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Woman of No Importance - Oscar Wilde · The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and other Stories

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  Speaker 1: A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde. This is
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  Speaker 1: the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: The Persons of the Play Lord Illingworth read by Peter Bishop,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Sir John Pontefract.
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  Speaker 2: Read by Ernst Bottinaba.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Lord Alfred Rufford read by Bob Gonzales.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Mister Kelville m P.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Read by Nigel Boydell.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: The Venerable Archdeacon Daubeny, Doctor of Divinity.
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  Speaker 5: Read by Martin Geeson.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Gerald Arbuthnet read by M. B. Farquhar, The Butler.
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  Speaker 2: Read by Delmar H.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Dolbeer Francis, The Footman read by Barry Eads.
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  Speaker 6: Lady Hunston read by Susanna.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Lady Carolinetfract read by Sha Lady.
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  Speaker 7: Stutfield read by Beth Thomas.
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  Speaker 8: Missus Allenby read by Elizabeth Klett.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Hester Worsley read by Tricia g Alice.
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  Speaker 9: The Maid read by Bev Stephens.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnett read by Ari L.
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  Speaker 10: Lipshaw.
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  Speaker 1: Narrations stage directions read by David Lawrence. Time the present
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: place the Shires. The action of the play takes place
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  Speaker 1: within twenty four hours First Act of a Woman of
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: No Importance by Oscar Wilde Lawn in front of the
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  Speaker 1: terrace at Hunston Chase, Sir John and Lady Caroline Pontefract,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Worsley on chairs under large yew tree.
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  Speaker 11: I believe this is the first English country house you
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  Speaker 11: have stayed at, Miss Worsley.
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  Speaker 12: Yes, Lady Caroline.
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  Speaker 11: You have no country houses. I am told in America
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  Speaker 11: we have not have you any country what we should
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  Speaker 11: call country.
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  Speaker 12: We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline.
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  Speaker 12: They used to tell us at school that some of
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  Speaker 12: our states are as big as France and England put together.
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  Speaker 11: Ah, you must find it very drafty. I should fancy John,
• 2:19
  Speaker 11: you should have your muffler. What is the use of
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  Speaker 11: my always knitting mufflers for you if you won't wear them?
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  Speaker 2: I quite won't, Caroline, I assure you I think not.
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  Speaker 11: John. Well, you couldn't come to a more charming place
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  Speaker 11: than this, Miss Wesley. Though the house is excessively damp,
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  Speaker 11: quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunsington is sometimes a
• 2:42
  Speaker 11: little lax about the people she asks down here. Jane
• 2:46
  Speaker 11: mixes too much. Lord Illingworth of course is a man
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  Speaker 11: of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him,
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  Speaker 11: and that member of Parliament, mister Kettle.
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  Speaker 2: Kellville, my love Kellville.
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  Speaker 11: He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his
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  Speaker 11: name before in the whole course of one's life, which
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  Speaker 11: speaks volumes for a man nowadays. But Missus Allenby is
• 3:07
  Speaker 11: hardly a very suitable person.
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  Speaker 12: I dislike Missus Allenby. I dislike her more than I
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  Speaker 12: can say.
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  Speaker 11: I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself
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  Speaker 11: should cultivate likes and dislikes. But the people they are
• 3:21
  Speaker 11: invited to meet, Missus Allenby is very well born. She
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  Speaker 11: is the niece of Lord Brancaster's. It is said, of course,
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  Speaker 11: that she ran away twice before she was married, But
• 3:31
  Speaker 11: you know how unfair people often are. I myself don't
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  Speaker 11: believe she ran away more than once.
• 3:38
  Speaker 12: Mister arbuth Nutt is very charming.
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  Speaker 11: Ah, yes, the young man who has a post in
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  Speaker 11: a bank. Lady Hunstonton is most kind in asking him here,
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  Speaker 11: and Lord Illingworth seems to have taken quite a fancy
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  Speaker 11: to him. I am not sure, however, that Jane is
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  Speaker 11: right in asking him out of his position in my
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  Speaker 11: young days, Miss Worsley, one never met anyone in society
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  Speaker 11: who worked for the living. It was not considered the thing.
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  Speaker 12: In America, those are the people we respect most, I
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  Speaker 12: have no doubt of it. Mister Arbuthnut has a beautiful nature.
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  Speaker 12: He is so simple, so sincere. He has one of
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  Speaker 12: the most beautiful natures I have ever come across. It
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  Speaker 12: is a privilege to meet him.
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  Speaker 11: It is not customary in England, miss Wesley, for a
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  Speaker 11: young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person
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  Speaker 11: of the opposite sex. Englishwomen conceal their feelings till after
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  Speaker 11: they are married they show them.
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  Speaker 12: Then do you in England allow no friendship to exist
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  Speaker 12: between a young man and a young girl?
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  Speaker 1: And your lady Hunston followed by footmen with shawls and
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  Speaker 1: a cushion, We think.
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  Speaker 11: It very inadvisable, Jane. I was just saying, what a
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  Speaker 11: pleasant party you have asked us to meet. You have
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  Speaker 11: a wonderful power of selection. It is quite a gift.
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  Speaker 6: Dear Caroline, how kind of you. I think we all
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  Speaker 6: do fit in very nicely together, and I hope our
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  Speaker 6: charming American visitor will carry back pleasant recollections of our
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  Speaker 6: English country life. The cushion there, Francis and my Shawl
• 5:12
  Speaker 6: the Shetland. Get the Shetland.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Exit footman for Shawl Enter Gerald are.
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  Speaker 13: Both net Oh, Lady huntstand them. I have such good
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  Speaker 13: news to tell you. Lord Illingworth has just offered to
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  Speaker 13: make me his secretary his secretary.
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  Speaker 6: That is good news, indeed, Gerald, It means a very
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  Speaker 6: brilliant future in store for you. Your dear mother will be delighted.
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  Speaker 6: I really must try and induce her to come up
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  Speaker 6: here tonight. Do you think she would, Gerald? I know
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  Speaker 6: how difficult it is to get her to go anywhere.
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  Speaker 13: Oh now, I am sure she would, Lady Huntstanton, if
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  Speaker 13: she knew that Lord Ellingworth had made me such an offer.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Enter Footman with Shawl.
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  Speaker 6: I will write her and tell her about it, and
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  Speaker 6: ask her to come up and meet him to footman.
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  Speaker 11: Just wait, Francis, that is a very wonderful opening for
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  Speaker 11: so young a man as you are, mister abbathnot.
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  Speaker 13: It is indeed, Lady Caroline, I trust I shall be
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  Speaker 13: able to show myself worthy of it.
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  Speaker 1: I trust so to Hester.
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  Speaker 13: You have not congratulated me yet, Miss Wesley.
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  Speaker 12: Are you very pleased about it?
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  Speaker 13: Of course I am things that were out of the
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  Speaker 13: reach of hope before may be within hope's reach.
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  Speaker 12: Now nothing should be out of reach of hope. Life
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  Speaker 12: is a hope.
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  Speaker 6: I fancy, Caroline, that diplomacy is what Lord Illingworth is
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  Speaker 6: aiming at. I heard he was offered Vienna, but that
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  Speaker 6: may not be true.
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  Speaker 11: I don't think that England should be represented abroad by
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  Speaker 11: an unmarried man, Jane. It might lead to complications.
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  Speaker 6: You are too nervous, Caroline. Believe me, you are too nervous. Besides,
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  Speaker 6: Lord Dillingworth may marry any day. I was in hopes
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  Speaker 6: he would have married Lady Kelso, But I believe he
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  Speaker 6: said her family was too large, or was it her feet?
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  Speaker 6: I forget, which I regretted very much. She was made
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  Speaker 6: to be an ambassador's wife.
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  Speaker 11: She certainly has a wonderful faculty of remembering people's names
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  Speaker 11: and forgetting their faces.
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  Speaker 6: Well, that is very natural, Caroline. Is it not to
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  Speaker 6: Footman tell Henry to wait for an answer? I have
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  Speaker 6: written a line to your dear mother Gerald to tell
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  Speaker 6: her your good news and to say she really must
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  Speaker 6: come to dinner.
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  Speaker 1: Exit Footman.
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  Speaker 13: That is awfully kind of you. Lady hunstandon, Oh will
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  Speaker 13: you come for a stroll.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Worsley, with pleasure, exit with Gerald.
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  Speaker 6: I am very much gratified at Gerald Arbuthnut's good fortune.
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  Speaker 6: He is quite a protegee of mine, and I am
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  Speaker 6: particularly pleased that Lord Illingworth should have made the offer
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  Speaker 6: of his own accord without my suggesting anything. Nobody likes
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  Speaker 6: to be asked favors. I remember poor Charlotte Pagden making
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  Speaker 6: herself quite unpopular one season because she had a French
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  Speaker 6: governess she wanted to recommend to everyone.
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  Speaker 11: I saw the governess Jane. Lady Pagden sent her to me.
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  Speaker 11: It was before Eleanor was out. She was far too
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  Speaker 11: good looking to be in any respectable household. I don't
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  Speaker 11: wonder lady Pangdin was so anxious to get rid of her.
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  Speaker 6: Ah, that explains it.
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  Speaker 11: John, the grass is too damp for you. You had
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  Speaker 11: better go and put on your overshoes at once.
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  Speaker 2: I'm quite comfortable, Caroline. I assure you.
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  Speaker 11: You must allow me to be the best judge of that.
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  Speaker 5: John.
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  Speaker 1: Pray, do as I tell you, Sir, John gets up
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  Speaker 1: and goes off.
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  Speaker 6: You spoil him, Caroline, you do, indeed.
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  Speaker 1: Enter missus Allenby and Lady Stepfield.
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  Speaker 8: The Tree is a wonderful Lady Hunstanton.
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  Speaker 7: Quite quite wonderful.
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  Speaker 8: But somehow I feel sure that if I lived in
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  Speaker 8: the country for six months, I should become so unsophisticated
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  Speaker 8: that no one would take the slightest notice of me.
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  Speaker 6: I assure you, dear, that the country has not that
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  Speaker 6: effect at all. Why it was from Melthorpe, which is
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  Speaker 6: only two miles from here, that Lady Belton eloped with
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  Speaker 6: Lord Feathersdale. I remember the occurrence perfectly. Poor Lord Belton
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  Speaker 6: died three days afterwards of joy or gout, I forget which.
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  Speaker 6: We had a large party staying here at the time,
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  Speaker 6: so we were all very much interested in the whole affair.
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  Speaker 8: I think, to Elope is cowardly. It's running away from danger,
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  Speaker 8: and danger has become so rare in modern life.
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  Speaker 11: As far as I can make out, the young woman
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  Speaker 11: of the present day seem to make it the sole
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  Speaker 11: object of their lives to be always playing with fire.
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  Speaker 8: The one advantage of playing with fire, Lady Caroline, is
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  Speaker 8: that one never gets even singed. It is the people
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  Speaker 8: who don't know how to play with it who get
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  Speaker 8: burned up.
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  Speaker 7: Yes, I say that it is very very helpful.
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  Speaker 6: I don't know how the world would get on with
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  Speaker 6: such a theory as that, dear missus allenby.
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  Speaker 7: Ah, the world was made for men and not for women.
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  Speaker 8: Oh, don't say that, Lady Startfield. We have a much
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  Speaker 8: better time than they have. There are fire more things
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  Speaker 8: forbidden to us than are forbidden to them.
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  Speaker 7: Yes, that is quite quite true. I had not thought
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  Speaker 7: of that.
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  Speaker 1: Enter, sir John, and mister Kelville.
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  Speaker 6: Well, mister Kelville, have you got through your work?
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  Speaker 4: I have finished my writing for the day, Lady Hunstanton.
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  Speaker 4: It has been an arduous task. The demands on the
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  Speaker 4: time of a public man are very heavy nowadays, are
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  Speaker 4: very heavy, indeed, and I don't think they meet with
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  Speaker 4: that equate recognition.
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  Speaker 11: John, have you got your overshoes on? Yes, my love,
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  Speaker 11: I think you had better come over here, John, it
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  Speaker 11: is more sheltered.
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  Speaker 2: I am quite comfortable, Caroline.
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  Speaker 11: I think not, John, you had better sit beside me.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Sir John rises and goes across.
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  Speaker 7: And what have you been writing about this morning?
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  Speaker 13: Mister Kelville on the usual subject?
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: To Lady Stutfield on purity.
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  Speaker 7: That must be such a very very interesting thing to
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  Speaker 7: write about.
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  Speaker 4: It is the one subject of really national importance nowadays,
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  Speaker 4: Lady Stutfield, I propose addressing my constituents on the question
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  Speaker 4: before Parliament meets. I find that the poorer classes of
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  Speaker 4: this country display a man desire for a higher ethical standard.
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  Speaker 7: How quite quite nice of them?
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  Speaker 11: Are you in favor of women taking part in politics,
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  Speaker 11: mister Kettle Kelville.
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  Speaker 2: My love Kelville.
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  Speaker 4: The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing
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  Speaker 4: in our political life at Lady Caroline, women are always
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  Speaker 4: on the side of morality, public and private.
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  Speaker 7: It is so very, very gratifying to hear say that, ah, yes,
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  Speaker 7: the moral qualities and women, that is the important thing.
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  Speaker 6: I am afraid, Caroline, that dear Lord Illingworth doesn't value
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  Speaker 6: the moral qualities and women as much as he.
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  Speaker 1: Should integor at Illingworth.
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  Speaker 7: The world says that Lord Illingworth is very very wicked.
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  Speaker 14: But what world says that's, Lady Stutfield. It must be
• 11:58
  Speaker 14: the next world. This world and I they are on
• 12:00
  Speaker 14: excellent terms.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Sits down beside missus allenby.
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  Speaker 7: Everyone I know says you are very very wicked.
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  Speaker 14: It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays
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  Speaker 14: saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely
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  Speaker 14: and entirely true.
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  Speaker 6: Dear Lord Illingworth is quite hopeless, Lady Stutfield. I have
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  Speaker 6: given up trying to reform him. It would take a
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  Speaker 6: public company with a board of directors and a paid
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: secretary to do that. But you have the secretary already,
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: Lord Illingworth, haven't you. Gerald Arbatna has told us of
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  Speaker 6: his good fortune. It is really most kind of you.
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  Speaker 14: Oh, don't say that, Lady Hanstanton. Kind is a dreadful word.
• 12:43
  Speaker 14: I took a great fancy to younger bothnot the moment
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  Speaker 14: I met him, and he'll be of considerable use to
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  Speaker 14: me in something I am foolish enough to think of doing.
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  Speaker 6: He is an admirable young man, and his mother is
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: one of my dearest friends. He has just gone for
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: a walk with our pretty American. She is very pretty?
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  Speaker 11: Is she not far too pretty? These American girls carry
• 13:05
  Speaker 11: off all the good matches. Why can't they stay in
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  Speaker 11: their own country? They are always telling us it is
• 13:12
  Speaker 11: the paradise of women.
