History Theatre / Patience

* AdaptationExpansion: Pretty much a major expansion of ''[[http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/bab_ballads/html/rival_curates.html The Rival Curates]]'', though [[PragmaticAdaptation Gilbert knew that, as much as he might want to poke fun of clerics on the stage]], he'd cause [[MoralGuardians every cleric out there -- who were already, many of them, railing against the wicked stage from the pulpit]] -- to think they'd been proven right.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: The Dragoons love the Lovesick Maidens, who all love Bunthorne, who loves Patience, who [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove loves nobody]]. Lady Jane loves Bunthorne even more, but he loathes her. Then in act two, all the maids fall in love with Grosvener, who also loves Patience, who can't return his love because she winds up attached to Bunthorne, whom she ''still'' does not love, and the Dragoons are left even more annoyed. At least it works out in the end for [[spoiler: everyone except Bunthorne]].

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Poor Grosvenor is so handsome that [[SexyManInstantHarem every woman who sees him immediately falls madly in love with him]]. Worse, the one woman he actually does want turns him down on the grounds that love should be selfless and loving such an attractive man is obviously selfish.

* {{Hypocrite}}: When he is alone [[NoFourthWall with the audience]], Bunthorne confesses ("If You're Anxious For To Shine") that he is not really into aesthetic poetry, just putting on airs to impress everyone by [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible appearing deep]].

* AffectionateParody: The show makes fun of the "aesthetic movement" as popularized by Creator/OscarWilde, but Wilde himself was a fan and even went on tour in America to help publicize the show. (It helped that G&S's producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, was also Wilde's booking agent.)

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: The Dragoons love the Lovesick Maidens, who all love Bunthorne, who loves Patience, who [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove loves nobody]]. Lady Jane loves Bunthorne even more, but he loathes her. Then in act two, all the maids fall in love with Grosvener, who also loves Patience, who can't return his love because she winds up attached to Bunthorne who she ''still'' does not love, and the Dragoons are left even more annoyed. At least it works out in the end for [[spoiler: everyone except Bunthorne]].

* GoodLookingPrivates: Discussed in "When First I Put This Uniform On." When the Dragoons first joined up, they were persuaded that women would find their uniforms very attractive. In actuality this has rather mixed results-- the chorus of ladies does in fact find them attractive, just not as attractive as [[PrettyBoy aesthetic poets]].

* TheIngenue: Patience is woefully naive when it comes to matters of love, which is a major plot point.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Although "fleshly poet" Reginald Bunthorne, is widely thought to represent Creator/OscarWilde, the actor playing Bunthorne is usually made up to resemble Wilde's fellow wit, the American painter, James Abbott [=McNeill=] Whistler of ''Whistler's Mother'' fame.[[note]]Wilde did later become associated with ''Theatre/{{Patience}}'' when Richard D'Oyly Carte persuaded him to lecture in American cities where ''Patience'' was touring so theatergoers would understand what the play was satirizing.[[/note]] Bunthorne's rival, the "idyllic poet" Archibald Grosvenor, is based on and made up to resemble the English poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne, who was born on a street called Grosvenor Place.

* ChristmasCake: Lady Jane is getting on in years, but still wants to be considered a good catch in the romantic department.

* EveryoneMustBePaired: The soldiers and the women were engaged before the opera, but the women broke it off so they could FanGirl Bunthorne. In the end, everyone pairs off (except Bunthorne), but one of the jokes is that no-one in the cast has the faintest understanding of what love really is, so there's a sort of rapid-fire fiancée-swapping set to music ("If Saphir I choose to marry..."), and the Duke chooses to marry the ChristmasCake because she's the only woman there who isn't drop-dead gorgeous, and he's quite aware he's completely dull and average.

** "I'm A Waterloo House Young Man"

Patience, a dairy maid who knows nothing of love, is told it is the only truly unselfish emotion, and so sets out to find such truly selfless love. The other characters are a male chorus of manly and dashing but dim dragoons,[[note]]A form of mounted infantry, transported rapidly on horseback but fighting on foot, a predecessor to today's or motorised infantry companies[[/note]] and a female chorus of languid and pretentious but charming maidens.

Patience, a dairy maid who knows nothing of love, is told it is the only truly unselfish emotion, and so sets out to find such truly selfless love. The other characters are a male chorus of manly and dashing but dim dragoons, and a female chorus of languid and pretentious but charming maidens.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: A meta-example. "When I Go Out Of Door" includes the line "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsebus Three-penny-bus]] young man". The first revival changed the line to "[[UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground two-penny-tube]] young man".

* RewrittenPopVersion: The lyrics of Jane's "Silvered is the Raven Hair" are about her physical deterioration as she grows older, [[LyricalDissonance set to a beautiful, romantic melody]]. A different lyricist, Hugh Conway, wrote new lyrics and it was published as a parlor song entitled "In the Twilight of Our Love."

* ListSong / PatterSong: This ''is'' Creator/GilbertAndSullivan, after all. "If You Want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery..."

* OnlySaneMan: Patience, when Bunthorne is reading his poetry. "Well, it seems to me to be nonsense!"

* OnlySaneMan: Patience is the only one of the maidens to recognize that Bunthorne's poetry is total nonsense.

* SillyRabbitRomanceIsForKids: Our female lead does not love, and is happy because she does not love (in both senses of the clause). She does admit love eventually ("I had no idea it was a duty!"). But after a third character is forced to renounce it, most of the other characters decide that romantic love is ''irrelevant.'' And, until the end, love is depicted as nothing but painful.