604 Hon. Maurice Baring [June 2, 



picture of an epoch that is as far away now as Nineveh and Tyre. 

 The picture of London of the 'eighties ; the bands playing " A magnet 

 hung in a hardware shop " in the streets in the morning ; the Park 

 in the afternoon, crowded with elegant carriages, barouches, and 

 victorias, a highly-perched dowager waving a small gloved hand ; 

 Rotten Row in the morning, crowded with top-hatted cavaliers and 

 ladies witching the world with horsemanship and faultless habits ; 

 the photographs of Mrs. Langtry and the professional beauties in 

 shop windows ; the perfumed, padded, silken missives of St. Valentine's 

 Day ; the little flat bonnets with bows ; the Du Maurier ladies, 

 haggard from adoration, green with love and indigestion, at the 

 classical concerts ; and the Princess of Wales driving past in an open 

 carriage as beautiful and as graceful as Queen Alexandra. And 

 before leaving the subject of Patience, I should like to end with one 

 quotation which contains, I think, the whole essence of Gilbert and 

 Sullivan, so that if this song alone survived Ave should know what 

 was the best they could do, both of them : — 



" Prithee, pretty maiden, will you marry me ? 



Hey, but I'm hopeful, willow willow waley. 

 I may say at once I'm a man of propertee, 



Hey willow waly 0. 

 Money I despise it, 

 Other people prize it, 



Hey willow waley 0." 



Gilbert never wrote anything better than that, and Sullivan, as 

 usual, rose to the occasion, and clothed these tripping syllables with 

 a most delicate vesture of melody, in which a fairy-like pizzicato 

 accompaniment falls on the thread of tune, like dewdrops on 

 gossamer. If this song had had German or Italian words, and had 

 reached us from Vienna or Milan, the critics would have made as 

 much fuss over it as over any tune in Mozart. 



Cannot you imagine it being warbled by an Italian welter-weight 

 prima donna and a luscious Italian tenor ? 



"Non del mio amore Donna ti scordar, 

 Deh ! esperanza, sorgi in cuore mio, 

 Dai miel soldi non c'eda dubitar 

 salice senza un Addio ! " 



Or in German something like this : — 



" Willst Du, hiibscher Jungfer, nicht mein Weibchen sein 

 Bin Ich doch hoffnungsvoll, O Weide Wehe, 

 Will es Dir gleich sagen Hab' ein Schloss am Rhein 

 Weide Wehe." 



Or in French : — 



" Charmante bergere, je demande ta main ! 



(Tremble mon cceur comme un saule pleureur !) 

 Sache sans mystere, je possede un moulin. 

 (Oh la joie, la joie fait peur.)" 



