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5 - Terrible leanings towards respectability
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
sir richard: Mrs Quesnel, what was the exact nature of Sue's acquaintance with Lucien?
inez: What does it matter? You needn't trouble about Sue. We women know the value of appearances. We are awful cowards, and have terrible leanings towards respectability. Sue won't shatter Mr Harabin's family gods on his family hearth, or burst up Mr Harabin's family boiler with any new-fangled explosive. And as long as Mr Harabin's family boiler remains intact, why should you meddle with Sue? I must go and dress. My cloak, please.
Henry Arthur Jones, The Case of Rebellious Susan (1894)Gilbert's career, from the sixties to the nineties, maps out a journey from silly puns and coy sentiment to genuine wit and a relatively outspoken critique of the times. Admittedly, the realists tired of his topsy-turvy fantasy or, on occasion, joined the squeamish in condemning his characteristic brand of humour: ‘Sometimes … it is unpleasant to the point of repulsiveness.’ But particularly at the Savoy, where his satire was provokingly topical yet generalized and made still more palatable by Sullivan's music and his own impeccable stage pictures, even a well-bred Miss of fifteen or so, whose sensibilities had always to be soothed (much to Gilbert's annoyance), even that little maid might learn a lesson or two.
That the theatre had begun to interest the well-bred of all ages was due in no small measure to those colourful extravaganzas.
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- The Making of Victorian Drama , pp. 131 - 161Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991