MR. GLADSTONE AT THE THEATRE

From The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle (West Yorkshire, England), Thursday, December 7, 1882; pg. 4; Issue 4788.

Mr. Gladstone witnessed the performance of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan's new opera, "Iolanthe," at the Savoy Theatre, on Monday evening. As on the previous occasion when he visited the same house during the run of "Patience," the Premier was recognised immediately on entering. The assembled audience rose to their feet and cheered him as, accompanied by his son, Mr. Herbert Gladstone, M.P., he proceeded to take his seat in the fourth row of the orchestra stalls.

The performance was received, if possible, with increased fervour, the presence of the Premier giving additional piquancy to the political allusions with which Mr. Gilbert's very original and amusing story is interspersed. This was especially the case with regard to the declaration by the Queen of the Fairies, in the person of Miss Alice Barnett, that members of Parliament —
                                                … Shall sit, if he sees reason,
                                    Through the grouse and salmon season,
and furthermore that
                                    He shall end the cherished rights
                                    You enjoy on Wednesday nights.
No less successful were the allusions to the House of Peers, or again the Arcadian shepherd's description of himself as a Tory of the most determined description down to the waist, with two Radical legs, which being two to one would constitute a strong working majority, and would take him into the wrong lobby. All these and many other sallies were greeted with loud laughter and applause, in which the Premier took part with evident pleasure.

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