William Sydney Penley was an English actor, singer and comedian who had an early success in the small role of the Foreman in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury. He later achieved wider fame as producer and star of the prodigiously successful Brandon Thomas farce, Charley's Aunt and as the Rev Robert Spalding in several productions of Charles Hawtrey's farce The Private Secretary.
Penley as Spalding in The Private Secretary, 1884
Penley caricatured by Spy in Vanity Fair, 1893
Penley in Charley's Aunt, 1892
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire. Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868.
Gilbert's original sketch of Trial by Jury, published in Fun in 1868
April 1875 programme for La Périchole and Trial by Jury. Sullivan and Gilbert are the cherubs.
The Usher advises the jury. Drawing by W. S. Gilbert
Third page of the 1875 programme