The Happy Hypocrite: A Fairy Tale for Tired Men is a short story with moral implications, first published in a separate volume by Max Beerbohm in 1897.

In 1936 the play, with a new script by Clemence Dane and music by Richard Addinsell, was revived at His Majesty's Theatre starring Ivor Novello, Vivien Leigh, Isabel Jeans and Marius Goring.

[3] The story was adapted as a one-act radio opera, Lord Inferno, by Giorgio Federico Ghedini to a libretto by Franco Antonicelli; it premiered on RAI on 22 October 1952.

He is enjoying lavish outdoor entertainment in London with his lover, La Gambogi, when a young and innocent dancer named Jenny Mere performs on the stage.

[5] One month after the marriage, as the happy couple is celebrating the occasion, La Gambogi shows up and refuses to leave until she is granted one last look at Lord George's true face.