Eyes and No Eyes

[1] This work is the last in a series of six one-act musical plays written by Gilbert for Thomas German Reed and his wife Priscilla between 1869 and 1875.

The German Reeds presented respectable, family-friendly musical entertainments beginning in 1855, at a time when the theatre in Britain had gained a poor reputation as an unsavoury institution and was not attended by much of the middle class.

Shakespeare was played, but most of the entertainments consisted of poorly translated French operettas, risqué Victorian burlesques and incomprehensible broad farces.

Gilbert wrote in a programme note: "Hans Andersen has a tale in which two persons, for reasons of their own, pretend that an imaginary and non-existent garment is visible only to true and faithful men.

As the theatrical newspaper The Era commented, "Everyone must remember the nursery story of 'Eyes and No Eyes', but how few there are who appear to profit by the lesson it teaches!

[1] The piece is still occasionally played by amateur societies, and 21st century stagings include those at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in 2006, by Light Opera of New York in 2008 in New York City[9] and by All-in-One Productions at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe as part of the Free Fringe.

The sisters are beloved by twin brothers, Arlequin and Pierrot, but the two men say they love them equally and cannot decide which one each adores more.

Observing that their uncle and the others are all very flirtatious, they decide to pretend that the non-existent cloak is magically "visible only to true lovers, and absolutely invisible to flirts of every degree".

When Pierrot and Arlequin return, they test out the ruse on them, pretending to admire it on each other, challenging the twins to describe it and letting them come up with justifications each time they get it wrong.

Clochette has a bright thought: "Tell him you made a mistake, and that it’s visible to flirts and coquettes but invisible to true lovers."

The brothers return, having "reformed", and are overjoyed to be able to see the cloak, sending Cassandre into a rage over what he thinks is evidence of their unfaithfulness.

Everyone is satisfied by this (after Nicolette admits she was over thirty as of "the day before yesterday") and the uncle offers the girls to the boys.

"[4] The Graphic devoted only 74 words to its review, but it praised the piece as "eminently amusing" and commented that the music was "as usual extremely lively.

"[12] The Observer wrote, "It is ... disappointing to find the development of the little story marked by barrenness of incident and monotony of humour.