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  Speaker 14: It is, Lady Caroline. That is why, like Eve, they
• 13:17
  Speaker 14: are so extremely anxious to get out of it.
• 13:20
  Speaker 11: Who are Miss Worsley's parents?
• 13:22
  Speaker 14: American women are wonderfully clever and concealing their parents.
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  Speaker 6: My dear Lord Dillingworth, what do you mean, Miss Worsley,
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: Caroline is an orphan. Her father was a wealthy millionaire
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: or philanthropist or both. I believe who entertained my son
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: quite hospitably when he visited Boston. I don't know how
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: he made his money originally.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: I fancy in American dry goods.
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: What are American dry goods?
• 13:48
  Speaker 14: American novels?
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  Speaker 6: How very singular? Well, from whatever source her large fortune came.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: I have a great esteem for miss Worsley. She dresses
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: exceedingly well. All Americans do they get their clothes in Paris?
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  Speaker 8: They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die, they
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: go to Paris.
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: Indeed, and when bad Americans die, where do they go to?
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  Speaker 14: Oh, they go to America.
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  Speaker 4: I'm afraid you don't appreciate America, Law Dillingworth. It is
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: a very remarkable country, especially considering its youth.
• 14:23
  Speaker 14: The use of America is their oldest tradition. It has
• 14:27
  Speaker 14: been going on now for three hundred years. To hear
• 14:29
  Speaker 14: them talk, one would imagine they were in their first childhood.
• 14:33
  Speaker 14: As far as civilization goes, they are in their second.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: There is undoubtedly a great deal of corruption in American politics.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: I suppose you will aude to that.
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: I wonder politics are in a sad way everywhere. I
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: am told they certainly are in England. Dear mister Card,
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: you is ruining the country. I wonder missus card you
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: allowed him. I am sure, Lord Illingworth, you don't think
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: that uneducated people shou be allowed to have votes.
• 15:02
  Speaker 14: I think they are the only people who should do.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: You take no side than in modern politics, Law dilling Worth.
• 15:09
  Speaker 14: One should never take sides in anything, mister Kelville. Taking
• 15:13
  Speaker 14: sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards,
• 15:18
  Speaker 14: and the human being becomes a bore. However, the House
• 15:22
  Speaker 14: of Commons really does very little harm. You can't make
• 15:25
  Speaker 14: people good by act of parliament.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: That is something you cannot deny that the House of
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: Commons has always shown great sympathy with the sufferings of
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: the poor.
• 15:35
  Speaker 14: That is its special vice. That is the special vice
• 15:39
  Speaker 14: of the age. One should sympathize with the joy, the beauty,
• 15:42
  Speaker 14: the color of life. The less said about life sores,
• 15:46
  Speaker 14: the better, mister Kelville.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: Still, our East End is a very important problem.
• 15:52
  Speaker 14: Quite so. It is the problem of slavery, and we
• 15:55
  Speaker 14: are trying to solve it by amusing the slaves.
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: Certainly a great deal may be done by means of
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: cheap entertainments, as you say, Lord Illingworth, Dear Dr Daubeney,
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: our rector here provides, with the assistance of his curates,
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: really admirable recreations for the poor during the winter, And
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: much good may be done by means of a magic lantern,
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: or a missionary, or some popular amusement of that kind.
• 16:20
  Speaker 11: I am not at all in favor of amusements for
• 16:22
  Speaker 11: the poor. Jane, Blankets and colds are sufficient. There is
• 16:26
  Speaker 11: too much love of pleasure amongst the upper classes. As
• 16:29
  Speaker 11: it is. Health is what we want in modern life.
• 16:32
  Speaker 11: The tone is not healthy, not healthy at all.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: You are quite right, Lady Caroline.
• 16:38
  Speaker 11: I believe I am usually right.
• 16:41
  Speaker 14: Horrid word health silliest word in our language, and one
• 16:46
  Speaker 14: knows so well the popular idea of health the English
• 16:50
  Speaker 14: country gentleman galloping after a fox, the unspeakable, in full
• 16:55
  Speaker 14: pursuit of the uneatable.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: May I ask Lord Illingworth if you regard the House
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: of Laws is a better institution than the House of Commons.
• 17:04
  Speaker 14: A much better institution. Of course, we in the House
• 17:08
  Speaker 14: of Lords are never in touch with public opinion that
• 17:11
  Speaker 14: makes us a civilized body?
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Are you serious in putting forward sort of you?
• 17:18
  Speaker 14: Quite serious, mister Kelville to missus Allenby, vulgar habit that
• 17:23
  Speaker 14: his people have nowadays of asking one after one has
• 17:26
  Speaker 14: given them an idea whether one is serious or not.
• 17:29
  Speaker 14: Nothing is serious except passion. The intellect is not a
• 17:33
  Speaker 14: serious thing, and never has been. It is an instrument
• 17:36
  Speaker 14: on which one plays, that is all. The only serious
• 17:39
  Speaker 14: form of intellect I know is the British intellect, And
• 17:42
  Speaker 14: on the British intellect the illiterates play the drum.
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: What are you saying, Lord Illingworth, about the drum?
• 17:49
  Speaker 14: I was merely talking to missus Allenby about the leading
• 17:52
  Speaker 14: articles in the London newspapers.
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: But do you believe all that is written in the newspapers?
• 17:58
  Speaker 14: I do nowadays. It is only the unreadable that occurs.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Rises with missus Allenby.
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: Are you going, Missus Allenby, just as far as the conservatory.
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins, My.
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: Dear, I hope there is nothing of the kind. I
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: will certainly speak to the gardener.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Exit Missus Allenby and Lord Illingworth's remarkable type.
• 18:24
  Speaker 11: Missus Allenby.
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: She lets her clever tongue run away with her sometimes.
• 18:29
  Speaker 11: Is that the only thing Jane, Missus Allenby allows to
• 18:31
  Speaker 11: run away with her?
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: I hope, so, Caroline, I am sure.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Enter Lord Alfred. Lord Alfred sits down beside, Lady Stutfield.
• 18:40
  Speaker 11: You believe good in every one, Jane, it is a
• 18:43
  Speaker 11: great fault.
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: Do you really really think, Lady Caroline, that one should
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: believe evil of everyone?
• 18:49
  Speaker 11: I think it is much safer to do so, Lady Stutfield, until,
• 18:54
  Speaker 11: of course, people are found out to be good. But
• 18:56
  Speaker 11: that requires a great deal of investigation nowadays.
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: But there is so much unkind scandal in modern life.
• 19:03
  Speaker 11: Lord Illingworth remarked to me last night at dinner that
• 19:05
  Speaker 11: the basis of every scandal is an absolutely immoral certainty.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: Lord Ellingworth is, of course a very brilliant man, but
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: he seems to me to be lacking in that fine
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: faith in the nobility and purity of life which is
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: so important in this sanctuary.
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: Yes, quite quite important, is it not.
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: He gives me the impression of a man who does
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: not appreciate the beauty of our English home life. I
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: will say that he was tainted with foreign ideas on
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: the subject.
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: There is nothing nothing like the beauty of home life
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: is there.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: It is the mainstay of our moral system in England,
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: Lady Stutfield. Without it, we will become like our neighbors.
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: That would be so so sad, would it not.
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: I'm afraid too that Lord Ellingworth regards women simply as
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: a toy. Now I have never regarded women as a toy.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: Woman is the intellect which will help meet of man
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: in public as in private life. Without her, we should
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: forget the true ideals.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Sits down beside, Lady Stetfield.
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: I am so very very glad to hear you say
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: that you are married man, mister Kettle Kelville.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: Dear Kelville, I am married, Lady Caroline family.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, how many eight? Lady Stetfield turns her attention to
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: urd Alfred.
• 20:29
  Speaker 11: Missus Kettle and the children are I suppose at the.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Seaside, Sir John shrugs his shoulders.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: My wife is not the seaside with the children. Not
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: a Lady Caroline.
• 20:40
  Speaker 11: You will join them later on, no doubt.
• 20:42
  Speaker 15: If my public engagements permit me, Your public life must
• 20:47
  Speaker 15: be a great source of gratification to missus Kettle Kelville,
• 20:51
  Speaker 15: my love Kelville.
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: To Urt Alfred, how very very charming those cultives cigarettes
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: of yours are, Lord Alfred.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: They are awfully expensive. I can only afford them when
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: I'm in debt.
• 21:04
  Speaker 7: It must be terribly, terribly distressing to be in debt.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: One must have some occupation nowadays. If I hadn't my debts,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: I shouldn't have anything to think about. All the chaps
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: I know are in debt.
• 21:16
  Speaker 7: But don't the people to whom you owe the money
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: give you a great great deal of annoyance.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And your footmen, Oh no, they write, I don't.
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: How very very strange.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: Ah. Here is a letter Caroline from dear missus Arthnut.
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: She won't dine. I am so sorry, but she will
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: come in the evening. I am very pleased. Indeed, she
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: is one of the sweetest of women. Writes a beautiful
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: hand too so large, so firm.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Hand's letter to Lady Caroline. Looking at it, a.
• 21:47
  Speaker 11: Little lacking in femininity, Jane. Femininity is the quality I
• 21:51
  Speaker 11: admire most in women.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Taking back letter and leaving it on table.
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: Oh she is very feminine, Caroline, and so good. Two
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: you should hear what the archdeacon says of her. He
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: regards her as his right hand in.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: The parish footman speaks to her.
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: In the yellow drawing room. Shall we all go in,
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: Lady Stutfield, Shall we go into tea with pleasure, Lady
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: huns Danton.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: They rise and proceed to go off. Sir John offers
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: to carry Lady Stutfield's cook.
• 22:20
  Speaker 11: John, if you would allow your nephew to look after
• 22:23
  Speaker 11: Lady Stutfield's cloak, you might help me.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: With my work basket entry, Lord Illingworth and missus Allenby.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Certainly my love, excellent curious thing.
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: Plain women are always jealous of their husband's Beautiful women.
• 22:39
  Speaker 14: Never are beautiful women never have time. They are always
• 22:44
  Speaker 14: so occupied in being jealous of other people's husbands.
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: I should have thought Lady Caroline would have grown tired
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: of conjugal anxiety by this time. Sir John is her fourth.
• 22:56
  Speaker 14: So much marriage is certainly not becoming. Twenty of romance
• 23:01
  Speaker 14: make a woman look like a ruin, But twenty years
• 23:04
  Speaker 14: of marriage make her something like a public building.
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: Twenty years of romance is there such a thing?
• 23:12
  Speaker 12: Not?
• 23:12
  Speaker 14: In our day women have become too brilliant. Nothing spoils
• 23:17
  Speaker 14: a romance so much as a sense of humor in
• 23:19
  Speaker 14: the woman or.
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: The want of it in the man.
• 23:23
  Speaker 14: You are quite right. In a temple, everyone should be
• 23:26
  Speaker 14: serious except the thing that is.
• 23:28
  Speaker 8: Worshiped, and that should be man.
• 23:31
  Speaker 14: Women kneel so gracefully.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Men.
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: Don't you are thinking of Lady Stuntfield.
• 23:38
  Speaker 14: I assure you that I have not thought of Lady
• 23:41
  Speaker 14: Stutfield in the last quarter of an hour.
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: Is she such a mystery?
• 23:45
  Speaker 14: She is more than a mystery. She is a mood.
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: Moods don't last.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: It is their chief charm and your hester and geral
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Lord Livingworth.
• 23:56
  Speaker 13: Everyone has been congratulating me, Lady Hanstanton, Lady Carroll, Come everyone.
• 24:02
  Speaker 13: I hope I shall make a good secretary.
• 24:06
  Speaker 14: You will be the pattern secretary Gerald talks to him.
• 24:10
  Speaker 8: You enjoy country life, Miss Worsley.
• 24:13
  Speaker 12: Very much. Indeed, don't you.
• 24:15
  Speaker 8: Find yourself longing for a London dinner party.
• 24:19
  Speaker 12: I dislike London dinner parties.
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: I adore them. The clever people never listen, and the
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: stupid people never talk.
• 24:28
  Speaker 12: I think the stupid people talk a great deal.
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: Ah, I never listen, my dear boy.
• 24:36
  Speaker 14: If I didn't like you, I wouldn't have made you
• 24:38
  Speaker 14: the offer. It is because I like you so much
• 24:40
  Speaker 14: that I want to have you with me.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Exit Hester with Gerald.
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: He is very nice, very nice indeed. But I can't
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: stand the American young lady. Why she told me yesterday,
• 24:54
  Speaker 8: and in quite a loud voice too, that she was
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: only eighteen. It was annoying.
• 25:01
  Speaker 14: One should never trust a woman who tells one her
• 25:03
  Speaker 14: real age, a woman who would tell one that would
• 25:07
  Speaker 14: tell one anything.
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: She is a Puritan.
• 25:10
  Speaker 14: Besides, ah, that is inexcusable. I don't mind plain women
• 25:15
  Speaker 14: being Puritans. It is the only excuse they have for
• 25:18
  Speaker 14: being plain. But she is decidedly pretty. I admire her immensely.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Look steadfastly at missus Allenby What.
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: A thoroughly bad man you must be.
• 25:29
  Speaker 14: What do you call a bad man?
• 25:31
  Speaker 8: The sort of man who admires innocence And a bad woman, Oh,
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: the sort of woman a man never gets tired of.
• 25:40
  Speaker 14: You are severe on yourself.
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: Define us as a sex.
• 25:45
  Speaker 14: Sphinxes without secrets?
• 25:48
  Speaker 8: Does that include the Puritan women?
• 25:51
  Speaker 14: Do you know? I don't believe in the existence of
• 25:54
  Speaker 14: Puritan women. I don't think there is a woman in
• 25:56
  Speaker 14: the world who would not be a little flattered if
• 25:59
  Speaker 14: one to her. It is that which makes a woman
• 26:03
  Speaker 14: so irresistibly adorable.
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: You think there is no woman in the world who
• 26:07
  Speaker 8: would object to being kissed. Very few Miss Worsley would
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: not let you kiss her? Are you sure quite?
• 26:17
  Speaker 14: What do you think she'd do if I kissed her?
• 26:19
  Speaker 8: Either marry you or strike you across the face with
• 26:23
  Speaker 8: her glove? What would you do if she struck you
• 26:26
  Speaker 8: across the face with her glove?
• 26:29
  Speaker 14: Fall in love with her? Probably?
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: Then it is lucky you are not going to kiss her.
• 26:34
  Speaker 14: Is that a challenge?
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: It is an arrow shot into the air.
• 26:39
  Speaker 14: Don't you know that I always succeed in whatever I try.
• 26:43
  Speaker 8: I am sorry to hear it. We women adore failures.
• 26:47
  Speaker 8: They lean on us.
• 26:49
  Speaker 14: You worship successes. You cling to them.
• 26:52
  Speaker 8: We are the laurels to hide their baldness.
