Trying to recall a Gilbert & Sullivan quote: "remains of a fine woman"--?
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Jeruba (
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April 7th, 2010
In the spoken dialogue of one of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the older female character is described as having the ruins or remains of a fine woman about her.
An older woman who is the butt of jokes for having lost her youthful figure is a staple G&S character, so I am not coming up with any hook that helps me remember which one this is. I’d like to find the exact quote.
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8 Answers
Jeruba – You have stumped my librarian brain but I will think on it. I wonder if there’s a concordance for G &S? Are you sure that “ruins” and “fine woman” are the actual terms used? My colleague who is the theater librarian and a real buff might know.
@janbb, I’m not sure. I tried searching but couldn’t get close enough (although I did learn that my old favorite G&S actor John Reed died just a few weeks ago).
I’m recalling one male character saying something derogatory toward the woman (making a joke of the kind that used to be considered both acceptable and funny—the Marx Brothers got a lot of miles out of them too) and another replying something like “Yet there are the remains of a fine woman about her”—which the woman takes as a compliment. He is saying in one breath that she used to be handsome and that now she is decrepit.
I haven’t seen any G&S questions come up on fluther, as far as I can recall, but the woods are full of G&S buffs, and I figured there’d be one who’d know this right off the top of his or her head.
I’ve seen nearly all the G&S operas, and most more than once, so I can’t narrow the field down by much. I think it’s one of the big three, but it’s at least one of the favorite six.
I will get back to you if I can discover anything.
Dialogue following No. 2 from the The Pirates of Penzance
Frederic: What a terrible thing it would be if I were to marry this innocent person, and then find out that she is, on the whole, plain!
King: Oh, Ruth is very well, very well indeed.
Samuel: Yes, there are the remains of a fine woman about Ruth.
Frederic: Do you really think so?
Samuel: I do.
Frederic: Then I will not be so selfish as to take her from you. In justice to her, and in consideration for you, I will leave her behind.
@njnyjobs, that’s it, all right. (Ruth was my first nominee in my tags.) Thank you! Did you find a site where you could search on this?
I use a proprietary data mining app in my line of work.
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