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''An Old Score'' is an 1869 three-act comedy-drama written by English dramatist W. S. Gilbert based partly on his 1867 short story, ''Diamonds'', and partly on episodes in the lives of William Dargan, an Irish engineer and railway contractor, and John Sadleir, a banker who committed suicide. It was written before any of his Savoy Operas with Arthur Sullivan. Despite an encouraging review in ''The Times'', the piece was a failure. It was revived in 1872 and rewritten as ''Quits'', but it fared no better. ==Background== Gilbert described ''An Old Score'' as "my first comedy".〔Crowther, Andrew. Introduction to script of "An Old Score" at (the Haddon Hall website ), accessed 10 September 2010〕 He had previously written more than a dozen stage works, and although they were all intended to be funny, they were in the styles of burlesques, extravaganzas, pantomimes and one-act farces, not full-length, character-driven "comedies"; and so the play represents part of Gilbert's move from being a humorist to being a dramatist.〔 Gilbert adapted part of the story of the play from his 1867 short story ''Diamonds''.〔See excerpts from ''Diamonds'' attached as an appendix to the annotated script for (''An Old Score'' ), p. 72, accessed 1 November 2009〕 It is also based partly on episodes in the lives of William Dargan, an Irish contractor, and John Sadleir, a banker who committed suicide in 1856.〔Trutt, David. Appendix to the annotated script for (''An Old Score'' ), p. 83, accessed 1 November 2009〕 The play was written before Gilbert had developed his "Topsy-Turvy" satiric style and so shows Gilbert at his most straightforward. Gilbert was a disciple of the playwright T. W. Robertson, who had introduced naturalistic staging and acting to Victorian era theatre. Robertson's comedies had serious moments, as well as comic, treating their themes with some sentiment and usually conveying a simple moral lesson. Gilbert likewise intended ''An Old Score'' to be partly serious, calling it a "comedy-drama". The play borrows elements from Robertson's ''Ours'' and Tom Taylor's ''Still Waters Run Deep''.〔 Gilbert had provided another work for John Hollingshead's Gaiety Theatre in London, ''Robert the Devil'' (1868), which had opened the theatre.〔Stedman, p. 62〕 ''An Old Score'' opened at the Gaiety on 26 July 1869. The cast included Rosina Ranoe, who later married F. C. Burnand, and Henry Neville, who later produced some of Gilbert's plays.〔Ainger, p. 82〕 Following the Victorian tradition of long evenings in the theatre, ''An Old Score'', which ran for two hours, was second on a triple bill beginning with an operetta〔Hollingshead, John. ''Gaiety Chronicles'', London: Archibald Constable, 1898〕 and ending with a "new opera bouffe", ''Columbus!, or the Original Pitch in a Merry Key'', by Alfred Thompson. It was not a success, despite encouraging reviews, and closed in late August after about 24 performances.〔Stedman, p. 74〕〔Moss, Simon. ("An Old Score" ) at ''Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia'', c20th.com, accessed 16 November 2009〕 It reopened on 11 November 1872 at the Court Theatre in revised form as ''Quits'' but did not fare much better, running for about 46 performances.〔Shepherd, Marc. ("Three Gilbert Plays in New Editions", ) ''University of Michigan Girls and Boys'', vol. 36, no. 1, issue 229, p. 13, Summer 2005〕〔Hollingshead, John. ''My Lifetime'', pp. 19–20, London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1895〕〔Moss, Simon. ("An Old Score" ) at ''Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia'', c20th.com, accessed 16 November 2009〕 ''The Times'' wrote that "Generally, the characters are sketched with a firm hand, and the dialogue they utter, though not especially brilliant, is consistent and to the purpose."〔John Oxenford. Review of ''An Old Score'', ''The Times'', 28 July 1869, p. 10〕 Commenting on its opening night reception by the audience, the paper noted, "An Old Score was followed by every symptom of success, and if its good fortune does not prove permanent it will be because the work is too genuine a comedy to suit the taste of the age."〔 When Gilbert originally proposed the play to Hollingshead, the manager of the Gaiety Theatre, the latter was impressed by its "clever dialogue". After its failure, however, Hollingshead opined that the piece had "one great and only fault: It was 'too clever by half.' It was too true to nature – disagreeable nature. It was not served up with enough make-believe sauce."〔Hollingshead, John. ''Good Old Gaiety'', London: Gaiety Theatre Company, 1903〕 Hollingshead noted that, in the play, a son argues with his father. This was unacceptable to audiences in 1869.〔 Gilbert expert Andrew Crowther writes that, although the play has faults, "we can judge ''An Old Score'' to be a genuinely powerful drama. There are scenes in this play which are so powerful that they knock the reader back in his seat. There is a "shooting-from-the-hip" quality about some of the scenes which is exhilarating and even just a little bit shocking."〔 It may be, also, that the play was too intimate for the huge stage of the ''Gaiety''.〔Stedman, p. 73〕 The play was published in 1869 by Samuel French Ltd.,〔(''An Old Score'' ) at OpenLibrary.org〕 in 1870 by Thomas Hailes Lacy and again in 1877 by Samuel French Ltd.〔(Sir William Schwenk Gilbert ) at Books and Writers website, accessed 1 November 2009〕 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「An Old Score」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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