. Gerard offers Jeffery a post as his father's secretary, since that position is now available, and Jeffery repents of his misdeeds. Gerard approaches Maud to propose, but she regards him as a brother. Maud is the woman who had broken Jeffery's heart, and the two suppress their emotions.
Act II
Six weeks later, Jeffery is enjoying working for pleasant Mr. Seton. The Setons are deep in debt, however, and without an advantageous marriage for Gerard, they will lose Drumferry. Mr. Seton asks Jeffery to try to help Gerard persuade Maud to marry him. Jeffery, though in love with Maud, approaches her to speak for Gerard. Maud is hurt that he, who once loved her, could urge her to marry another man. She declares that she still loves him, and he returns the declaration; they renew their engagement. When Mr. Seton finds out what has happened, he furiously fires Jeffery.
Before Jeffery can leave, Richard Quilt sneaks into the Seton home to steal some love letters from Jessie to Gerard, planning blackmail. Jeffery takes the letters from him, except for one, which Richard manages to hide. He ties Richard up and questions him, but lets him go (hopping away still bound), planning to give the letters to Gerard. Richard, however, is stopped by a porter, and the hidden letter from Jessie, addressed to "My dear, dear friend", is found. Jessie's uncle, Captain O'Hara, assumes that Jessie wrote the letter to Gerard. Maud has returned and says that, if Jessie wrote the letter to Gerard, she will never speak to Gerard again. To Maud's horror, however, Jeffery, who wants to help Gerard because of his kindnesses to him) declares that the letter is meant for him. Mr. Seton is grateful.
Act III
The bumbling Captain O'Hara, who has recently become a magistrate, must question Richard about the accusation of burglary. His prisoner must assist O'Hara in following the applicable legal terms and procedures, which is helpful to Richard in his defense. O'Hara attacks Jeffery for supposedly romancing his niece. Jeffery takes all the blame and says that the niece is faultless. He agrees to marry Jessie, although he does not know her name.
Maud wants to forgive Jeffery, but he says nothing in his own defense. Jessie has travelled to London with Gerard, but now Gerard returns and is angry with Jeffery for having proposed to Maud. But Jeffery explains that he only claimed to be the addressee of Jessie's letter to help Gerard marry Maud. Unfortunately, Gerard has now married Jessie. Fortunately, however, Mr. Seton's wealthy cousin has just died suddenly, and he now has financial security. Jeffery and Gerard reconcile, and Jessie reconciles with her uncle. Maud returns, having found out what is going on, and she and Jeffery happily pair off.
External links
- The Ne'er-do-weel at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
- Digitised script of The Ne'er-do-Weel
- http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/others/ndw.htmlReview in PunchPunch (magazine)Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
March 16, 1878] - Review of The Ne'er-do-weel by Joseph Knight dated 2 March 1878. 'Theatrical Notes' Published by Lawrence and Bullen (1893)
- Review of The Ne'er-do-weel in The Times, 28 February 1878
- Review of The Vagabond in The Times, 27 March 1878