The Palace of Truth
Encyclopedia
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
"Fairy Comedy" by W. S. Gilbert
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...
first produced 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 London on 19 November 1870, partly adapted from Madame de Genlis's fairy story, Le Palais de Vérite. The play ran for approximately 140 performances and then toured the British provinces and enjoyed various revivals even well into the 20th century. There was also a New York production in 1910.
Background
Gilbert created several blank verse "fairy comedies" at the Haymarket TheatreHaymarket 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...
for actor-manager John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone
John Baldwin Buckstone was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826....
and starring William Hunter Kendal
William Hunter Kendal
William Hunter Kendal was an English actor and theatre manager. He and his wife Madge starred at the Haymarket in Shakespearian revivals and the old English comedies beginning in the 1860s. In the 1870s, they starred in a series of "fairy comedies" by W. S. Gilbert and in many plays on the West...
and his wife Madge Robertson Kendal
Madge Kendal
Dame Madge Kendal GBE , born as Margaret Shafto Robertson, was an English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies. Together with her husband, W. H...
(sister of the playwright Tom Robertson
Thomas William Robertson
Thomas William Robertson , usually known professionally as T. W. Robertson, was an Anglo-Irish dramatist and innovative stage director best known for a series of realistic or naturalistic plays produced in London in the 1860s that broke new ground and inspired playwrights such as W.S...
) in the early 1870s. These plays, influenced by the fairy work of James Planché
James Planche
James Robinson Planché was a British dramatist, antiquary and officer of arms. Over a period of approximately 60 years he wrote, adapted, or collaborated on 176 plays in a wide range of genres including extravaganza, farce, comedy, burletta, melodrama and opera...
, are founded upon the idea of self-revelation by characters under the influence of some magic or supernatural interference. The Palace of Truth was the first of these, followed by Pygmalion and Galatea (1871), a satire of sentimental, romantic attitudes toward myth, The Wicked World
The Wicked World
The Wicked World is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre on 1873 and ran for a successful 145 performances, closing on 1873...
(1873), and Broken Hearts
Broken Hearts
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 9 December 1875, running for three months, and toured the provinces in 1876...
(1875). At the same time, Gilbert wrote some interesting drams, including Sweethearts
Sweethearts (play)
Sweethearts is a comic play billed as a "dramatic contrast" in two acts by W. S. Gilbert. The play tells a sentimental and ironic story of the differing recollections of a man and a woman about their last meeting together before being separated and reunited after 30 years.It was first produced on...
(1874) and Charity
Charity (play)
Charity is a drama in four acts by W. S. Gilbert that explores the issue of a woman who had lived with a man as his wife without ever having married. The play analyses and critiques the double standard in the Victorian era concerning the treatment of men and women who had sex outside of marriage,...
(1874). These plays did for Gilbert on the dramatic stage what the German Reed Entertainment
German Reed Entertainment
German Reed Entertainment was founded in 1855 and operated by Thomas German Reed together with his wife, Priscilla Reed née Horton...
s 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.
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 play ran for approximately 140 performances at the Haymarket, a long run at the time, and then toured. Gilbert was paid 4 guineas per night until February 1871 and 2 guineas thereafter. On tour, Gilbert's royalty was 3 guineas a night.
Some of Gilbert's later works drew on The Palace of Truth for plot elements or their logical development, including his hit play, 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...
(1877), where characters say openly what would ordinarily be hidden and admit what, in Victorian society, would be inadmissible. Gilbert and Edward German
Edward German
Sir Edward German was an English musician and composer of Welsh descent, best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of English comic opera.As a youth, German played the violin and led the town orchestra, also...
discussed making The Palace of Truth into an opera, but after the failure of Fallen Fairies
Fallen Fairies
Fallen Fairies; or, The Wicked World, is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Edward German. Premiering at London's Savoy Theatre on December 15, 1909, it failed miserably, closing after just 50 performances...
, the idea was abandoned.
Some of the satire of the piece is aimed at musicians. An exchange in the piece, where the character of Zoram, the court composer and a poseur, makes a the following complicated musical remark, was tried out by Gilbert on his future collaborator, 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...
, some months before the play was produced (Gilbert had looked up the definition of "harmony" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica and translated it into blank-verse, as follows):
- Believe me, the result would be the same,
- Whether your lordship chose to play upon
- The simple tetrachordTetrachordTraditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...
of Mercury - That knew no diatonic intervals,
- Or the elaborate dis‑diapasonDiapasonDiapason may refer to:* Diapason , a just interval in Pythagorean tuning* Diapason , a tonal grouping of the flue pipes of a pipe organ* Diapason , a French classical music magazine...
