[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ruddigore.png]]
->''Each lord of Ruddigore,''\\
''Despite his best endeavour,''\\
''Shall do one crime, or more,''\\
''Once, every day, for ever!''\\
''This doom he can't defy,''\\
''However he may try,''\\
''For should he stay''\\
''His hand, that day''\\
''In torture he shall die!''
-->-- '''Dame Hannah''', Act I

''Ruddigore, [[EitherOrTitle or]] The Witch's Curse'', described by its author as "An Entirely Original Supernatural Opera in Two Acts," was the 10th of the "Savoy operas" produced by Creator/GilbertAndSullivan. ''Ruddigore'' is a parody of the so-called "Transpontine[[labelnote:Latin]]''trans pontem,'' "across the bridge"[[/labelnote]] melodramas" of the early 19th century,[[note]]such as ''East Lynne, or The Earl's Daughter''; ''Maria Marten, or The Murder in the The Red Barn''; ''The Face At The Window''; ''Sweeny Todd, or The Demon Barber of Fleet Street''; and ''Crimes At The Dark House''[[/note]] which were performed at theatres south of the Thames -- including their [[PurpleProse high-flown]] and [[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe archaic]] language, the extravagances of their plots, and their recurring StockCharacters: [[TheIngenue the innocent orphaned Village Maiden]], the poor-but-honest Yeoman Hero, the [[DastardlyWhiplash sneering, snarling Bad Baronet]], the Honest Sailor, the [[OldRetainer Good Old Servant]], the [[TheOphelia Fallen Woman Driven Mad By A Dark Secret]], and, of course, the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Ghost]] -- in this case, a whole [[SpookyPainting Gallery]] of Ghosts. (By staggering coincidence, Creator/OscarWilde's story "Literature/TheCantervilleGhost" was published within days of ''Ruddigore'''s premiere, and parodies Gothic ghost stories and their stock tropes and characters in similar ways.)

An AnimatedAdaptation of the opera by British animation company Halas and Batchelor appeared in 1966. There have been three Live Action Television adaptations, in 1972, 1982, and 2005; the 1982 version featured Creator/VincentPrice as Sir Despard. ''Ruddigore'' is also the focus of the ''Literature/PhryneFisher'' novel ''Ruddy Gore''.

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!!Tropes Associated With ''Ruddigore'' Include:

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[[folder:Tropes A-M]]
* AllThereInTheScript: Some characters are given names for no apparent reason, which appear only in the ''dramatis personae''. Of course, that's when the character appears in the script ''at all''; for instance, ''Ruddigore'' has a long list of named ghosts in the ''dramatis personae''. The script itself refers only to Roderick by name (Sir Rupert is mentioned in dialogue, but never pointed out as a specific ghost when he appears), and list the others as "1st ghost," "2nd ghost," and so on. The numbers never get high enough to include half the ghosts listed; the rest are presumably just ordinary choristers. The "professional bridesmaid" Ruth is also never named in the script.
* AristocratsAreEvil: "All baronets are bad…," we are told.
* BarefootLoon: Mad Margaret is costumed and made up as a caricature of theatrical madness in the first act, and this often includes barefootedness.
* BetaCouple: Ruthven's [[HeelFaceTurn reformed]] brother, Despard, marries his OldFlame Margaret offstage between acts. The happy couple comes to Ruthven in Act II to encourage him to reform as well.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Dame Hannah, near the end of Act II.
* {{BFS}}: Dame Hannah appropriates one when confronting Sir Ruthven.
* BigBookOfWar: Rose Maybud was raised from birth by a "little book of etiquette," the contents of which are never known except that Rose herself is an expert in all matters of propriety as a result.
* {{Bowdlerise}}:
** Played straight in the work's very title, which was changed from the original ''Ruddygore'' because it was deemed too offensive. [[note]]"Ruddy" is a softened form of "bloody," which was the F-Bomb (B-Bomb?) of the 19th and early 20th century in Britain -- as in [[Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw Shaw's]] ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}''. Gilbert found this as absurd as anyone, and suggested re-titling it ''Kensington Gore, or, Not So Good As Theatre/TheMikado''. According to ''Martyn Green's Treasury of Gilbert and Sullivan'' this led to an exchange between the (gruff but witty) Gilbert and a stranger at a party: "How's ''Bloodygore'' going?" "Ruddigore!" "Oh, well, it's the same thing, you know." "Is it? Then I suppose that if I say I admire your ruddy complexion, it's the same as saying I like your bloody cheek! Well, it isn't -- and I don't!"[[/note]]
** All the ghosts coming back to life to marry the professional bridesmaids was deemed too shocking, so Sir Despard's former retinue returned and married them instead. Most modern productions opt to bring in the ghosts.
** When the curse is broken, the opening night libretto had Roderic suggesting that he and all the ancestors could be brought back to life by a simple "appeal to the Supreme Court". Enough people took "Supreme Court" to mean "Supreme Being" and raised objections that the line was cut, so Roderic ends up "practically alive" apparently as an automatic effect of breaking the curse.
* BurnTheWitch: Sir Rupert Murgatroyd ruthlessly persecuted witches, including burning them at the stake. The {{curse}} which drives the plot is a DyingCurse by one such witch.
* CatchPhrase: Basingstoke it is! Also, every appearance of the Bridesmaids in Act I is punctuated by outbursts of "Hail the bridegroom! hail the bride!"
* CloudCuckooLander: Mad Margaret is a pitiable madwoman in the first act, with her madness implied to stem from lost love.
* ComplimentBackfire: "You are Rose Maybud? … Strange -- they told me she was beautiful."
* ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping: Rose makes her entrance carrying a basket of gifts she intends to distribute in a highly inappropriate manner.
* CrowdSong: All the choruses, which evokes some classic LampshadeHanging from Mad Margaret, who comments, "They sing choruses in public! That's mad enough, I think."
* {{Curse}}: The catalyst of the whole plot.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: Used [[WithFriendsLikeThese by Robin]] to reveal Richard's bad character to Rose.
* DastardlyWhiplash: The Murgatroyd family of ''Ruddigore'', especially Sir Ruthven, parody this character, which was still played straight in the "Transpontine" theatres of the time.
* TheDeadCanDance: "When the Night Wind Howls", sung by Sir Roderick (a ghost) with a chorus of other ghostly ancestors. It is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
* DeadpanSnarker: When asked casually by a theatre-goer how "''Bloodygore''" (''see'' {{Bowdlerization}}, ''above'') was doing, Gilbert replied, "The name is ''Ruddigore''." "Well, it's the same thing, what?" said the man, to which Gilbert replied, "Then I suppose that if I say, 'I admire your ruddy countenance,' it's the same thing as, 'I like your bloody cheek.' Well, it ''isn't'' -- and ''I '''don't'''!''
* DesignatedVillain: InUniverse, the Bad Baronets of Ruddigore, who are obligated by the family curse to commit one evil deed each day, or else die in agony. Despard commits his crime first thing in the morning and spends the rest of the day doing good, while Ruthven tries to use InsaneTrollLogic to claim that 'crimes' such as forging his own will fulfil the obligation.
* DyingCurse: The {{curse}} on the Murgatroyd line was pronounced by a witch whilst being burned at the stake.
* EitherOrTitle: Or, the Witch's Curse.
* EveryoneMustBePaired: The female chorus is paired off with either the revivified ghosts, or the visiting gentlemen from the city, depending on version. It's kind of set up in Act I, where the women gush over the visiting gentlemen because "The sons of the tillage / Who dwell in this village" ... "Though honest and active, / They're most unattractive".
* EvilCostumeSwitch: At the start of the second act (in productions that don't bump it up to the first act curtain), Robin Oakapple reappears in full DastardlyWhiplash costume, often wearing a cape and generally flourishing a riding crop. Old Adam also tends to develop [[TheIgor a hunch]] in some productions.
* EvilMakesYouUgly: "When in crime one is fully employed, your expression gets warped and destroyed." (Source of that trope's Page Quote.)
* EvilSoundsDeep: Roderick, Despard, and Ruthven are all played by baritones.
* EvilSoundsRaspy: Lampshaded in Sir Despard's Villain's Lament.
-->'''Sir Despard''': Oh why am I husky and hoarse?\\
'''Chorus''': Ah, why?\\
'''Sir Despard''': It's the workings of conscience, of course.\\
'''Chorus''': Fie, fie!\\
'''Sir Despard''': And huskiness stands for remorse.\\
'''Chorus''': Oh, my!\\
'''Sir Despard''': At least it does so in my case!
* {{Flanderization}}: The original Mad Margaret, Jessie Bond from the 1887 production, was a very sympathetic young woman driven almost but not quite to the point of madness. It wasn't until revivals in the 1920s that she became the raving lunatic she is frequently played as now.
* {{Fainting}}: Happens to Robin Oakapple at the end of Act I.
* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: Rose Maybud tends to speak in this style.
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: Used in Toye's replacement overture, ''sometimes''.
* FunnySchizophrenia: A lot of the humor surrounding Mad Margaret stems from her insanity.
* GetTheeToANunnery: ''Ruddigore'' was considered a very naughty name at the time — "ruddy" and "gore" are two synonyms for "bloody", a cussword that was more offensive even than "dammee," apparently.
* GhostSong: "Painted Emblems of a Race" and "When the Night Wind Howls (Sir Roderick's Song)", during which [[TheDeadCanDance the ghosts get down]].
* GoodHairEvilHair: Generally after Robin turns evil, he appears with slicked down hair and occasionally a pair of side-whiskers he didn't wear before. Likewise, Despard's hair will often be more flowing in the second act, and he may drop the mustache. At least one production had Despard physically handing his mustache to Robin/Ruthven at the end of the first act.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, the first Baronet of Ruddigore, caused the entire curse in the first place thanks to his ruthless witch trials and mass torture.
* HornySailors: Rose Maybud has several qualms about her betrothed, the dashing sailor Dick Dauntless, but the one she keeps coming back to is the probability that he has AGirlInEveryPort:
-->'''Rose''': I shall be left all alone to moan,
-->And weep at your cruel deceit, complete;
-->While you'll be asserting
-->Your freedom by flirting
-->With every woman you meet, you cheat!
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Roderic orders Robin to carry off a lady, "I don't care what lady, any lady, choose your lady" to satisfy the curse. When said lady turns out to be Dame Hannah, Roderic's former fiancee, he reacts with indignation.
** "If you wish in the world to advance":
--->Now take for example my case. I've a bright intellectual brain.\\
In all London city there's no-one so witty, I've thought so again and again.\\
I've a highly intelligent face, my features cannot be denied,\\
but whatever I try, sir, I fail it and why, sir? I'm modesty personified...
* TheIgor: After Robin Oakapple is transformed into DastardlyWhiplash-type Sir Ruthven, his servant, Adam Goodheart ([-AKA-] "Gideon Crawle"), spontaneously acquires a hump.
* IncessantChorus: The bridesmaids keep on bursting into their chorus ("Hail the Bridegroom -- hail the Bride!") until Robin angrily orders them to leave.
* TheIngenue: "Sweet" Rose Maybud is a parody of the type, although it turns out she is rather more artful than she lets on.
* IHaveNoSon: Inverted and played for laughs. Robin tries to [[LoopholeAbuse satisfy the letter]] of his curse [[PokeThePoodle without doing anything genuinely terrible]], so one of his "crimes" is to disinherit his only son. There's just one small problem:
-->'''Roderic:''' But you haven't got a son.
-->'''Robin:''' No--not yet. I disinherited him in advance, to save time. You see--by this arrangement--he'll be born ready disinherited.
-->'''Roderic:''' I see. But I don't think you can do that.
-->'''Robin:''' My good sir, [[InsaneTrollLogic if I can't disinherit my own unborn son, whose unborn son can I disinherit?]]
* IHaveThisFriend: Robin and Rose make use of this trope in the song "I Know a Youth".
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Subverted militantly by Dame Hannah, who when Robin is ordered by his ghostly ancestors to carry her off, turns the tables and begins to pursue him with a large dagger.
* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: As mentioned above, the title ''Ruddigore'' was rather racy for its day-- even worse before it was changed from the original, [[FelonyMisdemeanor ''Ruddygore'']]-- owing to its similarity to the rude word "bloody."
* KingBobTheNth: Several of the ancestors are listed only by which number baronet they are.
* LampshadeHanging: Incessantly. (''See'' CrowdSong'' above, for an example'')
* LastMinuteHookup: Richard, aced out by Robin/Ruthven for Rose's affections just before the closing chorus, immediately and enthusiastically turns to Zorah, head of the professional bridesmaids corps. She accepts him with equal enthusiasm, despite having had no real interaction with him previously. This is typical of the "any partner is better than no partner" attitude that tends to prevail among Gilbert's characters.
* LogicBomb: How Ruthven breaks the curse. [[spoiler:He'll die if he doesn't commit the crime. So if he does nothing, he's attempting suicide. But attempting suicide is a crime!]]
* LyricalDissonance: "I shipped d'ye see" is a cheery patriotic naval ballad about ''fleeing'' from the French.
* {{Melodrama}}: The conventions of Victorian melodramas are the primary satire/parody target of this operetta.
* MessyHair: Mad Margaret, who is "an obvious caricature of theatrical madness."
* MilesGloriosus: Richard's song "I shipped, d'ye see," tells how his ship bravely prepared to attack a French merchant ship, only to turn tail and ran away when it turned out to be a frigate and fired at them, because, uh, they didn't want to hurt the poor helpless Frenchmen, that was it. Amusingly, a lot of people [[PoesLaw missed that it was a satire]].
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Ruthven.
* {{Motormouth}}: Those who sing the PatterSong.
* MusicalWorldHypothesis: Mad Margaret takes it as a sign of the other characters' madness that "they sing choruses in public!" As such the musical presumably exists in the Alternate Universe where everyone really is singing.
* MuggingTheMonster: "I shipped, d'ye see, in a revenue sloop..."
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** Sir Despard Murgatroyd, the DesignatedVillain of Act I.
** In the original script (and some modern productions), when the curse falls on Robin, his faithful retainer Adam Goodheart changes his name to "Gideon Crawle" to reflect his new commitment to evil. Their duet at the beginning of Act II included a second verse lampshading this, with the chorus: "How providential when you find / The face an index to the mind / And evil men compelled to call / Themselves by names like Gideon Crawle!" Gilbert left Adam as "Adam" in later editions -- except in one line where Ruthven, without explanation, says "Gideon Crawle, it won't do...".
* NamesToTrustImmediately: Adam Goodheart (subtly subverted, in that in Victorian British English, "Adam" was accented on the second syllable), Richard Dauntless (subverted in that he's actually a cowardly knave), [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Rose Maybud]], and presumably the PosthumousCharacter Stephen Trusty (Dame Hannah's father).
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[[folder:Tropes N-Z]]
* NoManOfWomanBorn: Robin's stroke of FridgeLogic frees the Murgatroyds from their curse, somehow bringing them all back to life.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: A prominent example, though not quite for the usual we-can't-afford-to-stage-this reason. The climax of the story, our hero Robin having a EurekaMoment that solves everybody's problems, happens offstage while two of the supporting leads [[PairTheSpares fall back in love with each other]]. It's only after their duet that Robin runs back on, dragging ''the entire cast'' with him, to explain what he's figured out.
* OldFlame:
** The [[HeelFaceTurn newly reformed]] Despard reunites with Margaret, whom he had abandoned after being forced to turn evil, at the end of Act I.
** Dame Hannah reunites with her long-lost love, Roderic, in Act II.
* OldMaid: Dame Hannah states that she has pledged herself to an eternal maidenhood after being forced by ethical and moral considerations to stand up her love at the altar many years before.
* OldRetainer: Old Adam Goodheart.
* TheOphelia: {{Parodied}} with Mad Margaret. The stage directions even specify that she should be "an obvious caricature of theatrical madness."
* PairTheSpares: After Rose and Robin get together at the end, Richard hooks up with Zorah, who he's had no lines with before then.
* PatterSong: "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation". The nature of patter songs is lampshaded in the final verse:
--> This particularly rapid unintelligible patter
-->Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!
* PokeThePoodle: The crimes of Sir Ruthven (except, of course, when he shot a fox[[note]]Shooting a fox was considered unsportsmanlike among Victorian gentry. [[ValuesDissonance The preferred method of disposal]] was [[CruelAndUnusualDeath by a team of hounds]][[/note]]. Oh, horror!).
* PosthumousCharacter: Though some productions bring him back, Sir Rupert Murgatroyd is usually only employed as a posthumous character, having been the cruel first Baronet who ages ago went around genociding witches.
* PowerOfFriendship: Parodied by Robin's claiming he would never speak a word against Richard, even when the latter is stealing his girl – and then loading him with such [[DamnedByFaintPraise backhanded compliments]] that Rose speedily dumps the hapless mariner.
* PunchClockVillain: All the Murgatroyds, but particularly Sir Despard.
