Talk:The Palace of Truth

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Gilbert's later opera, The Mountebanks drew on The Palace of Truth for some of its material. What material? It's difficult to spot, unlike the obvious Dulcamara/L'Elisir and Rosencratz and Guildenstern/Hamlet references. Adam Cuerden ^talk 07:30, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Dunno. Marc's Discography says so here. You're the Mountebanks expert. -- Ssilvers 13:59, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

IMO, he's probably extrapolating a bit too much from the "magic device to make people act differently and reveal deeper psychology". It's a connection, but it's hardly the only two places Gilbert used something like that. Gentleman in Black is probably a lot closer to how it's used in Mountebanks. With all respect due to Marc, he's managed to understate and overstate Palace of Truth's importance in the same claim: Palace of Truth's real importance is that its Brechtian way of having them act as if saying one thing whilst saying something different is not only pre-dating Brecht's techniques, but also often reused by Gilbert - Engaged, for instance, has a lot of use of it in a subtle, more refined form. "Oh bitter joy" from the Sorcerer is perhaps an example. Indeed, it may even have been developed into such things as "When I was a lad". There are some touchstone early plays of Gilbert that have consequences all throughout Gilbert's career - I'd say Dulcamara (e.g. Sorcerer, Mountebanks), Gentleman in Black (e.g Ruddigore, Mountebanks), and so on, that noone seems to note enough.

Unfortunately, of course, this is all Original Research. Adam Cuerden ^talk 14:15, 19 October 2006 (UTC)