The Realm of Joy

[1][2] The play is based on the farce, Le Roi Candaule, by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy, two of Jacques Offenbach's favourite librettists.

[7] The Lord Chamberlain's Office licensed the play despite its provocative tone to prevent a round of bad publicity like the one which arose from the Happy Land affair.

Charity moved beyond political satire to critique the contrasting ways in which Victorian society treated men and women who had sex outside of marriage, which anticipated the 'problem plays' of Shaw and Ibsen.

Quisby and Jopp, a pair of "swells", arrive to see the play for the sixty-eighth and eighty-fifth time, respectively – but only to "moralise over the depravity of human nature" and "see the spectators".

Mr. and Mrs. Jellybag have taken their young daughters (who interest Quisby and Jopp greatly) but arrange for them to be sent out with the cloakwoman whenever things get too scandalous.