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
Pygmalion and Galatea (play) have earned him £40,000 during his lifetime. "Pygmalion and Galatea" was so popular that other Pygmalions were rushed to the stage. In January 1872, "Ganymede and Galatea" opened at the Gaiety Theatre. This was a comic version of Franz von Suppé's "Die schöne Galathee", coincidentally with Arthur Sullivan's brother, Fred Sullivan, in the cast. In March 1872, William Brough's "Pygmalion; or, The Statue Fair" was revived, and in May of that year, a visiting French company produced Victor Massé's "Galathée". Gilbert created several blank verse "fairy comedies" at the Haymarket Theatre for John Baldwin Buckstone and starring William Hunter Kendal