• 26:56
  Speaker 14: And they need you always, except at the moment of triumph.
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: They are uninteresting. Then, how tantalizing you are, Lord Illingworth.
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: There is one thing. I shall always like you.
• 27:09
  Speaker 14: For only one thing. And I have so many bad qualities.
• 27:15
  Speaker 8: Ah, don't be too conceited about them. You may lose
• 27:18
  Speaker 8: them as you grow old.
• 27:19
  Speaker 14: I never intend to grow old. The soul is born
• 27:22
  Speaker 14: old but grows young. That is the comedy of life.
• 27:26
  Speaker 8: And the body is born young and grows old. That
• 27:30
  Speaker 8: is life's tragedy.
• 27:32
  Speaker 14: It's comedy also sometimes. But what is the mysterious reason
• 27:36
  Speaker 14: why you will always like me?
• 27:39
  Speaker 8: It is that you have never made love to me.
• 27:42
  Speaker 14: I have never done anything else.
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: Really, I have not noticed it.
• 27:46
  Speaker 14: How fortunate it might have been a tragedy for both of.
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: Us, we should each have survived.
• 27:53
  Speaker 14: One can survive everything nowadays except death, and live down
• 27:58
  Speaker 14: anything except a good death reputation.
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: Have you tried a good reputation?
• 28:04
  Speaker 14: It is one of the many annoyances to which I
• 28:06
  Speaker 14: have never been subjected.
• 28:08
  Speaker 8: It may come.
• 28:10
  Speaker 14: Why do you threaten me?
• 28:12
  Speaker 8: I will tell you when you have kissed the puritan
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: enterr footman.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Tea is served in the yellow drawing room.
• 28:20
  Speaker 14: My Lord tell her, ladyship, we are coming in. Yes,
• 28:24
  Speaker 14: my lord exit, Shall we go into tea?
• 28:27
  Speaker 8: Do you like such simple pleasures?
• 28:30
  Speaker 14: I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of
• 28:34
  Speaker 14: the complex. But if you wish, let us stay here, Yes,
• 28:38
  Speaker 14: let us stay here. The book of Life begins with
• 28:41
  Speaker 14: a man and a woman in a garden.
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: It ends with revelations.
• 28:47
  Speaker 14: You fence divinely, but the button has come off your foil.
• 28:51
  Speaker 8: I have still the mask.
• 28:53
  Speaker 14: It makes your eyes lovelier.
• 28:56
  Speaker 8: Thank you. Come.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Sees Missus ar both Nut's letter on table and takes
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: it up and looks at envelope.
• 29:04
  Speaker 14: What a curious handwriting. It reminds me of the handwriting
• 29:08
  Speaker 14: of a woman I used to know years ago. Who oh,
• 29:12
  Speaker 14: no one, no one in particular, a woman of no importance.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Throws letter down and passes up the stairs of the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: terrace with Missus Allenby. They smile at each other. Act
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: drop end A first act, second act of a Woman
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of No Importance by Oscar Wilde. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Second act,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the drawing room of Hunston Chase, after dinner, lamps lit,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: door left of center, door right of center, Ladies seated
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: on sofa.
• 30:05
  Speaker 8: What a comfort it is to have got rid of
• 30:07
  Speaker 8: the men for a little.
• 30:08
  Speaker 7: Yes, men persecute us dreadfully, don't they persecute us?
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: I wish they did, my dear. The annoying thing is
• 30:17
  Speaker 8: that the wretches can be perfectly happy without us. That
• 30:21
  Speaker 8: is why I think it is every woman's duty never
• 30:24
  Speaker 8: to leave them alone for a single moment, except during
• 30:27
  Speaker 8: this short breathing space after dinner, without which I believe
• 30:32
  Speaker 8: we poor women would be absolutely worn to shadows.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Enter servants with coffee worn to shadows.
• 30:39
  Speaker 8: Dear, yes, Lady Hunstanton. It is such a strain keeping
• 30:44
  Speaker 8: men up to the mark. They are always trying to
• 30:47
  Speaker 8: escape from us.
• 30:49
  Speaker 7: It seems to me that it is we who are
• 30:50
  Speaker 7: always trying to escape from them. Men are so very,
• 30:53
  Speaker 7: very heartless. They know their power and use it.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline takes coffee from servant.
• 30:59
  Speaker 11: What's stuff and nonsense? All this about men is the
• 31:03
  Speaker 11: thing to do is keep men in their proper place.
• 31:06
  Speaker 8: But what is their proper place, Lady Caroline.
• 31:09
  Speaker 11: Looking after their wives?
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Missus Allenby, Missus Allenby takes coffee from servant.
• 31:15
  Speaker 8: Really, and if they're not married, if they are not married,
• 31:20
  Speaker 8: they should be looking after a wife.
• 31:22
  Speaker 11: It's perfectly scandalous the amount of bachelors who are going
• 31:25
  Speaker 11: about society. There should be a law pass to compel
• 31:29
  Speaker 11: them all to marry within twelve months.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Lady Stutfield refuses coffee.
• 31:34
  Speaker 7: But if they're in love with someone who perhaps is
• 31:37
  Speaker 7: tied to another.
• 31:39
  Speaker 11: In that case, Lady Stutfields, they should be married off
• 31:42
  Speaker 11: in a week to some plain, respectable girl in order
• 31:46
  Speaker 11: to teach them not to meddle with other people's property.
• 31:49
  Speaker 8: I don't think that we should ever be spoken of
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: as other people's property. All men are married women's property.
• 31:57
  Speaker 8: That is the only true definition of what married women's
• 32:00
  Speaker 8: property really is. But we don't belong to any one.
• 32:04
  Speaker 7: Oh. I am so very very glad to hear you
• 32:06
  Speaker 7: say so.
• 32:07
  Speaker 6: But do you really think, dear Caroline, that legislation would
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: improve matters in any way? I am told that nowadays
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: all the married men lived like bachelors, and all the
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: bachelors like married men.
• 32:18
  Speaker 8: I certainly never know one from the other.
• 32:21
  Speaker 7: Oh, I think one can always know at once whether
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: a man has home claims upon his life or not.
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: I have noticed a very very sad expression in the
• 32:27
  Speaker 7: eyes of so many married men.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Ah.
• 32:30
  Speaker 8: All that I have noticed is that they are horribly
• 32:33
  Speaker 8: tedious when they are good husbands, and abominably conceited when
• 32:37
  Speaker 8: they are not well.
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: I suppose the type of husband has completely changed since
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: my young days. But I am bound to state that
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: poor dear Hunstanton was the most delightful of creatures and
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: as good as gold.
• 32:49
  Speaker 8: Ah. My husband is a sort of promisory note. I'm
• 32:53
  Speaker 8: tired of meeting him.
• 32:54
  Speaker 11: But you renew him from time to time, don't you.
• 32:57
  Speaker 8: Oh, No, lady Caroline, I've only had one husband as yet.
• 33:02
  Speaker 8: I suppose you look upon me is quite an amateur.
• 33:05
  Speaker 11: With your views on life, I wonder you married at.
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: All, So do I, my dear child. I believe you
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: are really very happy in your married life, but that
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: you like to hide your happiness from others.
• 33:17
  Speaker 8: I assure you I was horribly deceived in Earnest.
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: Oh, I hope not, dear. I knew his mother quite well.
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: She was a Stratton, Caroline, of one of Lord Crowlin's daughters.
• 33:28
  Speaker 11: Victorious Stratton. I remember her perfectly, a silly, fair haired
• 33:33
  Speaker 11: woman with no chin.
• 33:35
  Speaker 8: Ah, Earnest has a chin. He has a very strong chin,
• 33:39
  Speaker 8: a square chin. Ernest's chin is far too square.
• 33:44
  Speaker 7: But do you really think a man's chin can be
• 33:46
  Speaker 7: too square? I think a man should look very very strong,
• 33:49
  Speaker 7: and that his chin should be quite quite square.
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: Then you should certainly no earnest, Lady Stutfield, it is
• 33:55
  Speaker 8: only fair to tell you beforehand he has got no
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: conversation at all.
• 33:59
  Speaker 7: I adore silent men.
• 34:01
  Speaker 8: Oh, Ernest isn't silent. He talks the whole time, but
• 34:05
  Speaker 8: he has got no conversation. What he talks about. I
• 34:09
  Speaker 8: don't know. I haven't listened to him for years.
• 34:12
  Speaker 7: Have you never forgiven him?
• 34:13
  Speaker 10: Then?
• 34:14
  Speaker 7: How sad that seems? But all life is very very sad.
• 34:17
  Speaker 14: Is it not?
• 34:18
  Speaker 8: Life, Lady Stutfield, is simply a mauvais cordeum made of
• 34:22
  Speaker 8: exquisite moments.
• 34:24
  Speaker 7: Yes, there are moments, certainly. But was it something very
• 34:27
  Speaker 7: very wrong that mister Allenby did. Did he become angry
• 34:30
  Speaker 7: with you and say anything that was unkind or true?
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 34:33
  Speaker 8: Dear, No, Ernest is invariably calm. That is one of
• 34:38
  Speaker 8: the reasons he always gets on my nerves. Nothing is
• 34:42
  Speaker 8: so aggravating as calmness. There is something positively brutal about
• 34:46
  Speaker 8: the good temper of most modern men. I wonder we
• 34:50
  Speaker 8: women stand it as well as we do.
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: Yes, men's good temper shows that they are not so
• 34:54
  Speaker 7: sensitive as we are, not so finely strung. It makes
• 34:57
  Speaker 7: a great barrier often between husband and wife does it not?
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: But I would so much like to know what was
• 35:02
  Speaker 7: the wrong thing mister Allenby did well.
• 35:05
  Speaker 8: I will tell you if you solemnly promise to tell
• 35:08
  Speaker 8: everybody else.
• 35:10
  Speaker 7: Thank you, thank you. I will make a point of
• 35:11
  Speaker 7: repeating it.
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: When Ernest and I were engaged, he swore to me,
• 35:16
  Speaker 8: positively on his knees, that he had never loved any
• 35:18
  Speaker 8: one before in the whole course of his life. I
• 35:22
  Speaker 8: was very young at the time, so I didn't believe him.
• 35:24
  Speaker 8: I needn't tell you. Unfortunately, however, I made no enquiries
• 35:28
  Speaker 8: of any kind till after I had been actually married
• 35:31
  Speaker 8: four or five months. I found out then that what
• 35:34
  Speaker 8: he had told me was perfectly true. And that sort
• 35:38
  Speaker 8: of thing makes a man so absolutely uninteresting. My dear
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: men always want to be a woman's first love. That
• 35:47
  Speaker 8: is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle
• 35:50
  Speaker 8: instinct about things. What we like is to be a
• 35:54
  Speaker 8: man's last romance.
• 35:57
  Speaker 7: I see what you mean.
• 35:58
  Speaker 6: It's very, very beautiful, my dear child. You don't mean
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: to tell me that you won't forgive your husband because
• 36:04
  Speaker 6: he never loved any one else. Did you ever hear
• 36:07
  Speaker 6: such a thing? Caroline I am quite surprised.
• 36:10
  Speaker 11: Oh, women have become so highly educated, Jane, that nothing
• 36:14
  Speaker 11: should surprise us nowadays except happy marriages. They apparently are
• 36:19
  Speaker 11: getting remarkably rare.
• 36:21
  Speaker 8: Oh, they're quite out of date, except among the middle classes.
• 36:24
  Speaker 8: I have been told, how like the middle classes?
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: Yes, is it not very very like them?
• 36:31
  Speaker 11: If what you tell us about the middle classes as true,
• 36:34
  Speaker 11: Lady Stutfield, it redounds greatly to their credit. It is
• 36:39
  Speaker 11: much to be regretted that in our rank of life,
• 36:41
  Speaker 11: the wife should be so persistently frivolous, under the impression
• 36:45
  Speaker 11: apparently that it is the proper thing to be. It
• 36:48
  Speaker 11: is to that I attribute to the unhappiness of so
• 36:51
  Speaker 11: many marriages we all know of in society.
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: Do you know, Lady Caroline, I don't think the frivolity
• 36:57
  Speaker 8: of the wife has ever anything to do with it.
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: More marriages are ruined nowadays by the common sense of
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: the husband than anything else. How can a woman be
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: expected to be happy with a man who insists on
• 37:08
  Speaker 8: treating her as if she were a perfectly rational being?
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: My dear man, poor, awkward, reliable, necessary man, belongs to
• 37:17
  Speaker 8: a sex that has been rational for millions and millions
• 37:20
  Speaker 8: of years. He can't help himself. It is in his race.
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: The history of woman is very different. We have always
• 37:28
  Speaker 8: been picturesque protests against the mere existence of common sense.
• 37:32
  Speaker 8: We saw its dangers from the first.
• 37:35
  Speaker 7: Yes, the common sense of husband's is certainly most most trying.
• 37:38
  Speaker 7: Do tell me your conception of the ideal husband. I
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: think it would be so very, very helpful.
• 37:43
  Speaker 8: The ideal husband. There couldn't be such a thing. The
• 37:48
  Speaker 8: institution is wrong.
• 37:50
  Speaker 7: The ideal man, then, in his relations to us, he
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: would probably.
• 37:54
  Speaker 11: Be extremely realistic.
• 37:56
  Speaker 8: The ideal man. Oh, the ideal man should talk to
• 38:00
  Speaker 8: us as if we were goddesses and treat us as
• 38:03
  Speaker 8: if we were children. He should refuse all our serious
• 38:07
  Speaker 8: requests and gratify every one of our whims. He should
• 38:13
  Speaker 8: encourage us to have caprices and forbid us to have missions.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: He should always say much more than he means, and
• 38:22
  Speaker 8: always mean much more than he says.
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: But how could he do both? Dear?
• 38:28
  Speaker 8: He should never run down other pretty women that would
• 38:32
  Speaker 8: show he had no taste, or make one suspect that
• 38:35
  Speaker 8: he had too much. No, he should be nice about
• 38:39
  Speaker 8: them all, but say that somehow they don't attract him.
• 38:43
  Speaker 7: Yes, that is always very very pleasant to hear about
• 38:45
  Speaker 7: other women.
• 38:46
  Speaker 8: If we ask him a question about anything, he should
• 38:49
  Speaker 8: give us an answer all about ourselves. He should invariably
• 38:53
  Speaker 8: praise us for whatever qualities he knows we haven't got.
• 38:56
  Speaker 8: But he should be pitiless, quite pitiless, in reproach for
• 39:00
  Speaker 8: the virtues that we have never dreamed of possessing. He
• 39:03
  Speaker 8: should never believe that we know the use of useful
• 39:06
  Speaker 8: things that would be unforgivable. But he should shower on
• 39:10
  Speaker 8: us everything we don't want.
• 39:12
  Speaker 11: As far as I can see, he is to do
• 39:14
  Speaker 11: nothing but pay bills and compliments.
