The light opera, "Patience" is a satiric musical drawn upon the aesthetic movement among poets in England. The role of the poet Bunthorne, is based on Swinburne and Whistler. The work lampoons male vanity and chauvinism in the military.

The story concerns two rival "aesthetic" poets, who are each in love with Patience, the village milkmaid. On her part, however, she detests one of them and feels that it is her duty to avoid the other despite her love for him.

Richard D'Oyly Carte was the booking manager for Oscar Wilde, a then lesser-known proponent of aestheticism. The Carte enterprise dispatched Wilde on an American lecture tour in conjunction with the opera's U.S. run, so that American audiences might better understand the satire.

During the "Patience" run, Carte built the large, modern Savoy Theatre, which became the Gilbert & Sullivan partnership's permanent home. The Savoy was the first large building and the only theatre to be lit entirely by electric lighting.