, - Embracing in its perfect consonanceConsonance and dissonanceIn music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
- All simple, double and inverted chordsInversion (music)In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...
!
Roles and original cast
- King Phanor, a philanderer; likes "yes" men – J. B. Buckstone
- Prince Philamir, boyfriend of the Princess; speaks in alliteration – W. H. Kendal
- Chrysal, a "yes" man and a lyricist; betrothed to Palmis – Mr. Everill
- Zoram, another "yes" man and a composer – Mr. Clare
- Aristaeus, an outspoken and truthful man – Mr. Rogers
- Gelanor, steward of the Palace of Truth – Mr. Braid
- Queen Altemire, a good wife; wants her daughter to be happy – Mrs. Chippendale
- Princess Zeolide, young; searching for love and truth – Madge KendalMadge KendalDame Madge Kendal GBE , born as Margaret Shafto Robertson, was an English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies. Together with her husband, W. H...
(billed as Miss Robertson) - Mirza, a friend of the Princess; suspicious of the Prince – Caroline HillCaroline HillCaroline Hill was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hill was born in York and began to act as a child, in about 1861, in roles such as Mamilius in A Winter's Tale and Arthur in The Life and Death of King John, in the company of Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Later, she joined...
- Palmis, a lady of the court; in love with Chrysal – Fanny Wright
- Azem, timid; a visitor to the Palace of Truth – Fanny Gwynne
Synopsis
Act I -- The garden of the King's Country House.The Queen is upset because the Princess is to become engaged tomorrow to the Prince but seems not to love him. The Prince speaks flowery words of love to the Princess. The Queen, jealous, wonders why the King visits the Palace of Truth once a month, while she has never been there in eighteen years of marriage. The King reveals that the palace is enchanted, and every visitor there is bound to speak the truth. The speaker is not aware that he is telling the truth, and it is impossible to keep a secret there. The two decide to bring the Prince and Princess there to find out if they truly love one another. They will also bring all the courtiers. The King tells Gelanor and Mirza that he has a talisman that will keep the holder from having to tell the truth.
Act II - Inside the Palace of Truth
The King is holding the talisman. Everyone else tells the truth: The Princess's singing is terrible; Chrysal did not mean one word that he said at court; Zoram (the composer) doesn't know one note from another, etc. Chrysal and Zoram declare a duel because of the truth they speak.
The Prince confesses that at least 500 ladies have kissed him, among other things, and of course the Princess is unhappy. Azema timidly reveals that she wants to try her charms on the Prince. The Prince rejects her, so Azema tries to charm Chrysal. The Prince decides that the palace must be enchanted and shows up human nature as it is and everybody is affected by it, but he doesn't realize that the enchantment affects him. He tells Mirza that he loves her and then reveals this to the Princess. She breaks their bond and gives him his freedom and then pleads with him to take her back and give her until that night. Other characters confess love for each other in strange pairings.
After the King reveals that he made love to Mirza in the shrubbery and Mirza admits that she hates the King, he realizes that his talisman is not working. Now the King wants to leave!
Act III - On the Avenue of Palms at night
Chrysal has a sword and is ready for the duel with Zoram. Zoram arrives, and the two combatants tell each other, with great bravado, how afraid they are of each other. Gelanor tells them that the Palace makes one say what he thinks. Zoram and Chrysal decide that thoughts are not important. They shake hands. The Queen talks with old Gelanor, and Azema goes to tell the King of this meeting.
The Princess begs Mirza to let her have the Prince, and Mirza says she will do so and then go away. She tells him of her love for him and adds that she is going away. The Princess reenters unobserved, and is moved by Mirza's speech. She goes forward and puts Mirza's hand in the Prince's and sets him free. The Prince gives Mirza a ring as a pledge of his love and wants one in return - a handkerchief or a glove. She brings forth a handkerchief from her pocket and the crystal talisman falls out. Mirza tells him that it is the talisman; she took it from the King and put the false one in its place.
The King arrives, and the Prince gives him the talisman. He tells the Queen she has been found with Gelanor. The Queen truthfully says that it was an innocent meeting. The Queen asks the King if he had been philandering with Azema and, because he has the talisman, he is able to lie, denying it. The Queen apologizes. The Prince admits that he has been a fool. The King give the talisman to the Prince but he gives it to the Princess, speaks from his heart and kisses her. The Queen breaks the talisman, also ending the enchantment of the palace, and all note the lessons they have learned.
External links
- Lengthy synopsis and character descriptions at the G&S Archive
- Libretto
- Links to reviews of the play from The Times.
- Illustrated scene from The Palace of Truth
- Discussion in The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- Includes information about the play
- Includes information about a 1905 revival