When he’s left alone on the stage, the poet Reginald Bunthorne turns to the audience and sings this patter song, confessing that his aestheticism and love for medieval things is all an act to get attention. Sullivan’s music is quite melodramatic in the recitative, as if he’s writing for a Verdi opera, but the aria’s music is much lighter.

There is much debate over who served as the model for the character of Bunthorne, but Gilbert appears to have taken his inspiration from many places, among them the poet Algernon Swinburne, who was dubbed a “Fleshly Poet” by the critic Robert Buchanan, and the painter James McNeill Whistler, whose libel suit against the critic John Ruskin inspired much of Patience.

Sidenote: Contrary to the belief of some, Oscar Wilde was not the target of the song, as he was not yet famous enough to warrant it.