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''The Realm of Joy'' is a one-act farce by W. S. Gilbert, writing under the pseudonym "F. Latour Tomline". It opened at the Royalty Theatre on 18 October 1873, running for about 113 performances, until 27 February 1874.〔Crowther, p. 211〕〔Moss, Simon. ("The Realms of Joy" ) at ''Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia'', c20th.com, accessed 16 November 2009〕 The play is based on the farce, ''Le Roi Candaule'', by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy, two of Jacques Offenbach's favourite librettists. ==Background== ''The Realm of Joy'' is set in the lobby of a theatre where a politically scandalous play, "The Realm of Joy" is being performed – a clear reference to Gilbert's play from the same year, ''The Happy Land'' (1873), which was still running on the first night of this piece.〔Stedman, pp. 108–09. Note that the titles, ''The Realm of Joy'' and ''The Happy Land'' are roughly synonymous.〕 The Lord Chamberlain had briefly banned ''The Happy Land'' for its political satire and for costuming its characters to resemble particular government officials,〔Stedman, p. 106.〕 which is lampooned in this play by references to "the Lord High Disinfectant" and by the descriptions of the banned costumes by Jane and Sophie.〔See Rees's introduction to the play.〕 Gilbert likely used the pseudonym "Tomline" as a taunt to the Lord Chamberlain, as the pseudonym would already have been known from ''The Happy Land''.〔(Crowther's notes on ''The Realm of Joy'' )〕 The Lord Chamberlain's Office licensed the play despite its provocative tone to prevent a round of bad publicity like the one which arose from the ''Happy Land'' affair.〔Stedman, pp. 109–10.〕 Early in the run of the play, the title was changed to ''The Realms of Joy''.〔(Andrew Crowther's notes on ''The Realm of Joy'' )〕 In ''The Happy Land'' (1873), ''The Realm of Joy'' and ''Charity'' (1874), Gilbert pushed the boundaries of how far satire could go in the theatre. Charity moved beyond political satire to critique the contrasting ways in which Victorian society treated men and women who had sex outside of marriage, which anticipated the 'problem plays' of Shaw and Ibsen.〔Crowther, Andrew, (Synopsis of ''Charity'' )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Realm of Joy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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