(Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano) The Lady Saphir (Rapturous Maiden) (mezzo-soprano or soprano) The Lady Ella (Rapturous Maiden) (soprano) The Lady Jane (Rapturous Maiden) (contralto) Patience (a Dairy Maid) (soprano) Chorus of Rapturous Maidens and Officers of Dragoon Guards Synopsis Act I In front of Castle Bunthorne, a group of "lovesick maidens" are all in love with the aesthetic poet Bunthorne ("Twenty lovesick maidens we"). Lady Jane, the oldest and plainest of them, announces that Bunthorne, far from returning their affections, has his heart set on the simple milkmaid Patience. Patience appears and confesses that she has never loved anyone; she is thankful that love has not turned her miserable as it has them ("I cannot tell what this love may be"). Soon, the ladies' old sweethearts, the 35th Dragoon Guards, appear ("The soldiers of our Queen"), led by Colonel Calverley ("If you Want a Receipt for that Popular Mystery"), Major Murgatroyd, and the ordinary but immensely rich Lieutenant the Duke of Dunstable. They arrive ready to propose marriage, only to discover their intendeds fawning over Bunthorne, who is in the throes of poetical composition, pretending to ignore the attention of the ladies thronging around him ("In a doleful train"). Bunthorne reads his poem and departs, while the officers are coldly rebuffed and mocked by the ladies, who turn up their noses at the sight of their red and yellow uniforms. The Dragoons, reeling from the insult, depart ("When I first put this uniform on"). Bunthorne, left alone, confesses that his aestheticism is a sham and mocks the movement's pretensions ("If you're anxious for to shine"). Seeing Patience, he reveals that, like her, he does not like poetry, but she tells him that she cannot love him. Later, Lady Angela, one of Bunthorne's admirers, explores with Patience the latter's childhood crush ("Long years ago"). Lady Angela rhapsodises upon love as the one truly unselfish pursuit in the world. Impressed by her eloquence, Patience promises to fall in love at the earliest opportunity. Serendipitously, Archibald Grosvenor arrives; he is another aesthetic poet who turns out to be Patience's childhood love. He has grown to be the infallible, widely loved "Archibald the All-Right" ("Prithee, pretty maiden"). The two declare themselves in love but are brought up short by the realisation that as Grosvenor is a perfect being, for Patience to love him would be a selfish act, and therefore not true love; thus, they