Iolanthe

In 1882, they were integrated into the costumes of fairies in a Savoy Theatre production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “Iolanthe.”

The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who oversaw President Clinton’s trial, was a fan of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and festooned his robe with four gold stripes to mimic the Lord Chancellor in “Iolanthe.”

The garment was inspired, the Supreme Court’s public information office explained in 1995, by one worn by the Lord Chancellor in a local production of “Iolanthe.”

Years later, reflecting on his role in the Clinton impeachment trial, Chief Justice Rehnquist was self-deprecating, borrowing a line from “Iolanthe,” a favorite Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera.

So Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe” opera song with the verse “every boy and every gal that’s born into the world alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative” seems to have been spot on!