Editing Arthur Wing Pinero (section)

===Fin de siècle===
The year 1898 saw one of Pinero's most enduring successes and his most  conspicuous failure. The first was ''[[Trelawny of the 'Wells'|Trelawny of the "Wells"]]'', the second, ''[[The Beauty Stone]]''. In ''Trelawny of the "Wells"'', described by a 21st-century critic as "Pinero's love letter to theatre",<ref>Spencer, Charles. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/9895675/Trelawny-of-the-Wells-Donmar-Warehouse-review.html "Trelawny of the Wells"], ''The Telegraph'', 22 February 2013</ref> the author addressed his regular topics of class and inexorable change, to which he added a study of the enduring power of the theatre. The play shows a popular actress in mid-Victorian melodramas marrying into the aristocracy, regretting it, returning to the stage and finding that she can no longer make the old style of plays work, successfully switching to works in the new realistic style. Wearing calls the play Pinero's homage to [[Thomas William Robertson|Tom Robertson]], whose pioneering theatrical realism influenced two generations of writers including [[W. S. Gilbert]] and Bernard Shaw as well as Pinero.<ref name=dnb/><ref>Durbach, Errol. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/320589 "Remembering Tom Robertson (1829–1871)"], ''Educational Theatre Journal'', October 1972, pp. 284–288 {{subscription required}}</ref> The critics were confused by the play. Pinero commented that they seemed "divided as to whether the piece is a weak farce or an imperfect realistic drama".<ref>Dawick, p. 240</ref> It had a good, though not outstanding, run of 135 performances at the Court, but subsequently became one of Pinero's most revived plays.<ref name=list/>

At the same time the impresario [[Richard D'Oyly Carte]] was in need of a new opera for his [[Savoy Theatre]] after the end of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s long partnership. It is not clear why Carte chose to commission a libretto from two writers with no experience in the genre, but for [[Arthur Sullivan]]'s ''The Beauty Stone'' he brought together Pinero and [[J. Comyns Carr]], an art critic, gallery owner and part-time author of dramas.<ref>Parry (2013), p. 20</ref>{{refn|Sullivan already knew both men, having previously written a song for Pinero's ''The Profligate'' and incidental music for Carr's medieval drama ''King Arthur'' (1895).<ref>Dawick, p. 158; and Esposito, Anthony (2004). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-46761 "Carr, Joseph William Comyns (1849–1916), author, gallery director, and theatre manager"]. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'',  Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 February 2019 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>|group= n}} Sullivan, who was used to Gilbert's skill and flexibility, quickly found his new collaborators inept: "gifted and brilliant men, with ''no'' experience in writing for music, and yet obstinately refusing to accept any suggestions from me as to form and construction".<ref>Sullivan, p. 245</ref> He later wrote in his diary, "heartbreaking to have to try to make a musical piece out of such badly constructed (for music) mess of involved sentences".<ref>Sullivan, p, 246</ref> The musical analyst William Parry describes the libretto as "a verbose mess ... suffused with a fussy air of arch medievalism".<ref>Parry (2009), p. 31</ref>  At its premiere, on 28 May 1898, the piece ran for four hours, and Pinero and Carr had to accept some drastic cuts to their words, which also meant sacrificing some of Sullivan's best music.<ref>Parry 2013, p. 24</ref>  The reviews for the music ranged from polite to enthusiastic; for the libretto they ranged from polite to damning. [[Max Beerbohm]], who had succeeded Shaw as theatre critic of ''[[Saturday Review (London newspaper)|The Saturday Review]]'' and who was to become a persistent irritant to Pinero, was particularly waspish.<ref>Beerbohm, Max.[https://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/beauty_stone/reviews/sat_rev.html "The Beauty Stone"], ''The Saturday Review'', 4 June 1898; [https://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/beauty_stone/reviews/academy.html "The Beauty Stone at the Savoy"], ''The Academy'', 4 June 1898;  [https://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/beauty_stone/reviews/observer.html "The Beauty Stone" at the Savoy"] ''The Observer'', 29 May 1898; and [https://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/beauty_stone/reviews/lute.html "The Beauty Stone"], ''The Lute'', 4 June 1898</ref> Besides the shortcomings of the libretto, the uncomic, romantic style of the piece was not in keeping with the traditions of the Savoy or the expectations of its audience,<ref>Parry (2013), p. 25</ref> and the opera closed on 16 July after 50 performances – the worst run for any of Sullivan's operas.<ref>Rollins and Witts, pp. 1 and 17</ref>

Within a year of the disappointment of ''The Beauty Stone'' Pinero returned to successful form with a four-act play ''[[The Gay Lord Quex (play)|The Gay Lord Quex]]'', a comedy of manners, in succession to two others in the genre, ''The Times'' (1891) and ''The Princess and the Butterfly'' (1897).<ref name=dnb/> ''The Gay Lord Quex'', a story of a determined and resourceful young woman and a reformed aristocratic philanderer,<ref>"The Gay Lord Quex", ''The Times'', 4 April 1923, p.8</ref> had an initial run of 300 performances,<ref>Parker, p. 1204</ref>  and has proved one of Pinero's more revivable plays.{{refn|There have been London revivals in 1902 and 1908, with [[John Hare (actor)|Sir John Hare]] in the title role; 1923, with [[George Grossmith Jr.]];  1943, with [[Frith Banbury]]; and 1975, with [[Daniel Massey (actor)|Daniel Massey]], in a production directed by [[John Gielgud|Sir John Gielgud]].<ref>"Duke of York's Theatre", ''The Times'', 7 May  1902, p.10; "The Gay Lord Quex", ''The Observer'', 3 May 3, 1908, p. 5; "The Gay Lord Quex", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 4 April 1923, p. 8; "Our London Correspondence", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 4 February 1943, p. 4; and Billington, Michael. "The Gay Lord Quex",  ''The Guardian'', 17 June 1975, p. 10</ref>|group= n}}