Gilbertian Lawyers.
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GILBERTIAN LAWYERS. TH E Law and the Drama have often been close allies. Mr. Justice Talfourd wrote four tragedies, one of which was produced by Macready, and enjoyed a fair measure of success. His Honour Judge Parry, to whom belongs the distinction of being the only judge who has contributed to the stage whilst occupying a seat on the Bench, is the author of two plays, " England's Elizabeth," which enjoyed a successful run at Manches ter about eighteen months ago, and " Katawampus," which amused many a juvenile audience in London last Christmastide. Mr. W. S. Gilbert, Mr. Sydney Grundy, Mr. Her man Merivale, and Mr. Anthony Hope all practised at the Bar before they wrote for the stage, and many another name might be added to suggest how much the Drama owes to the Law, but Mr. Gilbert's name alone is sufficient to indicate how deep the indebted ness is. Of all those who have deserted Themis for Thespis, none has ever turned his legal training to better account than has the author of " Iolanthe." Such dramatists as Mr. Sydney Grundy and Mr. Anthony Hope take no delight in weaving legal plots. That is an occupation which they wisely leave to playwrights with no knowledge of its dangers. But Mr. Gilbert, who knows the law well enough to know how to laugh at it, is never happier than when aiming his shafts of wit at the profession of which he was once a practising member. Judges, barristers, solicitors — all three branches of the legal profession come in for their share of satire in the Savoy operas : — The Law is the true embodiment Of everything that's excellent. It has no kind of fault or flaw, And I, my lords, embody the law. So sings the Lord Chancellor in " Iolan
the," perhaps the best of all Mr. Gilbert's legal characters. Nobody but a legal drama tist could have created the interesting prob lem which confronts this "highly susceptible Chancellor " who has fallen in love with a ward of Court. "The feelings of a Lord Chancellor who is in love with a ward of Court are not to be envied. What is his position? Can he give his own consent to his own marriage with his own ward? Can he marry his own ward without his own con sent? And if he marries his own ward with out his own consent, can he commit himself for contempt of his own Court? And if he commit himself for contempt of his own Court, can he appear by counsel before him self to move for arrest of his own judgment? Ah, my lords, it is indeed painful to have to sit upon a Woolsack which is stuffed with such thorns as these." Not less amusing is the account given by this "constitutional guardian" of "pretty young girls in Chan cery" of the "new and original plan" on which he determined to work "when he went I'll never to the throwBar dustasinaa very juryman's young eyesman " : — (Said I to myself, said I), Or hoodwink a judge who is not overwise (Said I to myself, said I), Or assume that the witnesses summoned in force, In Exchequer, Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, or Have Divorce, perjured themselves as a matter of course (Said I to myself, said I). It is, be it noted, an " equity draughts man " who thus determines to conduct common-law cases with scrupulous fairness, but this, perhaps, is to be counted as another proof of Mr. Gilbert's humour. The follow ing verse is intended to apply to the Bar as a whole : — Ere I go into Court I will read my brief through (Said I to myself, said I),
