:54:00
...you take exception to a great deal
of my work of the past 25 years.
:54:03
Not to mention much of what you and I
have written together since 1871.
:54:07
- That is patent balderdash!
- Is it?
:54:09
Gentlemen, if we might keep things
cordial, we may make some progress.
:54:13
Arthur, can you really not see
your way to setting this new piece?
:54:16
- Alas, Helen, I cannot.
- Cannot or will not?
:54:20
I am truly unable to set any piece
that is so profoundly uncongenial to me.
:54:24
Uncongenial though it may be to you...
:54:27
...I must remind you that we here
are conducting a business.
:54:30
May I remind you, Helen,
that I am not a machine.
:54:33
I would not suggest for one moment
that you were.
:54:35
You all seem to be treating me
as a barrel organ.
:54:38
You have but to turn my handle...
:54:40
...and out pops a tune!
- That's not strictly true.
:54:42
- Arthur.
- Come now, that's unfair.
:54:45
You are both contractually obliged
to supply a new work on request.
:54:48
The very act of signing a joint contract
dictates that we must be businesslike.
:54:53
Yes, Mr Gilbert.
:54:55
And I was wondering whether "you" might
be able to solve our wee difficulty.
:55:00
- How, pray?
- By simply writing another libretto.
:55:07
It's out of the question. I have worked
for many long months at this play...
:55:11
...which I have every confidence will be
the best we have produced at the Savoy.
:55:16
To abandon it would be
both criminal and wasteful.
:55:18
I see.
:55:20
Had the complaint been lodged earlier,
that might have been different.
:55:23
I did so when you presented the libretto.
:55:26
I was unable to present you
with the libretto...
:55:28
...until you returned from your grand tour!
:55:31
- That is neither here nor there.
- No, Sullivan. Indeed.
:55:34
I was here and you were there. Ha!
:55:37
What I don't understand, Arthur...
:55:39
...is why you cannot set this piece.
:55:41
You're our greatest composer.
Surely you can do anything?
:55:44
How very kind you are, Helen.
:55:46
But I say again to you all,
I am at the end of my tether.
:55:49
I have been repeating myself in this...
class of work for too long...
:55:53
...and I will not continue so to do.
:55:56
Neither of us runs any risk
of repeating himself.
:55:59
This is an entirely new story,
quite unlike any other.