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,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (play) was given in 1938 with Grahame Clifford as Claudius, Erik Chitty as Guildenstern, Leonard Sachs as Rosencrantz, and Peter Ridgeway as Hamlet. The play continues to receive occasional productions. It figures in the plot of the 2009 film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead". 1874 was a busy year for Gilbert. He illustrated "The Piccadilly Annual"; supervised a revival of "Pygmalion and Galatea"; and, besides "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern", he wrote "Charity"; a play about the redemption of a fallen woman; a dramatisation of "Ought We to Visit Her?" (a novel by Annie Edwardes), an adaptation from the French, "Committed for Trial",