• 39:16
  Speaker 8: He should persistently compromise us in public, and treat us
• 39:20
  Speaker 8: with absolute respect when we are alone. And yet he
• 39:23
  Speaker 8: should always be ready to have a perfectly terrible scene
• 39:27
  Speaker 8: whenever we want one, and to become miserable, absolutely miserable,
• 39:31
  Speaker 8: at a moment's notice, and to overwhelm us with just
• 39:34
  Speaker 8: reproaches in less than twenty minutes, and to be positively
• 39:38
  Speaker 8: violent at the end of half an hour, and to
• 39:40
  Speaker 8: leave us forever at quarter to eight, when we have
• 39:43
  Speaker 8: to go and dress for dinner, and when after that
• 39:46
  Speaker 8: one has seen him for really the last time, and
• 39:49
  Speaker 8: he has refused to take back the little things he
• 39:51
  Speaker 8: has given one, and promise never to communicate with one again,
• 39:54
  Speaker 8: or to write one any foolish letters. He should be
• 39:57
  Speaker 8: perfectly broken hearted and telegraph to one all day long,
• 40:02
  Speaker 8: and send one little notes every half an hour by
• 40:04
  Speaker 8: a private hansom, and dine quite alone at the club,
• 40:08
  Speaker 8: so that every one should know how unhappy he was.
• 40:11
  Speaker 8: And after a whole dreadful week during which one has
• 40:14
  Speaker 8: gone about everywhere with one's husband, just to show how
• 40:17
  Speaker 8: absolutely lonely one was, he may be given a third,
• 40:20
  Speaker 8: last parting in the evening. And then if his conduct
• 40:24
  Speaker 8: has been quite irreproachable, and one has behaved really badly
• 40:28
  Speaker 8: to him, he should be allowed to admit that he
• 40:30
  Speaker 8: has been entirely in the wrong. And when he has
• 40:32
  Speaker 8: admitted that, it becomes a woman's duty to forgive, and
• 40:36
  Speaker 8: one can do it all over again from the beginning,
• 40:38
  Speaker 8: with variations, how.
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: Clever you are, my dear, You never mean a single
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: word you say.
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: Thank you, thank you. It has been quite quite entrancing.
• 40:48
  Speaker 7: I must try and remember it all. There are such
• 40:50
  Speaker 7: a number of details that are so very very important.
• 40:52
  Speaker 11: But you have not told us yet what the reward
• 40:55
  Speaker 11: of the ideal man is to.
• 40:56
  Speaker 8: Be his reward. Oh, infinite expectation. That is quite enough
• 41:04
  Speaker 8: for him.
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: But men are so terribly terribly exacting.
• 41:07
  Speaker 8: Are they not? That makes no matter. One should never surrender,
• 41:12
  Speaker 8: not even to the ideal man, certainly not to him, unless,
• 41:16
  Speaker 8: of course, one wants to go tired of him.
• 41:19
  Speaker 7: Oh, yes, I see that. It is very very helpful.
• 41:22
  Speaker 7: Do you think, Missus Allenby, that I shall ever meet
• 41:24
  Speaker 7: the ideal man? Or are they more than one?
• 41:27
  Speaker 8: There are just four in London. Lady Stutfield, Oh, my
• 41:31
  Speaker 8: dear missus Allenby.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Going over to her, what has happened?
• 41:36
  Speaker 8: Do tell me?
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: I had completely forgotten that the American young lady has
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: been in the room all the time. I am afraid
• 41:42
  Speaker 6: some of this clever talk may have shocked her a little.
• 41:45
  Speaker 8: Ah, that will do her so much good.
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: Let us hope she didn't understand much. I think I
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: had better go over and talk to her.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Rises and goes across to Hester Worseley.
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: Well, dear miss Worsley.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Sitting down beside, how quiet you have been.
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: In your nice little corner all this time? I suppose
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: you have been reading a book. There are so many
• 42:07
  Speaker 6: books here in the library.
• 42:09
  Speaker 12: No I have been listening to the conversation.
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: You mustn't believe everything that was said, you know, Dear.
• 42:15
  Speaker 12: I don't believe any of it.
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: That is quite right, Dear, I.
• 42:19
  Speaker 12: Couldn't believe that any woman could really hold such views
• 42:22
  Speaker 12: of life as I have heard tonight from some of
• 42:25
  Speaker 12: your guests.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: An awkward pause.
• 42:27
  Speaker 6: I hear you have such pleasant society in America.
• 42:31
  Speaker 12: There are cliques in America as elsewhere, Lady Hunstanton. But
• 42:35
  Speaker 12: true American society consists simply of all the good women
• 42:38
  Speaker 12: and good men we have in our country.
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: What a sensible system, and I dare say quite pleasant too.
• 42:45
  Speaker 6: I am afraid in England we have too many artificial
• 42:48
  Speaker 6: social barriers. We don't see as much as we should
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: of the middle and lower classes.
• 42:52
  Speaker 12: In America we have no lower classes.
• 42:56
  Speaker 6: Really, what a very strange arrangement.
• 42:59
  Speaker 8: What is that dreadful girl talking about?
• 43:02
  Speaker 7: She is painfully natural, is she not?
• 43:04
  Speaker 11: There are a great many things you haven't got in America,
• 43:08
  Speaker 11: I am told Miss Worsley. They say you have no
• 43:11
  Speaker 11: ruins and no curiosities.
• 43:13
  Speaker 8: What nonsense. They have their mothers and their manners.
• 43:18
  Speaker 12: The English aristocracy supply us with our curiosities. Lady Caroline.
• 43:23
  Speaker 12: They are sent over to us every summer, regularly in
• 43:26
  Speaker 12: the steamers, and proposed to us the day after they land.
• 43:30
  Speaker 12: As for ruins, we are trying to build up something
• 43:33
  Speaker 12: that will last longer than brick or stone.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Gets up to take her fan from table.
• 43:39
  Speaker 6: What is that, dear ah? Yes? An iron exhibition?
• 43:42
  Speaker 10: Is it not?
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: At that place that has the curious name Hester?
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Standing by table?
• 43:47
  Speaker 12: We are trying to build up life, Lady Hunstanton, on
• 43:51
  Speaker 12: a better, truer, purer basis than life rests on here.
• 43:55
  Speaker 12: This sounds strange to you all, no doubt. How could
• 43:59
  Speaker 12: it sound other than strange? You rich people in England,
• 44:03
  Speaker 12: you don't know how you are living. How could you know?
• 44:07
  Speaker 12: You shut out from your society, the gentle and the good.
• 44:11
  Speaker 12: You laugh at the simple and the pure, living as
• 44:14
  Speaker 12: you all do on others, and by them you sneer
• 44:17
  Speaker 12: it self sacrifice, And if you throw bread to the poor,
• 44:21
  Speaker 12: it is merely to keep them quiet for a season.
• 44:24
  Speaker 12: With all your pomp and wealth and art, you don't
• 44:27
  Speaker 12: know how to live. You don't even know that you
• 44:31
  Speaker 12: love the beauty that you can see and touch and handle,
• 44:35
  Speaker 12: the beauty that you can destroy and do destroy but
• 44:38
  Speaker 12: of the unseen beauty of life, of the unseen beauty
• 44:42
  Speaker 12: of a higher life. You know nothing. You have lost
• 44:45
  Speaker 12: life's secret. Oh, your English society seems to me shallow, selfish, foolish.
• 44:52
  Speaker 12: It has blinded its eyes and stopped its ears. It
• 44:56
  Speaker 12: lies like a leper in purple. It sits like a
• 44:59
  Speaker 12: dead thing smeared with gold. It is all wrong, all wrong.
• 45:04
  Speaker 7: I don't think what to know of these things. It's
• 45:06
  Speaker 7: not very very nice, is.
• 45:07
  Speaker 6: It, My dear miss Worsley. I thought you liked English
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: society so much, you were such a success in it,
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: and you were so much admired by the best people.
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: I quite forget what Lord Henry Weston said of you,
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: but it was most complimentary. And you know what an
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: authority he is on beauty.
• 45:24
  Speaker 12: Lord Henry Weston, I remember him, Lady Hanstanton. A man
• 45:29
  Speaker 12: with a hideous smile and a hideous past. He is
• 45:32
  Speaker 12: asked everywhere. No dinner party is complete without him. What
• 45:37
  Speaker 12: of those whose ruin is due to him? They are outcasts,
• 45:41
  Speaker 12: they are nameless. If you met them in the street,
• 45:44
  Speaker 12: you would turn your head away. I don't complain of
• 45:47
  Speaker 12: their punishment. Let all women who have sinned be punished.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet entered some terrorists behind in a cloak with
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: a lace veil over her head. She hears the last
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: words and starts.
• 46:00
  Speaker 12: My dear young lady, it is right that they should
• 46:03
  Speaker 12: be punished, but don't let them be the only ones
• 46:06
  Speaker 12: to suffer. If a man and woman have sinned, let
• 46:09
  Speaker 12: them both go forth into the desert to love or
• 46:12
  Speaker 12: loathe each other.
• 46:13
  Speaker 11: There.
• 46:14
  Speaker 12: Let them both be branded, set a mark if you
• 46:17
  Speaker 12: wish on each, but don't punish the one and let
• 46:20
  Speaker 12: the other go free. Don't have one law for men
• 46:24
  Speaker 12: and another for women. You are unjust to the women
• 46:27
  Speaker 12: in England. Until you count what is a shame in
• 46:30
  Speaker 12: a woman to be an infamy in a man, you
• 46:33
  Speaker 12: will always be unjust and right. That pillar of fire
• 46:37
  Speaker 12: and wrong, that pillar of cloud will be made dim
• 46:41
  Speaker 12: to your eyes, or be not seen at all, or
• 46:44
  Speaker 12: if seen, not regarded.
• 46:46
  Speaker 11: Might I, dear miss Wesley, as you are standing up,
• 46:49
  Speaker 11: ask you for my cotton that is just behind you.
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: Thank you, my dear missus Arbuthnut. I am so pleased
• 46:57
  Speaker 6: you have come up. But I didn't hear you announced.
• 47:00
  Speaker 8: Oh, I came straight in from the terrace. Lady Hunstonton,
• 47:03
  Speaker 8: just as I was. You didn't tell me you had
• 47:05
  Speaker 8: a party, not a party.
• 47:07
  Speaker 6: Only a few guests who are staying in the house,
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: and whom you must know. Allow me tries to help
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: her rings Bell Caroline. This is Missus Arbuthnut, one of
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: my sweetest friends, Lady Caroline Pontefract, Lady Stutfield, Missus Allenby,
• 47:23
  Speaker 6: and my young American friend, Miss Worsley, who has just
• 47:26
  Speaker 6: been telling us all how wicked we are.
• 47:28
  Speaker 12: I am afraid you think I spoke too strongly, Lady Hunstanton,
• 47:32
  Speaker 12: but there are some things in England.
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: My dear young lady. There was a great deal of
• 47:37
  Speaker 6: truth I dare say in what you said, and you
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: looked very pretty while you said it, which is much
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: more important. Lord Dillingworth would tell us. The only point
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: where I thought you were a little hard was about
• 47:48
  Speaker 6: Lady Caroline's brother, about poor Lord Henry. He really is
• 47:52
  Speaker 6: such good company.
• 47:53
  Speaker 12: Lady Caroline. I had no idea it was your brother.
• 47:57
  Speaker 12: I am sorry for the pain I must have caused.
• 48:00
  Speaker 11: I my dear miss Wesley. The only part of your
• 48:04
  Speaker 11: little speech, if I may so termid, with which I
• 48:07
  Speaker 11: thoroughly agreed, was the part about my brother. Nothing that
• 48:11
  Speaker 11: you could possibly say could be too bad for him.
• 48:15
  Speaker 11: I regard Henry as infamous, absolutely infamous. But I am
• 48:19
  Speaker 11: bound to state, as you were remarking Jane, that he
• 48:22
  Speaker 11: is excellent company and he has one of the best
• 48:25
  Speaker 11: cooks in London. And after a good dinner, one can
• 48:27
  Speaker 11: forgive anybody, even one's own relations.
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: Now do come, dear and make friends with Missus Arbuthnut.
• 48:34
  Speaker 6: She is one of the good, sweet, simple people. You
• 48:37
  Speaker 6: told us we never admitted into society. I am sorry
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: to say, Missus Arbuthnut comes very rarely to me, but
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: that is not my fault.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Ah.
• 48:45
  Speaker 8: What a bore it is the men staying so long
• 48:47
  Speaker 8: after dinner. I expect they are saying the most dreadful
• 48:50
  Speaker 8: things about us.
• 48:52
  Speaker 7: Do you really think so? I was sure of it,
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: How very very horrid of them. Shall we go on
• 48:57
  Speaker 7: to the terrace.
• 48:59
  Speaker 8: Oh, anything to get away from the Dowagers and the Dowdies.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Rises and goes with Lady Stetfield to door left of center.
• 49:07
  Speaker 8: We are only going to look at the stars, Lady Hunstanton.
• 49:10
  Speaker 6: You will find a great many, dear, a great many,
• 49:12
  Speaker 6: but don't catch cold. We shall all Miss Gerald so much,
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: dear missus Arbuthnut.
• 49:17
  Speaker 10: But has Lord Illingworth really offered to make Gerald the secretary?
• 49:21
  Speaker 11: Oh?
• 49:22
  Speaker 6: Yes, he has been most charming about it. He has
• 49:25
  Speaker 6: the highest possible opinion of your boy. You don't know
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: Lord Illingworth, I believe.
• 49:30
  Speaker 10: Dear, I have never met him.
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: You know him by name, no doubt.
• 49:34
  Speaker 10: I am afraid I don't. I live so much out
• 49:37
  Speaker 10: of the world and see so few people. I remember
• 49:40
  Speaker 10: here in years ago of an old Lord Illingworth who
• 49:42
  Speaker 10: lived in Yorkshire.
• 49:43
  Speaker 6: I think, ah, yes, that would be the last earl
• 49:47
  Speaker 6: but one. He was a very curious man. He wanted
• 49:50
  Speaker 6: to marry beneath him, or wouldn't. I believe there was
• 49:53
  Speaker 6: some scandal about it. The present Lord Illingworth is quite different.
• 49:57
  Speaker 6: He is very distinguished. He does well. He does nothing
• 50:01
  Speaker 6: which I am afraid our pretty American visitor here thinks
• 50:03
  Speaker 6: very wrong of anybody. And I don't know that he
• 50:07
  Speaker 6: cares much for the subjects in which you are so interested.
• 50:09
  Speaker 6: Dear missus Arbuthnet. Do you think, Caroline, that Lord Dillingworth
• 50:13
  Speaker 6: is interested in the housing of the poor?
• 50:16
  Speaker 11: I should fancy not at all, Jane.
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: We all have our different tastes, have we not? But
• 50:21
  Speaker 6: Lord Dillingworth has a very high position, and there is
• 50:24
  Speaker 6: nothing he couldn't get if he chose to ask for it.
