A Comedy Opera in Two Acts
Written by G. H. JESSOP
Additional Lyrics by PERCY GREENBANK and C. H. TAYLOR
Composed by SIDNEY JONES
Characters :
Grooms, Hunters, Guests, Maid Servants, Peace
Officers
THE WIRELESS CHORUS and THE WIRELESS
ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOHN ANSELL
Act I
ON an eighteenth-century January morning tho courtyard of the Coverdale Anns becomes a storm centre. Lionel Bland is there, determined to put a stop to a parentally arranged marriage between his sweetheart, Alice Cover dale, and Captain Harry Romney. Lady Molly Martingale , accompanied by her maid, Hester, arrives on horseback, also bent upon squashing the same marriage because Harry happens to be her lover. Aided and abetted by his ex-servant, Mickey. she masquerades under Harry's name, in a suit of his clothes, and succeeds in making Sir Miles Coverdate believe that she is his future son-in-law. When Harry appears on the scene, he is regarded as an impostor, and is subsequently arrested, together with Lionel, for duelling.
ACT II
These complications grow more involved in the drawing-room, Castle Coverdale. Alice, of course, has penetrated Molly's disguise, and amuses herself by pretending to bo . namourcd of her smooth-faced suitor.' Harry and Lionel, now at liberty, vowing vengeance upon the usurper of Harry's name and clothes, attack Molly, sword in hand. Alice averts bloodshed ; the timely arrival of Judge Romney establishes Harry's identity ; and Molly's resumption of feminine garb clears the air so effectually that the curtain falls upon the prospect of at least two happy marriages.