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
Engaged (play) seen as drawing on "Engaged" are Noël Coward and Joe Orton. By 1877, Gilbert, now forty years old, was established as a dramatist. After his early burlesques of the 1860s he had turned to writing comic opera libretti and non-musical plays, both comic and serious. His musical successes included "Ages Ago" (music by Frederic Clay, 1869) and "Trial by Jury" (music by Arthur Sullivan (1875). His serious and comic non-musical plays included "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871), "The Wicked World" (1873), "Sweethearts" (1874) and several others that played for well over 100 performances – good runs by the standards of the