Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack, is one of the earliest plays written by W.S. Gilbert, his first solo stage success. The work is a musical burlesque of Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore", and the music was arranged by Mr. Van Hamme. It opened at the St James's Theatre on 29 December 1866, the last item in a long evening, following a farce and Dion Boucicault's new play "Hunted Down". "Dulcamara" ran for a successful 120 nights. The popularity of the piece encouraged further commissions for opera burlesques from Gilbert,
John Baldwin Buckstone Palace of Truth" (1870), "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871) and "The Wicked World" (1873). Buckstone also produced Gilbert's dramas, "Charity" (1874) and "Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith" (1876), as well as his 1877 farce "Engaged". In 1873 Buckstone introduced the innovation of matinées starting at 2.00 pm. By the mid-1870s, however, Buckstone's company was disbanding, and in 1877, ill and bankrupt after sustaining heavy losses, he gave up management of the theatre. Buckstone was first married in 1828 to Anne Maria Honeyman, with whom he had at least five children before she died in 1844. For many years, Buckstone was closely associated with