The sixth G&S collaboration was "Patience", or "Bunthorne's Bride". Patience opened on April 23rd, 1881 at the Opera Comique and ran for 578 performances, moving on October 10, 1881 to D'Oyly Carte's new theatre, the Savoy, the first theatre in the world to be lit entirely by electric lights.

Patience satirized the aesthetic movement in general and its colourful poets, in particular, combining aspects of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, James McNeill Whistler and others in the rival poets Bunthorne and Grosvenor. During the "aesthetic craze" of the 1870's and '80s, the productivity of poets, composers, painters and designers of all kinds was indeed prolific--but, some argued, empty and self-indulgent. This artistic movement was so popular, and also so easy to ridicule as meaningless, that it made Patience a big hit. The topical nature of the story may make Patience somewhat less accessible to some modern audiences, and G&S fans tend to have strong feelings one way or the other about Patience. Grossmith, who created the role of Bunthorne, based his makeup, wig and costume on Swinburne and especially Whistler. The work also lampoons male vanity and chauvinism in the military.

So  to the story…. All the well-born young ladies in the village, rapturously caught up in aestheticism, are in love with two contrasting aesthetic poets--a "fleshy" poet and an "idyllic" poet. But the poets are both in love with Patience, the simple village milkmaid, who cares nothing for poetry. Patience learns that true love must be completely unselfish--it must wither and sting and burn! The girls' military suitors don't see the point to aesthetics, but they decide to give it a try to win the women's hearts. It is touch and go for a while, but everyone ends up with a suitable partner, even if it is only a tulip or lily.