The Iolanthe Plot.

Hastings Standard, Issue 131, 26 September 1896, Page 2

The lolanthe Plot.

Act I. lolanthe, ail idolised member of an influential fairy circle, commits a grevious offence against the inexorable laws of the fairy system by falling desperately in love "with a mortal. This indiscretion, grave though it was, might have been condoned had the matter ended there ; but alas for the frailty of fairy nature, she placed herself beyond the uttermost pale of pardon by marrying the object of her fairy love. This appalling cljrngx, which deliberately set at naug|||npß most fundamental fiats of fairyland, infuriated her sister fairies, and the law which was very definite on this point, demanded the forfeit of her life as the penalty of the crime. However, after their first outburst of wrath has subsided, and the love of the fairies for lolanthe began to assert itself the graver councils of lolanthe's friends, Lelia, Celia, and Fleta, prevailed, and as she had composed all their songs, controlled their dances, and was altogether a universal favorite, the sentence of death was commuted to banishment from fairyland for ever. The Queen of the Fairies, who was indebted to lolanthe for various little wrinkles in her profession, took the more lenient view, and she was exiled, being permitted her own choice of a habitation. Her preference fell upon the bottom of an adjacent lake, to the depths of which she was duly consigned. Years had passed when the curtain rises on the fairies bewailing the loss of their favorite comrade, and they approach their Queen beseeching her to annul the ban pronounced against lolanthe, adducing as an argument that as she always suffered from a weak chest, the bottom of the lake was damp and unwholesome. Their pleadings softened the heart of the Queen, who was herself glad of an excuse to recall lolanthe, especially as her husband had died in the meanwhile. She is commanded from the waters, and appearing dripping and covered with seaweed she is welcomed with great rejoicing once more as a member of the fairy circle. In the explanations which follow lolanthe informs them that the result of her ill-starred union was a son, Strephon, who 7 possessed the the natures of his parents in equal proportions, being a fairy down to the waist and a mortal fropi that point to his toes, but that he is totally ignorant of his paternal origin. The curiosity of the Queen to see such a dual development is gratified, as he opportunely enters on the scene, and the fairies, who are his mother's sisters, are formally introduced to him as his aunts, and they assure him they will be always ready should he require their assistance. Strephon, who is an Arcadian shepherd, seems to have inherited in an inordinate degree the maternal failing of falling injudiciously in love, for it appears he has formed a violent passion for a shepherdess called Phyllis, Who loves him ardently in return,.* Phyllis, however, is a ward in chancery, and the proverbial obstructions to the course of true love in this instance take the shape of the Lord Chancellor ofEnglani, (who has himself a sneaking regard for his ward) and two members of the House of Peers, Lord Tolloller and Lord Mount Arrarat, also claimants for the hand of Phyllis. The Lord Ghanceller surprises Strephon and Phyllis in a love scene, and he makes use of his legal authority over his ward to order her away, and gives Strephon distinctly to understand that his hopes of wedding Phyliis can never be realised. Strephon is in a most despondent mood. At this juncture lolanthe (who, owing to the fact of her fairy hood, can never appear more than 17 years of age, though she is in reality two centuries old) discovers her son bathed in tears, and condoles with him him in a most affectionate manner. Phyllis, accompanied by Lord Tolloler and Ararat, steal in upon them, when Phyllis, seeing her lover in close and loving converse with a girl of " sweet seventeen," naturally concludes he is false to the professions he made to her and rushing forward in a brilliant and dramatic scene she opens the flood-gates of her wrath upon them. Strephon endeavors to explain that "The Lady is his Mother," but "As she is seventeen and he is four or five and twenty," his statement is received with shrieks of derisive laughter, and Phyllis straight away renounces Strephon and engages herself to either of his blue-blooded rivals, " she doesn't pare which." Strephon suddenly remembers the promise of his fairy aunt the Queen, to assist him in his need, and, kneeling, he invokes her aid in his extremity. She promptly replies by suddenly appearing with all her fairy subjects, and upon the situation being conveyed to her, she upbraids the Lord Chancellor and the Peers, but those gentlemen, mistaking her for the " proprietor of a ladies' seminary," proceed to give her a bit of their mind, when she addresses the Chancellor:— O Chancellor unwary, It's highly necessary Your tongue to teach respectful speech, Your attitude to vary,'

And further on that " she was an influential fairy." She orders her nephew to throw aside his crook and pipe and enter Parliament where " backed by her supreme authority " he was to lead both Conserve ti\ e and Liberal parties and, reforms which he was to introdirS, throw open the Peerage to competatne examination. The first act closes with a splendid chorus in which the peers and fairies hurl taunts and defiance at one another. The curtain will rise on Act II ia Monday ? s issue.