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         THE OPERA OF "PATIENCE'
                             AND
         "THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT."
       AQUARTER-CENTURY since, the Gilbert-Sullivan
     A,     Operas were at the height of their barrel-organ
     fame. But it was        sible en to decide upon their
     permanent value. Now, at the present distance of time,
     these lively satires upon political abuses, art movements
     and social vagaries possess a distinct value as historical
     documents.       generation which has arisen since they
     were composed,* gains through them a more rapid and
     vital understanding of the times which they satirize than
     It were possible to do through the medium of histories and
  4 iographies alone. For to these, by reason of their
     dform, they stand in the relation of people to
     books* From this point of view, the most valuable of
     them all is "Patience," the overcharged picture of the
  J i aesthetic movement of 1870-1880. In this case, as
  4" always, the very exaggeration of the caricature betrays
  e power of the thing caricatured. Bunthome and
     Archibald are ridiculous and grotesque only because they
     represent the perversion of qualities, culture and grace
     which might, but for the bias of the individual, have been
     er   eal and very forceful. The "aesthetic maidens"
     whose rhythmic movements and utterances are followed
  4  by such spontaneous laughter from the auditory, may be
  i la:ssified with literary parodies and travesties which are
  successful in the degree that they offer a sharp contrast
  :i with the beauty of the original work.
                             The key-note of the aesthetic
     movement was sincerity. The foible held up to ridicule
   ,iiin "Patience" is affectation:
              4 "My mediaevalism is not real,"
   :,c onfesses in a burst of confidence the arch-pretender who
     momentarily is freed from his devotees*
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