Iolanthe

Prologue

Twenty-five years previous to the action of the opera, Iolanthe, a fairy, had committed the capital crime of marrying a mortal. The Queen of the Fairies had commuted the death sentence to banishment for life, on condition that Iolanthe leave her husband without explanation and never see him again.

Her son, Strephon, has grown up as a half fairy, half mortal. Strephon loves Phyllis, a Ward in Chancery under the care of her guardian, the Lord Chancellor. She returns his love, and knows nothing of his fairy origins.

Act I

At the beginning of the opera, the Queen is prevailed upon by other fairies to recall Iolanthe from her exile in a frog bog. Strephon joins the glad reunion and announces his intention of marrying Phyllis in spite of her guardian the Lord Chancellor, who refuses permission.

Meanwhile the entire House of Lords is enamored of Phyllis. They appeal in a body to ask the Lord Chancellor to give her to whichever Peer she may select. The Lord Chancellor is also suffering the pangs of love, but feels he has no legal right to assign Phyllis to himself.

Phyllis declines to marry a Peer; Strephon pleads his cause to the Lord Chancellor again, but in vain. Iolanthe enters and holds a tender conversation with her son. but since she, like all fairies, looks like a girl of seventeen, Phyllis and the Peers misinterpret the situation; they ridicule Strephon’s claim that Iolanthe is his mother. Phyllis declares that she will now marry either Lord Mountararat or Lord Tolloller—she cares not which. Strephon summons the fairies to his aid, and the act ends with the fairies threatening the Peers, and the Peers defying the fairies.

Act II

The fairies take revenge by sending Strephon to Parliament and influencing both Houses to pass any bills he may introduce. His innovations culminate in a bill to throw the Peerage open to competitive examination.

The Peers appeal to the fairies to desist. The fairies have fallen in love with the Peers and would like to oblige, but it is too late to stop Strephon. The Queen reproaches her subjects for their feminine weakness. She acknowledges her own weakness for a Palace of Westminster guard, Private Willis, but asserts that she is able to subdue her feelings.

Lord Mountararat and Lord Tolloller discover that if either loses Phyllis to the other, family tradition requires that they fight unto death; both therefore renounce Phyllis in the name of friendship. The Lord Chancellor, after considerable struggle, pleads his own cause before himself and convinces himself that the law will allow him to marry Phyllis.

Meanwhile, Strephon makes Phyllis understand that his mother is indeed a fairy. They reconcile and persuade Iolanthe to petition the Lord Chancellor on their union. While the Lord Chancellor is moved by her appeal, which evokes the memory of his late wife, he declares that he himself will marry Phyllis.

Desperate, Iolanthe reveals herself to her mortal husband—and thus again incurs the death penalty. The other fairies, however, have expressed husbandly designs, also incurring a death sentence. The Queen blanches at the prospect of slaughtering them all, so the Lord Chancellor suggests a legal expedient which saves the situation.