1907 October Footnotes

[1] The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances. This was the eleventh collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan.

[2] The Gay Gordons is a 1907 Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Seymour Hicks, music by Guy Jones and lyrics by Arthur Wimperis, C. H. Bovill, Henry Hamilton and P. G. Wodehouse, who wrote the lyrics to “Now That My Ship’s Come Home” and “You, You, You”. The title refers to both the Clan Gordon and the famed Scottish regiment the Gordon Highlanders as the plot involves the heir to the clan and a soldier from the regiment.

[3] Elizabeth Robins (1862 – 1952) was an actress, playwright, novelist, and suffragette. She also wrote as C. E. Raimond.

[4] The Pioneer Club was a self-consciously progressive women’s club founded in Regent Street, London, in 1892 by the social worker and temperance activist Emily Massingberd. “It was strongly associated with the ‘higher thought’ and such associated issues of the ‘New Morality’ of the late nineteenth century as theosophy, anti-vivisection, anti-vaccination and above all feminism.

[5] Alice Muriel Williamson (1858 – 1933), who published chiefly under names “C. N. and A. M. Williamson” and “Mrs. C. N. Williamson,” was an American-English author.  Humor would become one of her most striking characteristics as an author, beginning with The Lightning Conductor (1902), the novel that catapulted her overnight to international fame, selling more than a million copies in America.

[6] Esther Waters is a novel by George Moore first published in 1894.

[7] Phèdre is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677. Although Phèdre is perhaps less often studied at high school, it is still frequently performed, and the eponymous role has been played by actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt.