ACT 1 SCENE 3 Flashcards
JACK: Your consent!
My dear fellow, Gwendolen is my first cousin.
And before I allow you to marry her, you will have to clear up the whole question of Cecily.
JACK: Cecily! What on earth do you mean? What do you mean, Algy, by Cecily! I don’t know anyone of the name of Cecily!
[enter LANE]
Bring me that cigarette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking-room the last time he dined here.
JACK: … However, there is no good offering a large reward now that the thing is found.
I think that is rather mean of you, Earnest, I must say.
I happen to be more than usually hard up.
However, it makes no matter, for, now that I look at the inscription inside, I find the thing isn’t yours after all.
JACK: Of course it’s mine. You have seen me with it a hundred times, and you have no right whatsoever to read what is written inside. That is very ungentlemanly of you.
It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn’t. >:(
JACK: I simply want my cigarette case back!
Yes; but this isn’t your cigarette case!
This cigarette case is a present from someone of the name of Cecily, and you said you didn’t know anyone by that name.
JACK: Well, if you want to know, Cecily happens to be my aunt.
… Your aunt.
JACK: Yes. Charming old lady she is, too. Lives at Tunbridge Wells.
Just give it back to me, Algy!
‘From little Cecily, with her fondest love’
Why does she call herself ‘little Cecily’ if she is your aunt and lives at Tunbridge Wells?
JACK: My dear fellow, that is a matter that surely an aunt may be allowed to decide for herself. For Heaven’s sake give me back my cigarette case.
Yes. But why does your aunt call you her uncle?
‘From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.’ !!!
Why an aunt, no matter what her size may be, should call her own nephew her uncle,
I can’t quite make out.
Besides, your name isn’t Jack at all; it is Earnest.
JACK: It isn’t Earnest; it’s Jack.
You have always told me it was Earnest!
I have introduced you to every one as Earnest.
You answer to the name of Earnest.
You look as if you name was Earnest!
You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life!
It is perfectly absurd your saying that your name isn’t Earnest.
It’s on your cards! – Here is one of them:
‘Mr. Earnest Worthing, B.4, The Albany.’
I’ll keep this as a proof that your name is Earnest if you ever attempt to deny it to me… or to Gwendolen - or to any one else.
LANE: Sir, please, slow down, I cannot…
[Algernon gestures them to shut up. Quietly.]
