the only work not by Gilbert in the regular repertory of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company during the 20th century and is the only work of Burnand's still frequently staged.Fredric Woodbridge Wilson. "Burnand, Sir Francis Cowley", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 8 July 2014 Its success encouraged its authors to write the two-act opera, The Contrabandista (1867), revised and expanded as The Chieftain (1894), but it did not achieve much popularity in either version. More burlesques followed in 1868, including Fowl Play, or, A Story of Chicken Hazard and The Rise and Fall of Richard III, or, A New Front to an Old Dicky. In 1869, Burnand wrote The Turn of the Tide, which was a success at the Queen's Theatre, and six other stage works during the course of the year. 1870s: prolific author Burnand's wife Cecilia died in 1870 at age 28, leaving him with seven small children. In 1874 Burnand married her widowed sister, Rosina (d. 1924), who was also an actress."Rosina (née Ranoe), Lady Burnand", National Portrait Gallery, accessed 9 July 2014. She had appeared in, among other things, Burnand's Black-Eyed Susan and Gilbert's An Old Score, and had performed together with her sister and Burnand in Burnand's one-act burlesque of The Odyssey, Patient Penelope; or, The Return of Ulysses. It was at that time illegal in England for a man to marry his dead wife's sister, although such marriages made outside British jurisdiction were recognised as valid; accordingly the wedding ceremony was performed in continental Europe. There were two sons and four daughters of this marriage. Throughout the 1870s, Burnand maintained a prodigious output. For the stage he wrote 55 pieces, ranging from burlesques to pantomimes, farces and extravaganzas. He was the sole author of most of them, but worked on a few with Thomas German Reed, J. L. Molloy, Henry Pottinger Stephens and even with H. J. Byron. His stage pieces of the 1870s included Poll and Partner Joe (1871), Penelope Anne (1871; a sequel to Cox and Box), The Miller and His Man (1873; "a Christmas drawing room extravaganza" with songs by Sullivan), Artful Cards (1877), Proof (1878), Dora and Diplunacy (1878, a burlesque of Clement Scott's Diplomacy, an adaptation of Sardou's Dora), The Forty Thieves (1878; a charity collaboration among four playwrights, including Byron and Gilbert), Our Club (1878) and another frequently revived hit, Betsy (1879). He provided a burlesque