Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack of Scene 1: This scene is based on one in Gilbert's short story, "The Adventures of Wheeler J. Calamity", which he had written for the "Fun Christmas Number" in 1865, with the song following this speech, "If you intend to stay with us, before you've been a day with us", appearing in both. "Dulcamara" was not widely reviewed, but "Fun" magazine – to which Gilbert was a regular contributor – gave it a long and favourable notice, declaring that "Mr W. S. Gilbert at once takes rank for both neatness of construction and brilliancy of dialogue beside Mr. Byron. The
The Wicked World Mall Gazette", which had called "The Wicked World" indecent because of the references to "mortal love" in the script. Gilbert lost the case, but he had the satisfaction of having his play found inoffensive in a court of law. Like a number of Gilbert's blank-verse plays, "The Wicked World" treats the subject of the consequences that ensue when an all-female world is disrupted by men, and the romantic complications they bring. His plays "The Princess" (1870) and "Broken Hearts" (1875), and his operas "Iolanthe" (1882) and "Princess Ida" (1884), are all treatments of this basic idea. Stedman calls this a