Book by Sir W.S. Gilbert
Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan

A love potion turns a Victorian village topsy-turvy!

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It is a lively scene outside Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre's Elizabethan mansion, in the English village of Poverleigh. Sir Marmaduke's dashing son Alexis is marrying Lady Sangazure's beautiful daughter Aline, to the villagers' delight. But not everyone is happy, as we learn when the widow Mrs. Partlet enters with her daughter Constance. To her mother's amazement, Constance sadly confesses that she loves Dr. Daly, the elderly Vicar of Poverleigh. The good Doctor promptly appears, comparing his happy past with his solitary present, but to Constance's dismay, he tells Mrs. Partlet he is resigned to bachelorhood.

Sir Marmaduke and Dr. Daly congratulate Alexis, the vicar quite effusively. The father also criticizes his son's public expressions of love for Aline. He adds that he was once in love with Lady Sangazure, now his son's future mother-in-law.

The village women usher in Aline, who is greeted by her mother and rapturously by her fiancé. Lady Sangazure and Sir Marmaduke compliment each other decorously, and then, in an aside, reveal the secret love they still hold for each other.

After signing the marriage contract, Aline and Alexis are left alone. Convinced that "true love is the source of every earthly joy," Alexis wants to prove that "men and women should be coupled in matrimony without distinction of rank." During their engagement party, Alexis plans to dose the entire village with a love-philtre, or potion, specially ordered from J.W. Wells & Co., an established London firm of Family Sorcerers. Mr. Wells himself arrives and enthusiastically describes his company's many useful services, from penny blessings and curses to high-class astrology.

At Alexis's bidding, Aline fetches a large teapot to which Mr. Wells adds the love-philtre, calling on the aid of "sprites of earth and air." The villagers are in a jolly mood as they eat and drink. But everyone soon feels the philtre's power, and is staggering about, rubbing their eyes, and collapsing on the ground.

Most of the villagers sleep in the moonlight (Mr. Wells has had Sir Marmaduke, Lady Sangazure, and Dr. Daly "carried home and put to bed respectably"). At midnight, the philtre begins its work; they awaken and, as Alexis hoped, fall in love -- but with the wrong people. The first mismatched couple consists of poor Constance and the deaf old Notary who had presided at the betrothal ceremony.

Alexis wants Aline to drink the philtre with him so that their love might be assured forever. But she refuses, "If you cannot trust me, you have no right to love me - no right to be loved by me." Alexis is hurt and angry, then astonished when he encounters the next mismatched couple--his father, Sir Marmaduke, enters arm-in-arm with Mrs. Partlet! But seeing that the widow is a respectable woman, Alexis acquiesces to their marriage.

Mr. Wells is remorseful about the havoc caused by his experiment--particularly when Lady S catches sight of him, and is instantly "fascinated." He protests vigorously, she becomes more tenderly insistent, until Mr. Wells claims to be engaged to a South Pacific maiden.

Aline has decided to abide by Alexis's wishes, and drinks the love-philtre. As she sleeps, the frustrated Dr. Daly enters, playing the flageolet and singing. Aline awakens and sees Dr. Daly, with the now-familiar result.

Alexis arrives and is furious when Aline rejects him for Dr. Daly. The vicar offers to leave England, but Mr. Wells explains that the philtre's spell can be broken if Wells or Alexis yields up his life to Well's master, the evil spirit Ahrimanes. Alexis gallantly offers to die, but Aline protests that she will be left with no love to be restored to. The problem is put to general vote, and Mr. Wells is chosen as the victim. As the sorcerer capitulates to popular opinion and disappears for parts unknown, the others rejoin their proper partners and celebrate.

Last updated: 11/27/07