Iolanthe

About the show

The fairy Iolanthe was banished for marrying a mortal and secretly raised their son Strephon, an Arcadian shepherd. Strephon loves Phyllis, a ward of the Lord Chancellor, who forbids their marriage while he and other peers seek to marry her. When Iolanthe’s embrace of Strephon is mistaken for a lover’s, Phyllis rejects him. Strephon gains political power through the fairies; later, Iolanthe reveals that the Lord Chancellor is her husband and Strephon’s father. The Fairy Queen is about to punish Iolanthe for breaking fairy law again, but the peers and fairies avert the sentences by changing the law so fairies must marry mortals.