* QuietlyPerformingSisterShow: It was the team's follow-up to their greatest hit, ''Theatre/TheMikado''; though it subsequently gained a reputation for being the pair's first "failure," it actually ran for 288 performances, and Gilbert himself remarked, "It ran eight months and, with the sale of the libretto, put £7,000[[note]]About three-quarters of a million USD nowadays when adjusting for inflation[[/note]] into my pocket." He also said, "I could do with a few more such failures."
* ReallyGetsAround: Richard Dauntless, according to Robin.
* RearrangeTheSong: For many years, the opera was not performed with its original (rather weak) overture (not by Sullivan himself, but by his assistant Hamilton Clarke), but with a new one composed by Savoy conductor Geoffrey Toye in 1919.
* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: The prosperous farmer Robin Oakapple and the poor sailor Richard Dauntless vie for Rose Maybud's hand. Rose prefers Robin, partly because his moral character is superior and partly because she's a GoldDigger, but turns to Richard when Robin's true identity is revealed, which invokes the {{curse}} that [[EnforcedTrope requires]] Robin/Ruthven to [[FaceHeelTurn become a career criminal]]. When Ruthven breaks the curse with a LogicBomb at the end of Act II, which allows him to become good again, Rose pivots back to him.
* RomanticFalseLead: Rose chooses Richard when Robin makes an (enforced) FaceHeelTurn in the first act finale, but easily switches back to Robin in the second.
* SanitySlippageSong: Despard and Margaret sing a song ("I once was a very abandoned person") all about how crazy and evil they used to be, before they got better. As the song progresses, they start to get a bit caught up in the crazy again, before restraining themselves.
* SelfDeprecation:
** In "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation":'
--> This particularly rapid unintelligible patter
-->Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!
** And this dialogue:
-->'''[[TheOphelia Mad Margaret]]:''' But see, they come – Sir Despard and his evil crew! Hide, hide – they are all mad – quite mad!
-->'''Rose:''' What makes you think that?
-->'''Margaret:''' Hush! [[LampshadeHanging They sing choruses in public.]] That's mad enough, I think.
* ShaggyFrogStory:
-->'''[[TheOphelia Mad Margaret]]''': You pity me? Then be my mother! The squirrel had a mother, but she drank and the squirrel fled! Hush! They sing a brave song in these parts -- it runs somewhat thus: (sings)
--->'The cat and the dog and the little puppee\\
Sat down in a -- down in a -- in a --'
-->I forget what they sat down in, but so the song goes!
* ShoutOut ShoutOut/ToShakespeare: Robin quotes "Alas, poor ghost!" Also, his faithful servant Adam is named after a similar character in ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt''.
* SillySpook: The ghosts. Most stagings play them as TheComicallySerious versions of {{Ghastly Ghost}}s.
* SpookyPainting: The ghosts of the former Bad Baronets emerge from their paintings to torment the current inheritor of the family curse.
* SuicideIsShameful: The fact that attempted suicide was regarded as a crime turns out to play a crucial role in obtaining a HappyEnding. ItMakesSenseInContext.
* SurvivalMantra: Played for laughs; saying the word "Basingstoke"[[note]]a small town in northeast Hampshire, the location of an insane asylum[[/note]] always succeeds at bringing Mad Margaret to her senses.
* TalkAboutTheWeather: Robin CannotSpitItOut to Rose, so he talks to her about the weather instead.
* TrappedInVillainy: The curse of the Murgatroyds. The resolution is [[spoiler:when Sir Ruthven realizes that refusing to commit a daily crime is tantamount to suicide. [[LogicBomb And suicide is, itself, a crime.]] [[LoopholeAbuse So he fullfills the terms of the curse by refusing to do so.]]]]
* TwiceShy: Rose Maybud and Robin Oakapple.
* VerbalTic: Richard's "D'ye see" even recurs in his solo number.
* VillainSong:
** Subverted in "Oh, why am I moody and sad" -- Despard is ''complaining'' about being the DesignatedVillain because of his {{curse}}. Also "When the night wind howls" and "Henceforth all the crimes" (er, sort of).
** "You understand? I think I do" probably counts as a Villain Duet, despite the lines about how they have to do it because "duty must be done", and about how "painful" the duty is. [[LyricalDissonance It's a cheery bouncy song that they happily dance to the entire time they're singing it]].
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen: Parodied without mercy in Richard's song "The Darned Mounseer", which relates how the Royal Navy ship, threatened by a French Mounseer, bravely turned tail and fled the scene so as not to injure the poor inferior French sailors.
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