THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3212, 15 October 1881, Page 4

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.

By this time everybody knows the story of this, the latest of the lyrico-dramatic jests of Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan ; nevertheless, the story must herein be told. And yet there is not much story to tell. Regarded purely as a story, it is flimsy. Also —but this is of no consequence—it is improbable. Nevertheless, Ihis seems to be more improbable than that of " Pinafore." It is a story of piracy without either robbery or bloodshed. The pirates are benevolent aea-rovers, and they aro understood to spare all orphans, and us everybody they meet turns out to bo an orphan, they spare everybody; so, very naturally, it is asked how they have lived ? Judging by their appearance they have done a thriving trade. Judging by their voices it may be called a roaring traclo. They are all well to do buccaneers, well-nourished, well-dressed, and well-behaved. At the top of their list is of course, a captain; and at the bottom is an apprentice, and it is the relations of the apprentice with the gang which represents the principal interest in the story. Theapprentice is a well-mannered youth, who owing to the deafness of his nurse, who mistook pilot for pirate, has been brought up to the latter instead of the former calling. The drama opens at a period within a few hours of the termination of his apprenticeship, and although he has fulfilled his duty to his employer during the seven years he has been bound to him, he resolves to exterminate the pirate crew aB soon as ho is free. But as he was born on the 29th of February, and as he is to continue an apprentice until his 21st birthday, the period of his freedom is found to be remote. We are also much interested in his loves. During his apprenticeship his experience of women has been confined to his nurse—the Buttercup of the story—but, on a sudden, he makes the ac quaintance in a most romantic locality of a great number of young ladies, the daughters of Major-General Stanley, of one of whom he immediately becomes enamored, and to whom he is engaged to be married in an incredibly short space of time. Very naturally his nurse, who has destined him for herself, is dissatisfied with this arrangement, and so the elements of jealousy and revenge are brought in. Before discovering the unexpected elongation of his period of service, he has taken steps, in combination with his father in-law, to effect the capture of the pirates by the aid of a company of policemen, and the second act is a good deal occupied with the preparations for this capture ; but as the apprentice findß himself bound by his obligations of duty to keep faith with his employer, he discloses the plan for their discomfiture. Consequently the police are i overcome, whereupon they call upon the pirates t# surrender in the Queen's name, and so adjured they surrender, and the risk of being brought to punishment seems imminent, but it is then found they are all noblemen who have "gone wrong," and they are immediately released, and at once contracted in marriage to the daughters of the Major-General, yrho, at an earlier stage in

the drama, had refused them as sons-in-law, and had obviated the piratical enforcement of the acceptance of their offer by declaring himself an orphan, a ruse the subsequent discovery of which had roused their piratical indignation. So it will be seen that the story ends to everybody's satisfaction, with, the exception of the nurse Ruth, who, Unlike Buttercup, is not provided for. — Australasian.