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his own invention, which increases in size and worth with its years. A Royalist colonel and sergeant, flying from the battle of
Worcester, seek his protection, which most unwillingly he promises, and goes forth, as he pretends, to procure food. During his absence, the fugitives discover his treasures, and supply themselves with meat, drink, and money. They then escape to the coast; but they have been compelled to leave behind a female infant, which they decorate with a jewelled necklace, for her future recognition. Finding his gold gone and the child remaining, the superstitious blacksmith, who is a believer in miracles, imagines that the gold, which he had long considered as his growing child, has taken the shape of a foundling babe, and accepts at once with rapture the charge implied in its possession. This is the point of which Mr. Vezin avails himself, making of it an exceedingly fine situation. At the commencement of the second act the young lady is fourteen years old; and a young gentleman – or, rather, merchant-sailor – of the name of Geoffrey Wynyard, is accepted as her lover, both by the interesting foundling and her guardian blacksmith. They are discovered by the colonel and sergeant, in the shape of Sir Jasper Combe (Mr. Howe) and of Reuben Haines (Mr. Odell); the former being recognised by Dan'l Druce at once as the fugitive who formerly solicited his assistance. Druce fears that the right father of the maiden, Dorothy (Miss Marion Terry), has come at last to deprive him of his adopted child – ultimately, it is discovered that she is his own daughter; or that the sailor-youth will appropriate her as his wife. Geoffrey Wynyard, too, has fears lest Haines, who is a whimsical fop, with a large amount of cavalier learning and impudence, should succeed in his suit with Dorothy, whom in his absurd manner he affects to love; and, as a ruse, seeks to throw the bewildered sergeant off his guard by speaking rather sportively of the maiden. In the third act this difficulty, however, is got over, and explanations are made by which impediments are removed, and the lovers rendered permanently happy.
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fear of overgood first-acts, which lead to ultimate anti-climaxes very disappointing to seemingly well-founded hopes. Mr. Gilbert's play is scarcely an exception to this statement, for, certainly, his second and third acts are not equal to his first; but the fact is not fatal to a well-earned triumph, owing to the general excellence of a representation involving much delicate interest, culminating in an acting hit by Mr. Hermann Vezin which literally electrified the house. Mr. Vezin is probably the most intellectual of our actors, and is the very man for creating an original part, such as that of Dan'l Druce. ... The reception of the play was throughout good; for the acting of the parts was irreproachable. Not only was Mr. Vezin excellent, but Mr. Odell revelled in the humour with which the author had plentifully supplied him. Mr. Forbes
Robertson was, indeed, the prince of lovers, and Miss Marion Terry wonderfully pathetic. Mr. Howe was faultless in the dignified part of Sir Jasper Combe, and the minor rôles were all adequately filled, particularly that of Marple, the supposed miser's brother, by Mr. Braid. The metaphysical development implied in the dramatist's peculiar treatment of the subject had relation obviously to some theory in which the writer had believed; but fortunately it was not too abstruse for popular apprehension, though probably not fully understood.
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152:(published in 1861), first to Abel Druce and then to Dan'l Druce. He also changed the character's occupation from weaver to blacksmith, and altered Eliot's story to make Druce the true father of the child who is left at his house in place of his stolen gold. Bits of Dan'l Druce would echo in later operas. For instance, one of Reuben's speeches, beginning "I will so coll thee, coax thee, cosset thee, court thee, cajole thee, with deftly turned compliment, pleasant whimsy, delicate jest and tuneful madrigal" has similarities with Jack Point's speech in Act II of
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The hero is a man who has suffered wrong in society, and been disappointed both in love and friendship. He has found refuge from an unsatisfactory world in a ruined hut on the
Norfolk coast, where he devotes himself to the cultivation of the avaricious sentiment, worshipping his gold as a "bairn" of
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There is much good in Mr. W. S. Gilbert's new three-act drama. ... The conclusion of the act, indeed, gives Mr. Hermann Vezin an opportunity of a striking attitude, which brings the curtain down on a tableau that excites expectation of a good plot. We have, however, lately been taught a salutary
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seek shelter at his house. They send him to buy food and steal his money, then run off, leaving at his cottage a baby girl with a note that says that his gold has taken the form of the baby. Fourteen years later, Dan'l is a blacksmith. The villains return, but Dan'l does not want to surrender the
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and needed a play for
December, though Sothern did not plan to appear in the play. Gilbert was unable to complete the play on time and asked for an extension. Sothern then left to go on tour in America and wrote to Gilbert to be ready with another play by October, this time to feature him in a
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called the story "pure and true and elevated". However, when George Eliot attended a performance of the play shortly after the opening night, her husband recorded in his diary, "Wretched stuff, poorly acted". The author
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commented that
Gilbert himself would have laughed at the play, had it not been his own: "It tends occasionally to touch on the genre which Gilbert so often satirised."
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The audience was enthusiastic, and the critics generally gave the piece, and particularly Vezin and Terry, a warm reception. According to the
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The title character was originally called Jonas Marple, but
Gilbert changed the name to one less closely identifiable with
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now-teenaged girl. Ultimately, she stays with Dan'l and marries her young sweetheart. In the words of a review from the
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Knapp. Gilbert retained the name Jonas Marple for Druce's earlier self before the action of the play
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Knapp, Shoshana (1986). "George Eliot and W.S. Gilbert: Silas Marner into Dan'l Druce".
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Knapp, Shoshana, "George Eliot and W. S. Gilbert: Silas Marner Into Dan'l Druce" in
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Crowther, Andrew, "Hunchbacks, Misanthropes and
Outsiders: Gilbert's Self-Image"
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were still producing a considerable amount of work separately. The comic actor
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Dan'l is a miser and a drunkard whose wife has eloped. Two deserters from the
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The text notes that "An incident in the First Act was suggested by
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The cover of a theatre programme from the original production
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Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia
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A London-based French critic described the piece as "
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W. S. Gilbert, A Classic
Victorian & His Theatre
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237:Sergeant of the Parliamentary Army – C. Allbrook
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55:in a contemporary work,
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258:Illustrated London News
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166:Dan'l Tra-Duced, Tinker
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127:took the title role in
63:. In an 1894 revival,
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1045:(1876 play)
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809:Adaptations
794:Grim's Dyke
752:Helen Carte
742:Savoy opera
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396:Dan'l Druce
278:The Theatre
129:Dan'l Druce
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906:(1901) w/
690:The Mikado
441:0195147693
424:References
243:Dorothy –
84:Background
53:burlesqued
697:Ruddigore
558:The Times
161:Ruddigore
74:'s Novel
59:, at the
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676:Iolanthe
669:Patience
541:LibriVox
172:Synopsis
1061:Michael
863:Ivanhoe
855:The Zoo
735:Related
634:Thespis
276:", and
1064:(poem)
1026:(1994)
1018:(1955)
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908:German
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