Engaged: A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts

by W.S. Gilbert

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Plays

66 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1877

About the author

British playwright and lyricist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) wrote a series of comic operas, including Her Majesty's Ship Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879), with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.

This English dramatist, librettist, poet, and illustrator in collaboration with composer Sullivan produced fourteen comic operas, which include The Mikado , one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre.

Opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups throughout and beyond the English-speaking world continue to perform regularly these operas as well as most of their other Savoy operas. From these works, lines, such as "short, sharp shock", "What, never? Well, hardly ever!", and "Let the punishment fit the crime," form common phrases of the English language.

Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads , an extensive collection of light verse, which his own comical drawings accompany.

His creative output included more than 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , the "lyrical facility" of Gilbert "and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since."

Reviews

[Alisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly funny play from the creators of Pirates of Penzance...probably would be humorous when staged.

I read this for Victober 2019 under the challenge to read a lesser known work from the same year as my favorite Victorian novel. I had to go through several redefinitions of my "favorite" Victorian novel because I was having trouble coming up with anything new to read from the years of my major favorites, but I finally settled on "The First Violin," which is admittedly pretty awesome, published in 1877, and which is beautiful and dramatic, an interesting foil to this play where everyone is shallow or nonsensical.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently attended a performance of an abridged version this play, so I had to read the original to see how it compared. I was very pleased to discover hardly anything had been cut! I bookmarked all my favorite humorous quotes to put into this review, but as soon as I finished reading it, the file became corrupted and I had to delete it. :-(

Here's one example (Cheviot's proposal to Belinda):

"I am a man of quick impulse and energetic action. I feel and I speak—I cannot help it. Madam, be not surprised when I tell you that I cannot resist the conviction that you are the light of my future life, the essence of every hope, the tree upon which the fruit of my heart is growing—my Past, my Present, my Future, my own To Come! Do not extinguish that light, do not disperse that essence, do not blight that tree! I am well off; I'm a bachelor; I'm thirty-two; and I love you, madam, humbly, truly, trustfully, patiently. Paralyzed with admiration, I wait anxiously, and yet hopefully, for your reply."

Text is available here: http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/gil...

[Martin Denton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have come across two separate published pieces asserting how much Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was indebted to this earlier play by William S. Gilbert. That seems true, as far as it goes; but there's a reason why Wilde's play is a staple of the modern repertory while Gilbert's has faded into relative obscurity. Earnest trumps Engaged in scope as well as sheer wit: Gilbert's satirical fable, though funny and clever in its way, is relentlessly one-note, and that note is rather a sour one. Beyond its academic value, it seems to have little to recommend it.

The story concerns Cheviot Hill, a rich but overly thrifty fellow who tends to fall head-over-heels with every woman he sets eyes upon. Because of this, he has a protector of sorts, one Belvawney, who is paid £1000 a year to keep him from getting married. If and when Cheviot does succumb, Belvawney's income reverts to a Mr. Symperson.

Thus does Gilbert equate matrimony with a business transaction; the whole of Engaged sets about proving that everybody will do anything for money, love (if it even exists) be dashed. Cheviot proposes to three different young ladies, each of whom is eager to improve her financial situation by accepting. The outcome ultimately hinges on whether Cheviot was actually standing in Scotland or England when he made one of those proposals--a device that can only be called Gilbertian, the kind of whimsical frivolity that fuels his best collaborations with Sir Arthur Sullivan. But there's no Sullivan here to provide bright and airy music to temper Gilbert's sardonic cynicism; that's why Engaged finally feels so claustrophobically repetitive and disagreeable.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this play, the same way I enjoy all of Gilbert's works. It was quick and fun, although nothing overly exciting or memorable about it.

[Bt · Rating 4 out of 5]

COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS but so much FUN!