Lady Bracknell Scene

Question 1

… especially when there are other people present

Answer 1

Mr. Worthing! Rise sir from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous.

Question 2

… Besides, Mr. Worthing has not quite finished yet.

Answer 2

Finished what, may I ask?

Question 3

I am engaged to Mr. Worthing Mamma.

Answer 3

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

Question 4

should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact.

Answer 4

An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.

Question 5

pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

now I have a few questions for you and Worthing

Answer 6

While I am making these inquiries you Gwendolen will wait for me below in the carriage

Question 7

Mamma

Answer 7

In the carriage Gwendolen… Gwendolen the carriage.

Question 8

Yes mamma

Answer 8

You can take a seat Mr Worthing

Question 9

I prefer standing

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

We work together in fact.

Answer 10

However I am quite ready to enter your name should your answers be what a really affectionate mother requires. Are your parents living?

Question 11

I have lost both my parents

Answer 11

To lose one parent Mr Worthing may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness.

Question 12

To lose both looks like carelessness

Answer 12

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?

Question 13

I was, well I was found.

Answer 13

Found!

Question 14

Place in Sussex, it is a seaside resort

Answer 14

Where did this charitable gentleman who had a first class ticket for this seaside resort find you?

Question 15

In a handbag

Answer 15

A hand bag???

Question 16

An ordinary hand bag in fact

Answer 16

In what locality did this Mr Thomas Cardew come across this ordinary hand bag?

Question 17

It was given to him in mistake for his own.

Answer 17

The cloak-room at Victoria station?

Question 18

Yes the Brighton line.

Answer 18

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…

Question 19

To be born or at any rate bred in a handbag

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.

Answer 20

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-

Question 21

Conceal a social indiscretion-

Answer 21

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.