Lady Bracknell Scene Flashcards
… especially when there are other people present
Mr. Worthing! Rise sir from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous.
… Besides, Mr. Worthing has not quite finished yet.
Finished what, may I ask?
I am engaged to Mr. Worthing Mamma.
Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone, when you do become engaged to someone, I or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact
should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact.
An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.
pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.
It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself… and now I have a few questions for you Mr Worthing.
now I have a few questions for you and Worthing
While I am making these inquiries you Gwendolen will wait for me below in the carriage
Mamma
In the carriage Gwendolen… Gwendolen the carriage.
Yes mamma
You can take a seat Mr Worthing
I prefer standing
I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible bachelors, although I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has. We work together in fact.
We work together in fact.
However I am quite ready to enter your name should your answers be what a really affectionate mother requires. Are your parents living?
I have lost both my parents
To lose one parent Mr Worthing may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness.
To lose both looks like carelessness
Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth, was he born in what the radical papers call the purple of commerce or did he rise from the ranks of aristocracy?
I was, well I was found.
Found!
Place in Sussex, it is a seaside resort
Where did this charitable gentleman who had a first class ticket for this seaside resort find you?
In a handbag
A hand bag???
An ordinary hand bag in fact
In what locality did this Mr Thomas Cardew come across this ordinary hand bag?
It was given to him in mistake for his own.
The cloak-room at Victoria station?
Yes the Brighton line.
The line is immaterial. Mr Worthing I must confess I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To be born or at any rate bred in a handbag…
To be born or at any rate bred in a handbag
Whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.
of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.
And I presume you know what that movement led to? As for the particular locality in which the hand bag was found, a cloak room at a railway station might serve to conceal a social indiscretion-
Conceal a social indiscretion-
Has probably indeed indeed been used for that purpose before now, but it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognized position in good society.