• 50:27
  Speaker 6: Of course, he is comparatively a young man still, and
• 50:31
  Speaker 6: he has only come to his title within how long
• 50:34
  Speaker 6: exactly is it, Caroline? Since Lord Illingworth succeeded about.
• 50:38
  Speaker 11: Four years I think, Jane, I know it was the
• 50:41
  Speaker 11: same year in which my brother had his last exposure
• 50:44
  Speaker 11: in the evening newspapers.
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: Ah, I remember that would be about four years ago.
• 50:50
  Speaker 6: Of course, there are a great many people between the
• 50:52
  Speaker 6: present Lord Dillingworth and the title Missus Arbuthnet. There was
• 50:56
  Speaker 6: who was there, Caroline.
• 50:58
  Speaker 11: There was poor Margaret's baby. You remember how anxious she
• 51:02
  Speaker 11: was to have a boy, and it was a boy,
• 51:04
  Speaker 11: but it died, and her husband died shortly afterwards, and
• 51:09
  Speaker 11: she married almost immediately one of Lord Ascot's sons, who
• 51:13
  Speaker 11: I am tall beats her.
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: Ah, that is in the family, Dear, that is in
• 51:17
  Speaker 6: the family. And there was also I remember a clergyman
• 51:20
  Speaker 6: who wanted to be a lunatic, or a lunatic who
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: wanted to be a clergyman. I forget which, but I
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: know the Court of Chancery invested the matter and decided
• 51:29
  Speaker 6: that he was quite sane, and I saw him afterwards
• 51:32
  Speaker 6: at poor Lord Plumstead's with straws in his hair, or
• 51:35
  Speaker 6: something very odd about him. I can't recal what. I
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: often regret, Lady Caroline, that dear Lady Cecilia never lived
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: to see her son get the title. Lady Cecilia, Lord
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: Dillingworth's mother, Dear Missus Arbuthnut, was one of the Duchess
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: of Jerningham's pretty daughters, and she married Sir Thomas Harford,
• 51:54
  Speaker 6: who wasn't considered a very good match for her at
• 51:57
  Speaker 6: the time, though he was said to be the handsomest
• 51:59
  Speaker 6: man in London. I knew them all quite intimately, and
• 52:02
  Speaker 6: both the sons, Arthur and George.
• 52:04
  Speaker 10: It was the eldest son who succeeded, of course, Lady Hunstanton.
• 52:09
  Speaker 6: No, Dear, he was killed in the hunting field or
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: was it fishing, Caroline, I forget. But George came in
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: for everything. I always tell him that no younger son
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: has ever had such good luck as he has had.
• 52:20
  Speaker 10: Lady Hunstanton, I want to speak to Gerald at once.
• 52:23
  Speaker 10: Might I see him? Can he be sent for?
• 52:26
  Speaker 6: Certainly, Dear, I will send one of the servants into
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: the dining room to fetch him. I don't know what
• 52:31
  Speaker 6: keeps the gentleman so long. When I knew Lord Illingworth
• 52:35
  Speaker 6: first as plain as George Harford. He was simply a
• 52:38
  Speaker 6: very brilliant young man about town, with not a penny
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: of money except what poor dear Lady Cecilia gave him.
• 52:45
  Speaker 6: She was quite devoted to him, chiefly, I fancy because
• 52:48
  Speaker 6: he was on bad terms with his father. Oh, here's
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: the Archdeacon, two servant. It doesn't better, enter Sir John
• 52:56
  Speaker 6: and doctor Daubeny. Sir John goes over to Lady Stetfield,
• 53:01
  Speaker 6: Doctor Daubeny to Lady Hunston.
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: Lord Illingwas has been most entertaining. I have never enjoyed
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: myself more. Ah, Missus arbuthnot you see.
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: I have got Missus Arbudner to come to me at last.
• 53:17
  Speaker 5: That is a great honor, Lady Hunstanton, Missus Daubeny will
• 53:22
  Speaker 5: be quite jealous of you.
• 53:24
  Speaker 6: Oh I am so sorry Missus Daubeny could not come
• 53:27
  Speaker 6: with you tonight. Headache as usual, I suppose.
• 53:31
  Speaker 5: Yes, Lady Hunstanton a perfect martyr, but she is happiest alone.
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: She is happiest alone.
• 53:42
  Speaker 11: John.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Sir John goes over to his wife Doctor Daubeny talks
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: to Lady Hunston and Missus Arbuthnet. Missus Arbuthnet watches Lord
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: Illingworth the whole time. He has passed across the room
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: without noticing her, and approaches Missus Allenby, who with Lady Statfield,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: is standing by the door looking on to the terrace.
• 54:04
  Speaker 14: How is the most charming woman in the world.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Missus Allenby, taking Lady Stutfield by the hand.
• 54:10
  Speaker 8: We are both quite well, Thank you, Lord Illingworth. But
• 54:13
  Speaker 8: what a short time you have been in the dining room.
• 54:16
  Speaker 8: It seems as if we'd only just left.
• 54:19
  Speaker 14: I was bored to death, never opened my lips the
• 54:22
  Speaker 14: whole time, absolutely longing to come in to you.
• 54:26
  Speaker 8: You should have. The American girl has been giving us
• 54:30
  Speaker 8: a lecture.
• 54:31
  Speaker 14: Really, all Americans lecture, I believe. I suppose it is
• 54:35
  Speaker 14: something in their climate. What did she lecture about?
• 54:40
  Speaker 8: Oh, Puritanism?
• 54:41
  Speaker 14: Of course I'm going to convert her, am I not?
• 54:45
  Speaker 14: How long do you give me?
• 54:47
  Speaker 8: A week?
• 54:48
  Speaker 14: A week is more than enough?
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: Enter Gerald and Lord Alfred Gerald going to Missus Arbuthnet.
• 54:55
  Speaker 10: Dear mother, Gerald, I don't feel too well, see me,
• 54:59
  Speaker 10: How Gerald's I shouldn't have come.
• 55:02
  Speaker 13: I'm so sorry, mother, certainly, but you must know Lord
• 55:05
  Speaker 13: Illingworth first goes across room. Not tonight, Gerald, Lord Illingworth,
• 55:11
  Speaker 13: I want you so much to know my mother, with.
• 55:14
  Speaker 14: The greatest pleasure to Missus Allenby. I'll be back in
• 55:18
  Speaker 14: a moment. People's mothers always bore me to death. All
• 55:22
  Speaker 14: women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy.
• 55:26
  Speaker 8: No man does, that is his.
• 55:29
  Speaker 14: What a delightful mood you are in tonight.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Turns round and goes across with Gerald to Missus Arbuthnot.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: When he sees her, he starts back in wonder. Then
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: slowly his eyes turned toward Gerald.
• 55:42
  Speaker 13: Mother. This is Lord Ellingworth who's offered to take me
• 55:44
  Speaker 13: as his private secretary.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnet bows coldly.
• 55:48
  Speaker 13: It is a wonderful opening for me, isn't it. I
• 55:51
  Speaker 13: hope he won't be disappointed in me. That is all
• 55:53
  Speaker 13: You'll thank Lord Illingworth, mother, won't you.
• 55:56
  Speaker 10: Lord Illingworth is very good. I am sure to interest
• 55:59
  Speaker 10: himself in you for the moment.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: Lord Illingsworth putting his hand on Gerald's shoulder.
• 56:05
  Speaker 14: Oh, Gerald and I are great friends already, Missus Arbuthnot.
• 56:09
  Speaker 10: That can be nothing in common between you and my son.
• 56:12
  Speaker 10: Lord Illingworth, dear.
• 56:13
  Speaker 13: Mother, how can you say so? Of course, Lord Illingworth
• 56:17
  Speaker 13: is awfully clever and that sort of thing. There's nothing
• 56:19
  Speaker 13: Lord Illingworth doesn't.
• 56:20
  Speaker 14: Know, my dear boy.
• 56:23
  Speaker 13: He knows more about life than anyone I have ever met.
• 56:27
  Speaker 13: I feel an awful bluffer when I'm with you, Lord Illingworth.
• 56:30
  Speaker 13: Of course I've had so few advantages. I've not been
• 56:33
  Speaker 13: to eat nor Oxford like other chaps. But Lord Illingworth
• 56:37
  Speaker 13: doesn't seem to mind that he's been awfully good to me. Mother.
• 56:40
  Speaker 10: Lord Illingworth may change his mind. He may not really
• 56:44
  Speaker 10: want you as his secretary.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: Mother.
• 56:46
  Speaker 10: You must remember, as you said yourself, you have had so.
• 56:49
  Speaker 8: Few advantages, Lord Illingworth. I want to speak to you
• 56:53
  Speaker 8: for a moment.
• 56:54
  Speaker 14: Do come over, will you excuse me? Missus arbuthnot now,
• 56:58
  Speaker 14: don't let your charming mother make any more difficulties. Gerald.
• 57:02
  Speaker 14: The thing is quite settled, isn't it.
• 57:04
  Speaker 8: I hope so I thought you were never going to
• 57:07
  Speaker 8: leave the lady in black velvet.
• 57:10
  Speaker 14: She is excessively handsome, look, said Missus Arbuthnet Caroline.
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: Shall we all make a move to the music room.
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: Miss Worsley is going to play. You'll come to dear
• 57:20
  Speaker 6: missus Arbuthnet. Won't you. You don't know what a treat
• 57:23
  Speaker 6: is in store for you. I must really take miss
• 57:26
  Speaker 6: Worsley down some afternoon to the rectory. I should so
• 57:29
  Speaker 6: much like dear Missus Daubeny to hear her on the violin. Ah,
• 57:33
  Speaker 6: I forgot. Dear Missus Daubeny's hearing is a little defective,
• 57:37
  Speaker 6: is it not.
• 57:38
  Speaker 5: Her deafness is a great privation to her. She can't
• 57:43
  Speaker 5: even hear my sermons now she reads them at home.
• 57:49
  Speaker 5: But she has many resources in herself, many resources.
• 57:55
  Speaker 6: She reads a good deal, I suppose.
• 57:57
  Speaker 5: Just the very largest print. The eye sight is rapidly going.
• 58:04
  Speaker 5: But she's never morbid, never morbid.
• 58:08
  Speaker 13: Do speak to my mother, Lord Lingworth, before you go
• 58:10
  Speaker 13: into the music room. She seems to think somehow that
• 58:13
  Speaker 13: you don't mean what you said to me.
• 58:15
  Speaker 14: Aren't you coming in a few moments, Lady Hanstanton, If
• 58:19
  Speaker 14: Missus Arbuthnot would allow me, I would like to say
• 58:21
  Speaker 14: a few words to her, and we will join you
• 58:24
  Speaker 14: later on.
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: Ah.
• 58:25
  Speaker 6: Of course you will have a great deal to say
• 58:28
  Speaker 6: to her, and she will have a great deal to
• 58:30
  Speaker 6: thank you for. It is not every son who gets
• 58:33
  Speaker 6: such an offer, Missus Arbuthnat but I know you appreciate that,
• 58:36
  Speaker 6: dear John. Now don't keep missus Arbadna too long, Lord Illingworth,
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: we can't spare her.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Exit following the other guests. Sound of violin heard from
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: music room.
• 58:49
  Speaker 14: So that is our son, Rachel. Well, I am very
• 58:52
  Speaker 14: proud of him. He is a halford, every inch of him.
• 58:56
  Speaker 14: By the way, why are bus not, Rachel?
• 58:59
  Speaker 10: One name is as good as another when one has
• 59:01
  Speaker 10: no right to any name?
• 59:02
  Speaker 14: I suppose so. But why Gerald after a.
• 59:06
  Speaker 10: Man whose heart I broke? After my father?
• 59:09
  Speaker 14: Well, Rachel, what is over is over all. I have
• 59:13
  Speaker 14: got to say now is that I am very very
• 59:15
  Speaker 14: much pleased with our boy. The world will know him
• 59:18
  Speaker 14: merely as my private secretary, but to me he will
• 59:21
  Speaker 14: be something very near and very dear. It is a
• 59:25
  Speaker 14: curious thing, Rachel. My life seemed to be quite complete.
• 59:29
  Speaker 14: It was not so. It lacked something. It lacked a son.
• 59:33
  Speaker 14: I have found my son. Now, I am glad I
• 59:36
  Speaker 14: have found him.
• 59:37
  Speaker 10: You have no right to claim him or the smallest
• 59:39
  Speaker 10: part of him. The boy is entirely mine and shall
• 59:42
  Speaker 10: remain mine.
• 59:44
  Speaker 14: My dear Rachel. You have had him to yourself for
• 59:47
  Speaker 14: over twenty years. Why not let me have him for
• 59:50
  Speaker 14: a little now. He is quite as much mine as yours.
