It is a fictional account of the early life of Yolande of Lorraine, daughter of René of Anjou, in which she is depicted as a beautiful blind sixteen-year-old princess who lives in a protected garden paradise.

Bertrand's wife Martha says that Iolanthe has grown up happy, spending her time in song and poetry, and that she will not be able to understand what sight is.

Ebn Jahia explains that the body and the spirit are intertwined, insisting that Iolanthe must be psychologically prepared for sight.

King René agonises over his decision, while Ebn Jahia puts Iolanthe to sleep using a magical amulet.

Tristan enters the garden telling his friend Geoffrey that he does not want to marry a woman he has never seen and is only willing to do so from a sense of duty.

Sir Almerick arrives with a letter from Tristan stating that he can no longer marry Iolanthe as he has found his true love.

The story is based on the life of Yolande, daughter of King René of Anjou, who married her cousin Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont in 1445.

The marriage was a dynastic alliance, arranged to end the dispute which existed between René of Anjou and Frederick's father, Antoine of Vaudémont, regarding the succession to the Duchy of Lorraine.

[2] The portrayal of Yolande in Hertz's play as a saintly dreaming beauty (regularly placed in an entranced sleep by the physician) was immensely popular.

There were several English translations, including by Jane Frances Chapman (1845), Edmund Phipps (1848), and Theodore Martin (1850).

[6] A musical version of the play itself had already been created in 1871 as a cantata by Henry Smart, setting a verse adaptation by Frederick Enoch.

In this version much of the magical material in the original is eliminated, making Ebn Jahia more of a scientist than sorcerer.

In 1893 a new musical version of the drama, by the light opera composer Julian Edwards, was published in America and performed with limited success on Broadway.

[8][9] In 1913 a silent film of Hertz's play was made by the Thanhouser Company, starring Maude Fealy as Iolanthe.