• 59:54
  Speaker 10: Are you talking of the child you abandoned, of the
• 59:57
  Speaker 10: child who, as far as you are concerned, might have
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 10: of hunger and of.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 14: Want you forget Rachel, it was you who left me.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 14: It was not I who left you.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 10: I left you because you refused to give the.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 13: Child a name.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 10: Before my son was born, I implored you to marry me.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 14: I had no expectations then, and besides, Rachel, I wasn't
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 14: much older than you were. I was only twenty two.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 14: I was twenty one. I believe when the whole thing
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 14: began in your father's garden, when a man.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 10: Is old enough to do wrong, he should be old
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 10: enough to do right.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 14: Also, my dear Rachel, intellectual generalities are always interesting, but
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 14: generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing. As for saying I
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 14: left our child to starve, That, of course, is untrue
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 14: and silly. My mother offered you six hundred a year,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 14: but you wouldn't take anything. You simply disappeared and carried
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 14: the child away with you.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 10: I wouldn't have accepted a penny from her. Your father
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 10: was different, he told you in my presence when we
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 10: were in Paris, that it was your duty to marry me.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 14: Oh, duty is what one expects from others, It is
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 14: not what one does one's self. Of course, I was
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 14: influenced by my mother. Every man is when he is young.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 10: I am glad to hear you say so. Gerald shall
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 10: certainly not go away with you.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 14: What nonsense, Rachel.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 10: Do you think I would allow my son.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Our son, my son word Illingworth shrugs his shoulders.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 10: To go away with the man who spoiled my youth,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 10: who ruined my life, who has tainted every moment of
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 10: my days. You don't realize what my past has been,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 10: in suffering and in shame.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 14: My dear Rachel, I must candidly say that I think
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 14: Gerald's future considerably more important than your past.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 10: Gerald cannot separate his future from my past.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 14: That is exactly what he should do. That is exactly
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 14: what you should help him to do. What a typical
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 14: woman you are. You talk sentimentally, and you are thoroughly
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 14: selfish the whole time. But don't let us have a scene. Rachel.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 14: I want you to look at this matter from the
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 14: common sense point of view, from the point of view
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 14: of what is best for our son. Leaving you and
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 14: me out of the question. What is our son at present,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 14: an underpaid clerk in a small provincial bank in a
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 14: third rate English town. If you imagine he is quite
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 14: happy in such a position, you are mistaken. He is
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 14: thoroughly discontented.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 10: He was not discontented till he met you. You have
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 10: made him so.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 14: Of course I made him so. Discontent is the first
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 14: step in the progress of a man or a nation.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 14: But I did not leave him with a mere longing
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 14: for things he could not get. No, I made him
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 14: a charming offer. He jumped at it. I need hardly
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 14: say any young man would. And now, simply because it
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 14: turns out that I am the boy's own father, and
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 14: he my own son, you propose practically to ruin his career.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 14: That is to say, if I were a perfect stranger,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 14: you would allow Gerald to go away with me. But
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 14: as he is my own flesh and blood, you won't.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 14: How utterly illogical.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 10: You are, I will not allow him to.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 14: Go How can you prevent it? What excuse can you
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 14: give to him for making him decline such an offer
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 14: as mine. I won't tell him in what relations I
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 14: stand to him, I need hardly say, But you dared
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 14: tell him you know that. Look how you have brought
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 14: him up.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 10: I have brought him up to be a good man.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 14: Quite so. And what is the result. You have educated
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 14: him to be your judge. If he ever finds you
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 14: out and a bitter and unjust judge, he will be
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 14: to you. Don't be deceived, Rachel. Children begin by loving
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 14: their parents. After a time, they judge them rarely, if ever,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 14: do they forgive them.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 10: George, don't take my son away from me. I have
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 10: had twenty years of sorrow, and I have only had
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 10: one thing to love me, only one thing to love.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 10: You have had a life of joy and pleasure and success.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 10: You have been quite happy. You have never thought of us.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 10: There was no reason, according to your views of life,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 10: why you should have remembered us at all. Your meeting
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 10: us was a mere accident, a horrible accident. Forget it.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 10: Don't come now and rob me of of all I
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 10: have in the whole world. You are so rich in
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 10: other things. Leave me the little vineyard of my life.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 10: Leave me the wolden garden and the well of water,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 10: the you lamb God sent me in pity or in wrath.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 10: Oh leave me that, George, don't take Gerald from.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 14: Me, Rachel. At the present moment, you are not necessary
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 14: to Gerald's career. I am there is nothing more to
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 14: be said on the subject.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 10: I will not let him go.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 14: Here is Gerald. He has a right to decide for himself.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Enter Gerald.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 13: Well, dear mother, I hope you have settled with all
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 13: with the Lord Livingworth.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 10: I have not.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 11: Gerald.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 14: Your mother seems not to like your coming with me
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 14: for some reason.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 10: Why, Mother, I thought you were quite happy here with me. Gerald.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 10: I didn't know. Oh, you were so anxious to leave me?
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 13: Mother? How can you talk like that? Of course I've
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 13: been quite happy with you. But a man can't always
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 13: stay with his mother. No, chap does I want to
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 13: make myself a position to do something. I thought you
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 13: would have been proud to see me Lord Ellingworth's secretary.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 10: I do not think you would be suitable as a
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 10: private secretary to Lord Illingworth. You have no qualifications.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 14: I don't wish to seem to interfere for a moment,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 14: missus arbuthnot. But as far as your last objection is concerned,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 14: I surely am the best judge, and I can only
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 14: tell you that your son has all the qualifications I
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 14: had hoped for. He has more, in fact than I
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 14: had even thought of far more? Have you any other reason,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 14: Missus Arbuthnot, why you don't wish your son to accept
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 14: this post?
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 13: Have you? Mother? Do answer?
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 14: If you have, Missus arbuthnot, pray, pray say it. We
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 14: are quite by ourselves here. Whatever it is I need
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 14: not say, I will not repeat it.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 13: Mother.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 14: If you would like to be alone with your son,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 14: I will leave you. You may have some other reason you
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 14: don't wish me to hear. I have no other reason, then,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 14: my dear boy, we may look on the thing as settled.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 14: Come you and I will smoke a cigarette on the
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 14: terrace together, and Missus arbuthnot pray. Let me tell you
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 14: that I think you have acted very very wisely.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: Exit with Gerald. Missus Arbuthnet is left alone. She stands
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: immobile with a look of unutterable sorrow on her face.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Act Drop in a second act, third act of a
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wild. This is a
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: The picture gallery at Hunston Dora at back leading on
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: to terrace. Lord Ellingworth and Gerald right of center. Loord
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: Ellingworth lolling on a sofa, Gerald in a chair.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 14: Thoroughly sensible woman. Your mother, Gerald, I knew she would
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 14: come round in the end.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 13: My mother is awfully conscientious, Lord Ellingworth, and I know
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 13: she doesn't think I'm educated enough to be your secretary.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 13: She's perfectly right too. I was fearfully idle when has
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 13: at school. I couldn't pass an examination now to save.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 14: My life, my dear Gerald, examinations are of no value whatsoever.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 14: If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 14: and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 14: is bad for him.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 13: But I am so ignorant of the world, Lord Ellingworth.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 14: Don't be afraid, Gerald, Remember that you've got on your
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 14: side the most wonderful thing in the world. Youth. There
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 14: is nothing like youth. The middle aged our mortgage to life,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 14: the old or in life's lumber room. But youth is
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 14: the lord of life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 14: Every one is born a king, and most people die
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 14: in exile like most kings. To win back my youth, Gerald,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 14: there is nothing I wouldn't do except take exercise, get
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 14: up early, or be a useful member of the community.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 13: But you don't call yourself old lord Inanworth.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 14: I am old enough to be your father, Gerald.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 13: I don't remember my father.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 14: He died years ago, so Lady Hunstanton told me.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 13: It is very curious my mother never talks to me
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 13: about my father. I sometimes think she must have married beneath.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: Her winces slightly really goes over and puts his hand
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: on Gerald's shoulder.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 14: You have missed not having a father, I suppose, Gerald,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 14: Oh no.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 13: My mother has been so good to me. No one
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 13: ever had such a mother as I have had.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 14: I am quite sure of that. Still, I should imagine
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 14: that most mothers don't quite might understand their sons don't realize.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 14: I mean that a son has ambitions, a desire to
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 14: see life, to make himself a name. After all, Gerald,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 14: you couldn't be expected to pass all your life in
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 14: such a hole as Rockley, could you?
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 10: Oh?
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 13: No, it would be dreadful.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 14: A mother's love is very touching, of course, but it
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 14: is often curiously selfish. I mean, there is a good
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 14: deal of selfishness in it.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 13: I suppose there is.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 14: Your mother is a thoroughly good woman, but good women
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 14: have such limited views of life. The horizon is so small.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 14: Their interests are so petty, aren't they there?
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 13: Awfully interested certainly in things we don't care much about.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 14: I suppose your mother is very religious and that sort
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 14: of thing.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 13: Oh, yes, she's always going to church.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 14: Ah. She is not modern, and to be modern is
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 14: the only thing worth being nowadays. You want to be modern,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 14: don't you, Gerald. You want to know life as it
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 14: really is, not to be put off with any old
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 14: fashioned theories about life. Well, what you have to do
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 14: at present is simply to fit yourself for the best society.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 14: A man who can dominate a London dinner table can
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 14: dominate the world. The future belongs to the dandy. It
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 14: is the exquisites who are going to rule.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 13: I should like to wear nice things, awfully, but I've
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 13: always been told that a man should not think too
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 13: much about his clothes.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 14: People nowadays are so absolutely superficial that they don't understand
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 14: the philosophy of the superficial. By the way, Gerald, you
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 14: should learn how to tie your tie better. Sentiment is
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 14: all very well for the button hole, but the essential
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 14: thing for a necktie is style. A well tied tie
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 14: is the first serious step in life.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 13: Ha ha. I might be able to learn how to tie
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 13: tie lord dealing with, but I should never be able
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 13: to talk as you do. I don't know how to talk.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 14: Oh, talk to every woman as if you loved her,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 14: and to every man as if he bored you. And
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 14: at the end of your first season you will have
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 14: the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 13: But it is very difficult to get into society, isn't it.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 14: To get into the best society nowadays, one has either
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 14: to feed people, amuse people, or shock people.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 13: That is all I suppose. Society is wonderfully delightful.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 14: To be in it is merely a bore, but to
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 14: be out of it simply a tragedy. Society is a
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 14: necessary thing. No man has any real success in this
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 14: world unless he has got women to back him, and
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 14: women rule society. If you have not got women on
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 14: your side, you are quite over. You might just as
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 14: well be a barrister, or a stockbroker or a journalist
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 14: at once.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 13: It is very difficult to understand women, is it not.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 14: You should never try to understand them. Women are pictures.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 14: Men are problems. If you want to know what a
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 14: woman really means, which, by the way, is always a
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 14: dangerous thing to do. Look at her, don't listen to her.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 13: But women are awfully clever, aren't they?
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 14: One should always tell them so. But to the philosopher,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 14: my dear Gerald, women represent the triumph of matter over mind,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 14: just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 13: Now men, can women have so much power as you
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 13: say they have?
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 14: The history of women is the history of the worst
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 14: form of tyranny the world has ever known, the tyranny
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 14: of the weak over the strong. It is the only
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 14: tyranny that lasts.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 13: But haven't women got a refining influence?
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 14: Nothing refines but the intellect.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 13: Still, there are many different kinds of women, aren't.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 14: There only two kinds in society? The plain and the colored?
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 13: But there are good women in society, aren't there.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 14: Far too many?
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 13: But do you think women shouldn't be good?
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 14: One should never tell them so. They'd all become good
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 14: at once. Women are a fascinatingly wilful sex. Every woman
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 14: is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 13: He's never been married, Lord Ellingworth.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 14: Have you men marry because they are tired? Women because
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 14: they are curious. Both are disappointed.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 13: But don't you think one can be happy when one
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 13: is married.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 14: Perfectly happy? But the happiness of a married man, my
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 14: dear Gerald, depends on the people he has not married.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 13: But if one is in love, one.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 14: Should always be in love. That is the reason one
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 14: should never marry.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 13: Love is a very wonderful thing, isn't it.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 14: When one is in love, one begins by deceiving one's
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 14: self and one ends by deceiving others. That is what
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 14: the world calls a romance. But a really grand passion
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 14: is comparatively rare nowadays. It is the privilege of people
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 14: who have nothing to do. That is the one use
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 14: of the idle classes in a country, and the only
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 14: possible explanation of us.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 13: Halford's Harford's Lord Ellingworth.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 14: That is my family name. You should study the peerage, Gerald,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 14: It's the one book a young man about town should
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 14: know thoroughly, and it is the best thing in fiction
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 14: the English have ever done. And now, Gerald, you are
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 14: going into a perfectly new life with me, and I
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 14: want you to know how to live.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: Missus Arbuthnut appears on terrace behind.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 14: For the world has been made by fools, that wise
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 14: men should live in.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: It entry left of center. Lady Hunston and doctor Daubeny.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 6: Ah, here you are, dear Lord Dillingworth. Well, I suppose
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 6: you have been telling our young friend Gerald what his
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 6: new duties are to be, and giving him a great
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 6: deal of advice over a pleasant cigarette.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 14: I have been giving him the best of advice, Lady Haunstanton,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 14: and the best of cigarettes.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 6: I am so sorry I was not here to listen
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 6: to you, but I suppose I am too old now
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 6: to learn except from you, dear Archdeacon, when you are
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 6: in your nice pulpit. But then I always know what
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 6: you are going to say, so I don't feel alarmed. Ah,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 6: Dear Missus Arbuthnut, do come and join us. Come, Dear
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 6: Gerald has been having such a long talk with Lord Dillingworth.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 6: I am sure you must feel very much flattered at
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 6: the pleasant way in which everything has turned out for him.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 6: Let us sit down, and how is your beautiful embroidery
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 6: going on?
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 10: I am always work, Lady Hanstanton.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 6: Missus Daubeny embroiders a little too, doesn't she.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 5: She was very deft with her needle once quite a dorcus,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 5: but the gout has crippled her fingers a good deal.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 5: She has not touched the tambour frame for nine or
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 5: ten years, but she has many other amusements. She is
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 5: very much interested in her own hells.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 8: Ah.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 6: That is always a nice distraction, is it not. Now,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 6: what are you talking about, Lord Dillingworth? Do tell us?
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 14: I was on the point of explaining to Gerald that
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 14: the world has always laughed at its own tragedies, that
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 14: being the only way in which it has been able
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 14: to bear them, and that consequently, whatever the world has
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 14: treated seriously belongs to the comedy side of things.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 6: Now I am quite out of my death I usually
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 6: am when Lord Illingworth says anything, and the humane society
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 6: is most careless. They never rescue me. I am left
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 6: to think. I have a dim idea, Lord Illingworth, that
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 6: you are always on the side of the sinners. And
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 6: I know I always try to be on the side
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 6: of the saints. But that is as far as I get,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 6: And after all, it may be merely the fancy of
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 6: a drowning person.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 14: The only difference between the saint and the sinner is
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 14: that every saint has a past and every sinner has
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 14: a future.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 12: Ah.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 6: That quite does it for me. I haven't a word
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 6: to say. You and I, dear missus Arbuthnat, are behind
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 6: the age. We can't follow Lord Illingworth. Too much care
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 6: was taken with our education. I am afraid to have
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 6: been well brought up is a great drawback nowadays. It
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 6: shuts one out from so much.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 10: I should be sorry to follow Lord Illingworth in any
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 10: of his opinions.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 6: You are quite right.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: Dear Gerald shrugs his shoulders and looks irritably over at
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: his mother. Enter it, Lady Caroline, Jane.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 11: Have you seen John anywhere?
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 6: You needn't be anxious about him, Dear. He is with
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 6: Lady Stutfield. I saw them some time ago in the
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 6: yellow drawing room. They seem quite happy together. You are
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 6: not going, Caroline, Please sit down.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 11: I think I had better look after John.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: Exit Lady Caroline.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 6: It doesn't do to pay men so much attention, And
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 6: Lady Caroline has really nothing to be anxious about. Lady
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 6: Stutfield is very sympathetic. She is just as sympathetic about
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 6: one thing as she is about another. A beautiful nature.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: Enter Sir John and Missus Allenby.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 6: And here is Sir John, and with Missus Allenby too.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 6: I suppose it was Missus Allenby I saw with him,
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 6: Sir John, Caroline has been looking everywhere for you.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 8: We've been waiting for her in the music room, dear
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 8: Lady Hunstanton, Ah.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 6: The music room, of course, I thought it was the
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 6: yellow drawing room. My memory is getting so defective. To
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 6: the Archdeacon, Missus Daugeny has a wonderful memory, hasn't she.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 5: She used to be quite remarkable for her memory, but
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 5: since her last attack she recalls chiefly the events of
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 5: her early childhood. But she finds great pleasure in such retrospections,
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 5: great pleasure.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: And your Lady Stutfield and mister Kilville.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 6: Ah, Dear Lady Stutfield. And what has mister Kelville been
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 6: talking to you about.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 7: About by metallism?
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 12: As well?
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 6: As I remember by metallism? Is that quite a nice subject? However,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 6: I know people discuss everything very freely nowadays. What did
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 6: Sir John talk to you about, Missus.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 8: Allenby about Patagonia?
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 6: Really? What a remote topic, but very improving. I have
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 6: no doubt he has.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 8: Been most interesting on the subject of Patagonia. Savages seem
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 8: to have quite the same views as cultured people on
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 8: almost all subjects. They are excessively advanced. What do they
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 8: do apparently everything?
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 6: Well, it is very gratifying to your Archdeacon, is it
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 6: not to find that human nature is permanently one on
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 6: the whole? The world is the same world as it not?
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 14: The world is simply divided into two classes, those who
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 14: believe the incredible, like the public, and those who do
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 14: the improbable, like yourself. Yes, I am always astonishing myself.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 14: It is the only thing that makes life worth living.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 7: And what have you been doing lightly that astonishes you?
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 14: I have been discovering all kinds of beautiful qualities in
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 14: my own nature.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 8: Ah. Don't become quite perfect all at once? Do it gradually?
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 14: I don't intend to grow perfect at all. At least
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 14: I hope I shan't. It would be most inconvenient. Women
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 14: love us for our defects. If we have enough of them,
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 14: they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 8: It is premature to ask us to forgive analysis. We
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 8: forgive adoration. That is quite as much as should be
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 8: expected from us.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: Entry Lord Alfred, he joins Lady Stetfield.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 6: Ah, we women should forgive everything, shouldn't we? Dear missus
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 6: Arbuthnut I am sure you agree with me in that.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 10: I do not, Lady Henstanton, I think there are many
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 10: things women should never forgive. What sort of things the
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 10: ruin of another woman's life.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: Moves slowly away to back of stage.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 6: Ah. Those things are very sad, no doubt. But I
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 6: believe there are admirable homes where people of that kind
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 6: are looked after and reformed. And I think on the
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 6: whole that the secret of life is to take things very,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 6: very easily.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 8: The secret of life is never to have an emotion
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 8: that is unbecoming.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 7: The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 7: being terribly, terribly deceived.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 4: The secret of life is to resist demndation.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 14: Lady Stockfield, there is no secret of life. Life's aim,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 14: if it has one, is simply to be always looking
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 14: for temptations. There are not nearly enough. I sometimes pass
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 14: a whole day without coming across a single one. It
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 14: is quite dreadful. It makes one so nervous about the future.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: Shakespeare fan at him.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 6: I don't know how it is, dear Lord Dillingworth, but
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 6: everything you have said today seems to me excessively immoral.
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 6: It has been most interesting listening.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 14: To you all thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 14: If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 14: being thought of.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 6: I don't understand a word, Lord Dillingworth, but I have
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 6: no doubt it is all quite true. Personally, I have
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 6: very little to reproach myself with on the score of thinking.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 6: I don't believe in women thinking too much. Women should
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 6: think in moderation, as they should do all things in moderation.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 14: Moderation is a fatal thing, Lady Hanstanton. Nothing succeeds like excess.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 6: I hope I shall remember that. It sounds an admirable
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 6: maxim but I'm beginning to forget everything. It's a great misfortune.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 14: It is one of your most fascinating qualities, Lady Hanstanton.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 14: No woman should have a memory. Memory and a woman
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 14: is the beginning of dowdiness. One can always tell from
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 14: a woman's bonnet whether she has got a memory or not.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 6: How charming you are, dear Lord Illingworth, You always find
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 6: out that one's most glaring fault is one's most important virtue.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 6: You have the most comforting views of life.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: Enter Farquhar for the damnness carriage, my dear Archdeacon.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 6: It is only half past ten.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 5: Rising, I'm afraid I must go. Lady Handstanton, Tuesday is
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 5: always one of Missus Daubeny's bad nights.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 6: Rising Well, I won't keep you from her.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: Goes with him toward the door.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 6: I have told Barkwell to put a brace of partridge
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 6: into the carriage. Missus Daubeny may fancy them.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 5: It is very kind of you. But Missus Daubeny never
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 5: touches solids. Now lives entirely on Jelly's. But she is
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 5: wonderfully cheerful, wonderfully cheerful. She has nothing to complain of.
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: Exit with Lady Hunston goes over toward Ellingworth.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 8: There is a beautiful moon tonight.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 14: Let us go and look at it. To look at
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 14: anything that is inconstant is charming.
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 8: Nowadays you have your looking glass.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 14: It is unkind. It mainly shows me my wrinkles.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 8: Mine is better behaved. It never tells me the truth.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 14: Then it is in love with you.
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: Exit, Sir John, Lady Stutfield, Mister Kelville, and Lord Alfred
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: Gerald to Lord Ellingworth.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 13: May I come too do?
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: My dear boy moves forward with missus Allenby and Gerald.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: Lady Caroline Enters looks rapidly round and goes off in
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: opposite direction to that taken by Sir John and Lady Stutfield.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 10: Gerald.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: What mother, Exit Lord Illingworth with missus Allenby.
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 10: It is getting late. Let us go home, my dear mother.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 13: Do let us wait a little longer. Lord Ellingworth is
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 13: so delightful. By the way, Mother, I have a great
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 13: surprise for you. We are starting for India at the
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 13: end of this month.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 10: Let us go home.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 13: Yeah, if you really want to, of course, Mother, But
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 13: I must bid goodbye to Lord Illingworth first. I'll be
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 13: back in five minutes.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: Exit.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 10: Let him leave me if he chooses, but not with him.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 10: Not with him. I couldn't bear it.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: Walks up and down enter Hester.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 12: What a lovely night it is, Missus arbuth Nutt, Is it,
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 12: Missus arbuth Nutt. I wish you would let us be friends.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 12: You are so different from the other women here. When
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 12: you came into the drawing room this evening, somehow you
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 12: brought with you a sense of what is good and
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 12: pure in life. I had been foolish. There are things
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 12: that are right to say, but that may be said
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 12: at the wrong time and to the wrong people.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 10: I heard what you said. I agree with it.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 12: Miss Worsley, I didn't know you had heard it, but
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 12: I knew you would agree with me. A woman who
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 12: has sinned should be punished, shouldn't she. Yes, she shouldn't
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 12: be allowed to come into the society of good men
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 12: and women.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 10: She should not.
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 12: And the man should be punished in the same way.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 10: In the same way. And the children, if there are children,
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 10: in the same way.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 13: Also.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 12: Yes, it is right that the sins of the parents
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 12: should be visited on the children. It is a just law.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 12: It is God's law.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 10: It is one of God's terrible lows.
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: Moves away to fireplace.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 12: You are distressed about your son leaving you, missus Arbuthnutt. Yes,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 12: do you like him going away with Lord Illingworth? Of
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 12: course there is position, no doubt in money. But position
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 12: and money are not everything, are they? They have nothing?
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 10: They bring misery.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 12: Then why do you let your son go with him?
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 10: He wishes it himself.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 12: But if you asked him he would stay, would he not?
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 10: He has set his heart on going.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 12: He couldn't refuse you anything. He loves you too much.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 12: Ask him to stay. Let me send him in to you.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 12: He is on the terrace at this moment with Lord Illingworth.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 12: I heard them laughing together as I passed through the
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 12: music room.
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 10: Don't trouble, miss Wesley. I can wait. It is of
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 10: no consequence.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 12: No, I'll tell him. You want him, do do? Ask
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 12: him to stay.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: Exit Hester.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 10: He won't come. I know he won't come.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: Enter, Lady Caroline. She looks round anxiously.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 11: Enter Gerald, mister abbathnot may I ask you, Is Sir
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 11: John anywhere on the terrace.
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 13: No, Lady Caroline, He's not on the terrace.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 12: It is very curious.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 11: It is time for him to retire.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: Exit, Lady Caroline.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 13: Dear mother, I'm afraid I kept you waiting. I forgot
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 13: all about it. I'm so happy to night, mother, I've
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 13: never been so happy.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 10: At the prospects of going away.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 13: Don't put it like that, Mother. Of course, I'm sorry
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 13: to leave you. Why you are the best mother in
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 13: the whole world. But after all, as Lord Illingworth says,
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 13: it is impossible to live in such a place as Rockley.
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 13: You don't mind it. But I'm ambitious. I want something
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 13: more than that. I want to have a career. I
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 13: want to do something that will make you proud of me.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 13: And Lord Illingworth is going to help me, He's going
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 13: to do everything for me.
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 10: Geralds, don't go away with Lord Illingworth. I implore you
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 10: not to. Gerald's.
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 13: I beg you, mother, how changeable you are. You don't
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 13: seem to know your own mind for a single moment.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 13: And dow and a half ago in the drawing room
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 13: he agreed to.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 8: The whole thing.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 13: Now you turn round and make objections and try to
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 13: force me to give up my one chance in life, Yes,
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 13: my one chance. You don't suppose that men like Lord
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 13: Illingworth are to be found every day, do you?
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 8: Mother?
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 13: It is very strange that, when I have had such
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 13: a wonderful piece of good luck, the one person's but
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 13: difficulties in my way should be my own mother. Besides,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 13: you know, Mother, I love Hester Worsley. Who could help
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 13: loving her? I love her more than I have ever
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 13: told you, far more, And if I had a position,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 13: if I had prospects, I could I could ask a
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 13: do Don't you understand now, mother, what it means to
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 13: me to be Lord Illingworth's secretary. To start like that
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 13: is to find a career ready for one, before one
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 13: waiting for one. If I were Lord Ellingworth's secretary, I
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 13: could ask Hester to be my wife as a wretched
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 13: bank clerk with a hundred a year. It would be
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 13: an impertinence.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 10: I fear you need have no hopes of miss Worsley.
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 10: I know her views on life. She has just told
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 10: them to me.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 13: Then I have my ambition left at any rate. That
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 13: is something I am glad I have that. You've always
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 13: tried to crush my ambition, mother, haven't you. You've told
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 13: me that the world is a wicked place, that success
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 13: is not worth having, that society is shallow, and all
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 13: that sort of thing. Well, I don't believe it, mother.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 13: I think the world must be delightful. I think society
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 13: must be exquisite. I think success is a thing worth having.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 13: You've been wrong in all that you taught me, mother,
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 13: quite wrong. Lord Illingworth is a successful man. He is
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 13: a fashionable man. He's a man who lives in the
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 13: world and for it. Well, I would give anything to
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 13: be just like Lord Illingworth.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 10: I would sooner see you dead.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: Mother.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 13: What is your objection to Lord Illingworth? Tell me tell
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 13: me right out what is it.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 10: He is a bad man in.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 13: What way bad? I don't understand what you mean.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 10: I will tell you.
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 13: I suppose you think him bad because he doesn't believe
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 13: in the same things as you. Well, men are different
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 13: from women, Mother, It is natural that they should have
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 13: different views.
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 10: It is not what Lord Illingworth believes or what he
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 10: does not believe, makes him bad. It is what he is.
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 13: Mother. Is it something you know of him, something you
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 13: actually know? It is something I know, something you're quite
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 13: sure of.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 10: Quite sure of. How long have you known it for
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 10: twenty years?
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 13: Is it fair to go back twenty years in any
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 13: man's career? And what have you or I to do
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 13: with Lord Illingworth's early life? What business is it of ours?
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 10: What this man has been, he is now and will
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 10: be always.
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 13: Mother, tell me what Lord Illingworth did. If you did
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 13: anything shameful, I will not go away with him. Surely
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 13: you know me well enough for that.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 11: Gerald.
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 10: Come near to me, quite close to me, as you
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 10: used to do when you were a little boy, when
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 10: you were a mother's own boy.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: Gerald sits down beside his mother. She runs her fingers
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: through his hair and strokes his hands.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 10: Gerald. There was a girl once. She was very young.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 10: She was a little over eighteen at the time. George Harford,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 10: that was Lord Illingworth's No. Then George Harford met her
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 10: she knew nothing about life. He knew everything. He made
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 10: this girl love him. He made her love him so
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 10: much that she left her father's house with him one morning.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 10: She loved him so much, and he had promised to
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 10: marry her. He had solemnly promised to marry her, and
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 10: she had believed him. She was very young and and
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 10: ignorant of what life really is. But he put the
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 10: marriage off. From week to week, in month to month.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 10: She trusted in him all the while. She loved him
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 10: before her child was born, for she had a child.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 10: She implored him, for the child's sake, to marry her,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 10: that the child might have a name, that her sin
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 10: might not be visited on the child, who was innocent.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 10: He refused. After the child was born, she left him,
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 10: taking the child away, and her life was ruined, and
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 10: her soul ruined. In all that was sweet and good
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 10: and pure in her ruined. Also. She suffered terribly. She
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 10: suffers now, She will always suffer. For her, there is
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 10: no joy, no peace, no atonement. She is a woman
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 10: who drags a chain like a guilty thing. She is
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 10: a woman who wears a mask like a thing that
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 10: is a leper. The fire cannot purify her. The waters
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 10: cannot quench her anguish. Nothing can heal her. No anodyne
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 10: can give her sleep, no poppies forgetfulness. She is lost.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 10: She is a lost soul. That is why I call
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 10: Lord Illingworth a bad man. That is why I don't
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 10: want my boy to be with him.
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 13: My dear mother. It all sounds very tragic, of course,
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 13: but I dare say the girl was just as much
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 13: to blame as Lord Illingworth was. After all, what a
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 13: really nice girl, a girl with any nice feelings at all,
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 13: go away from her home with a man to whom
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 13: she was not married and live with him as his wife.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 13: No nice girl would.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 10: Gerald, I withdraw all my objects. You are at liberty
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 10: to go away with Lord Illingworth, when and where you.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 13: Choose, Dear mother, I knew you wouldn't stand in my way.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 13: You are the best woman God ever made. And as
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 13: for Lord Illingworth, I don't believe he is capable of
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 13: anything infamous or base. I can't believe it of him.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: I can't outside.
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 12: Let me go, let me go.
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: Enter Hester in terror and rushes over to Gerald and
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: flings herself in his arms.
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 12: Oh save me, save me from him, from whom he
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 12: has insulted me, horribly insulted me.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 8: Save me?
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 13: Who who has dad?
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: Ord Illingworth enters at back of stage. Hester breaks from
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: Gerald's arm and points to him. Gerald. He is quite
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: beside himself with rage and indignation.
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 13: Not living with You've insulted the purest thing on God's earth.
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 13: I think as pure as my own mother. You have
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 13: insulted the woman I loved most of the world with
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 13: my mother, as there is a god in heaven.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: I will kill you, missus arbuthnutt rushing across and catching
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: hold of him. No, no, Gerald, thrusting her back.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 13: Don't holve me mother till Ruby. I'll kill him.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 10: Gerald, let me go. I say stop, Gerald, stop, he
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 10: is your own father.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: Gerald clutches his mother's hands and looks into her face.
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: She sinks slowly on the ground in shame. Hester steals
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: toward the door. Lord Ellingworth frowns and bites his lip.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: After a time, Gerald raises his mother up, puts his
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: arm around her, and leads her from the room. Act drop,
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: end of third act, fourth act of A Woman of
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: No Importance by Oscar Wilde. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Sitting
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: room at Missus Arbuthnut's large open French window at back
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: looking on to garden door's right of center and left
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: of center. Gerald Arbuthnut writing at table enter Alice right
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: of center, followed by Lady Hunston and Missus Allenby.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 9: Lady Anstanton and Missus Allenby.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: Exit left of center.
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 6: Good morning, Gerald.
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: Gerald rising, Good morning, Lady Hunstanton, Good morning, Missus Allenby
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: sitting down.
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 6: We came to inquire for your dear mother, Gerald. I
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 6: hope she is better.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 13: My mother has not come down yet, Lady Hounstanton.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 6: Ah, I am afraid the heat was too much for
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 6: her last night. I think there must have been thunder
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 6: in the air, or perhaps it was the music. Music
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 6: makes one feel so romantic. At least it always gets
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 6: on one's not.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 8: It's the same thing nowadays.
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 6: I am so glad. I don't know what you mean, dear.
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 6: I am afraid you mean something wrong.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 5: Ah.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 6: I see you are examining missus arbotn Nott's pretty room.
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 6: Isn't it nice and old fashioned?
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: Surveying the room through her orn yet it.
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 8: Looks quite the happy English home.
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 6: That's just the word, dear, that just describes it. One
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 6: feels your mother's good influence in everything she has about her.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 8: Gerald Lord Illingworth says that all influence is bad, but
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 8: that a good influence is the worst in the world.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 6: When Lord Dillingworth knows Missus Arbuthnut better, he will change
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 6: his mind. I must certainly bring him here.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 8: I should like to see Lord Illingworth in a happy
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 8: English home.
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 6: It would do him a great deal of good, Dear.
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 6: Most women in London nowadays seem to furnish their rooms
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 6: with nothing but all kids, foreigners and French novels. But
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 6: here we have the room of a sweet saint, fresh
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 6: natural flowers, books that don't shock one, pictures that one
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 6: can look at without blushing.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 8: But I like blushing.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 6: Well. There is a good deal to be said for blushing,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 6: if one can do it at the proper moment. Poor
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 6: dear Hunstanton used to tell me I didn't blush nearly
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 6: often enough. But then he was so very particular. He
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 6: wouldn't let me know any of his men friends, except
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 6: those who were over seventy, like poor Lord Ashton, who, afterwards,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 6: by the way, was brought into the divorce court, a
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 6: most unfortunate case.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 8: I delight in men over seventy. They always offer one
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 8: the devotion of a lifetime. I think seventy an ideal
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 8: age for a man.
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 6: She is quite incorrigible, Gerald, isn't she? By the bye? Gerald,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 6: I hope your dear mother will come and see me
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 6: more often. Now you and Lord Dillingworth start almost immediately,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 6: don't you.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 13: I have given up my intention of being Lord Illingworth's secretary.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 6: Surely not, Gerald, It would be most unwise of you.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 6: What reason can you have.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 13: I don't think I should be suitable for the post.
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 8: I wish Lord Illingworth would ask me to be his secretary,
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 8: but he says I am not serious enough.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 6: My dear, you really must talk like that in this house.
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 6: Missus Arbathnach doesn't know anything about the wicked society in
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 6: which we all live. She won't go into it. She
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 6: is far too good. I consider it was a great
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 6: honor her coming to me last night. It gave quite
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 6: an atmosphere of respectability to the party.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 8: Ah, that must have been what you thought was thunder
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 8: in the air, My.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 6: Dear, how can you say that there is no resemblance
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 6: between the two things at all. But really, Gerald, what
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 6: do you mean by not being suitable?
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 13: Lord Illingworth's views of life and mine are too different.
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 6: But my dear Gerald, at your age, you shouldn't have
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 6: any views of life. They are quite out of place.
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 6: You must be guided by others in this matter. Lord
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 6: Illingworth has made you the most flattering offer, and with
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 6: him you would see the world as much of it,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 6: at least as one should look at under the best
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 6: auspices possible, and stay with all the right people which
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 6: are so important at this solemn moment in your career.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 13: I don't want to see the world. I've seen enough
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 13: of it.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 8: I hope you don't think you have exhausted life, mister Arbuthnot.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 8: When a man says that, one knows that life has
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 8: exhausted him.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 6: I don't wish to leave my mother now, Gerald, that
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 6: is pure laziness on your part. Not leave your mother.
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 6: If I were your mother, I would insist on your going.
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: Enter Alice left of center.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 9: Missus Arbuthnot's compliments, milady, But she has a bad headache
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 9: and cannot see anyone this morning.
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: Exit right of center rising.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 6: A bad headache. I am so sorry perhaps you'll bring
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 6: her up to Hunstanton this afternoon if she is better.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 13: Gerald, I am afraid not this afternoon, Lady hunstandon.
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 6: Well tomorrow then Ah. If you had a father, Gerald,
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 6: he wouldn't let you waste your life here. I would
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 6: send you off with lor Dillingworth at once. But mothers
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 6: are so weak they give up to their sons in everything.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 6: We are all heart, all heart. Come dear, I must
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 6: call at the rectory and inquire for Missus Daubeny, who
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 6: I am afraid is far from well. It is wonderful
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 6: how the Archdeacon bears up, Quite wonderful. He is the
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 6: most sympathetic of husbands, quite a model. Good Bye, Gerald,
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 6: give my fondest love to your mother.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 8: Good Bye, mister r Buttnet.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: Goodbye Exit Lady Hunston and Missus Allenby. Gerald sits down
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: and reads over his letter.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 13: What name can I sign? I, who have no right
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 13: to any.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: Name sign's name? Puts letter into Emperor, addresses it and
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: is about to seal it when door left of center
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: opens and Missus Arbusnet enters. Gerald lays down ceiling wax.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: Mother and son look at each other, Lady Hunston through
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: French window at the back.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 6: Good Bye again, Gerald, we are taking the short cut
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 6: across your pretty garden. Now remember my advice to you
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 6: start at once with Lord Illingworth.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 8: A revoir, mister r Buthnet, Mind you bring me back
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 8: something nice from your travels, not an Indian shawl on
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 8: no account an Indian shawl.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 13: Ex whether I've just written to him to whom to
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 13: my father? I have written to tell him to come
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 13: here at four o'clock this afternoon.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 10: He shall not come here, he shall not cross the
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 10: threshold of my house.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 13: He must come.
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 6: Gerald.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 10: If you are going away with Lord Illingworth, go at once,
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 10: go before it kills me. But don't ask me to
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 10: meet him.
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 13: Mother, You don't understand. Nothing in the world would induce
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 13: me to go away with Lord Illingworth or to leave you.
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 13: Surely you know me well enough for that.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 10: No.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 13: I have written to him to.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 10: Say what can you have to say to him?
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 13: Can't you guess, mother, what I have written in this letter? No, Mother,
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 13: surely you can think. Think what must be done now
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 13: at once, within the next few days.
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 10: There is nothing to be done.
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 13: I have written to Lord Illingworth to tell him that
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 13: he must marry you. Marry me, mother, I will force
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 13: him to do it. The wrong that has been done
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 13: you must be repaired. Atonement must be made. Justice may
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 13: be slow, mother, but it comes in the end. In
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 13: a few days, you shall be Lord Illingworth's lawful wife.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 10: But Gerald's.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 13: I will insist upon his doing it. I will make
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 13: him do it. He will not dare to refuse.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 10: But Gerald it is I who refuse. I will not
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 10: marry Lord Illingworth.
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 13: Not marry him. Mother.
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 10: I will not marry him.
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 13: Mother, you must I will not.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 10: You talk of atonement for a wrong done. What atonement
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 10: can be made to me? There is no atonement possible.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 10: I am disgraced, he is not.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 8: That is all.
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 10: It is the usual history of a man and a woman,
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 10: as it usually happens, as it always happens, And the
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 10: ending is the ordinary ending. The woman suffers, the man
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 10: goes free.
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 13: I don't know if that is the ordinary ending, Mother,
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 13: I hope it is not. But your life, at any rate,
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 13: shall not end like that. The man shall make whatever
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 13: reparation is possible. It is not enough. It does not
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 13: wipe out the past. I know that, But at least
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 13: it makes the future better better of you, Mother.
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 10: I refuse to marry Lord Illingworth.
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 13: If he came to you himself and asked you to
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 13: be his wife, you would give him a different answer.
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 13: Remember he is my father.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 10: If he came himself, which he will not do, my
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 10: answer would be the same. Remember I am your mother.
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 13: Mother. You make it terribly difficult for me by talking
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 13: like that. And I can't understand why you won't look
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 13: at this matter from the right, from the only proper standpoint.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 13: It is to take away the bitterness out of your life,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 13: to take away the shadow that lies on your name.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 13: That this marriage must take place. There is no alternative.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 13: And after the marriage, you and I can go away together,
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 13: but the marriage must take place first. It is a
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 13: he that you owe, not mere it yourself, but to
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 13: all other women. Yes, to all other women in the world,
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 13: lest he betray more.
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 10: I owe nothing to other women. There is not one
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 10: of them to help me. There is not one woman
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 10: in the world to whom I could go for pity
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 10: if I would take it, or for sympathy if I
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 10: could win it. Women are hard on each other. That
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 10: girl last night good, though she is fled from the
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 10: room as though I were a tainted thing. She was right,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 10: I am a tainted thing. But my wrongs are my own,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 10: and I will bear them alone. I must bear them alone.
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 10: What of women who have not sinned?
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 13: To do with me?
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 10: Or I with them? We do not understand each other.
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: Enter hester behind.
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 13: I implore you to do what I ask you.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 10: What son has ever asked of his mother to make
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 10: so hideous a sacrifice? None?
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 13: What mother has ever refused to marry the father of
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 13: your own child? None?
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 10: Let me be the first. Then, I will not do it.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 13: Whither you believe in religion you brought me up to
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 13: believe in it all, sir, well, surely your religion, the
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 13: religion that you taught me when I was a boy,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 13: and mother must tell you that I am right. You
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 13: know it, you feel it.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 10: I do not know it. I do not feel it.
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 10: Nor will I ever stand before God's altar and ask
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 10: God's blessing on so hideous a mockery as a marriage
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 10: between me and George Harford. I will not say the
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 10: words the church bids us to say. I will not
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 10: say them. I dare not. How could I swear to
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 10: love the man I loathe to honor him who wrought
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 10: you dishonor to obey him who, in his mastery made
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 10: me to sin. No marriage is a sacrament for those
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 10: who love each other. It is not for such as
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 10: him or such as me, Gerald, to save you from
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 10: the world's sneers and taunts. I have lied to the
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 10: world for twenty years. I have lied to the world.
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 10: I could not tell the world the truth. Who can, ever?
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 10: But not for my own sake will I lie to God?
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 10: And in God's presence. No Gerald, no Surah, church hallowed,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 10: or state made, shall ever bind me to George Harford.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 10: It may be that I am too bound to him already,
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 10: who rubbing me yet left me richer, so that in
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 10: the mire of my life I found the pearl of price,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 10: or what I thought would be. So I don't understand
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 10: you now, men don't understand what mothers are. I am
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 10: no different from other women, except in the wrong done
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 10: me and the wrong I did, and my very heavy
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 10: punishments and great disgrace. And yet to bear you, I
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 10: had to look on death to nurture you. I had
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 10: to wrestle with it. Death fought with me for you.
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 10: All women have to fight with death to keep their children. Death,
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 10: being childless, wants our children from us. Gerald. When you
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 10: were naked, I clothed you when you were hungry. I
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 10: gave you food night and day. All that long winter
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 10: I tended you. No office is too mean, no care
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 10: too lowly for the thing we women love. And oh
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 10: how I loved you, not Hannah Samuel Moore, And you
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 10: needed love, for you were weakly, and only love could
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 10: have kept you alive. Only love can keep any one alive.
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 10: And boys are careless often, and without thinking give pain.
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 10: And we always fancy that when they come to man's
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 10: estate and know us better, they will repay us. But
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 10: tis not so. The world draws them from our side,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 10: and they make friends with whom they are happier than
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 10: they are with us, and have amusements from which we
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 10: are barred, and interest that are not ours. And they
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 10: are unjust to us often, for when they find life bitter,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 10: they blame us for it, and when they find it sweet,
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 10: we do not taste its sweetness.
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 8: With them.
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 10: You made many friends, and went into their houses and
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 10: were glad with them. And I, knowing my secret, did
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 10: not dare to follow, but stayed at home and closed
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 10: the door, shut out the sun, and sat in darkness.
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 10: What should I have done? In honest households? My past
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 10: was ever with me, And you thought I didn't care
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 10: for the pleasant things of life. I tell you I
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 10: longed for them, but did not dare to touch them,
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 10: feeling I had no right. You thought I was happier
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 10: working amongst the poor. That was my mission, you imagined
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 10: it was not. But where else was I to go?
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 10: The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothed
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 10: their pillow is pure, nor the dying care of the
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 10: lips that touched their brow have known the kiss of sin.
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 10: It was you I thought of, all the time I
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 10: gave to them, the love you did not need, lavished
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 10: on them a love that was not theirs. And you
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 10: thought I spent too much of my time in going
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 10: to church and in church duties. But where else could
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 10: I turn? God's house is the only house where sinners
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 10: are made welcome. And you were always in my heart,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 10: gerald too much in my heart. For though day after day,
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 10: at morn or even song, I have knelt in God's house,
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 10: I have never repented of my sin. How could I
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 10: repent of my sin when you, my love, were its fruit.
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 10: Even now that you are bitter to me, I cannot repent.
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 10: I do not. You are more to me than innocence.
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 10: I would rather be your mother, oh much, rather than
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 10: have been always pure. Oh, don't you see? Don't you understand?
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 10: It is my dishonor that has made you so dear
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 10: to me. It is my disgrace that has bound you
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 10: so closely to me. It is the price I paid
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 10: for you, the price of soul and body that makes
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 10: me love you as I do. Oh, don't ask me
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 10: to do this horrible thing. Child of my shame, be
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 10: still the child of my shame.
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 13: Mother. I didn't know you loved me so much as that.
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 13: And I will be a better son to you than
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 13: I have been. I must never leave each other. But mother,
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 13: I can't help it. You must become my father's wife.
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 13: You must marry him. It is your.
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: Duty hester running forwards and embracing missus Arbuthnert.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 12: No, no, you shall not. That would be real dishonor.
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 12: The first you have ever known. That would be real disgrace,
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 12: the first to touch you. Leave him and come with me.
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 12: There are other countries than England, Oh, other countries over
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 12: the sea, better wiser and less unjust lands. The world
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 12: is very wide and very big.
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 10: No, not for me. For me, the wild is shriveled
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 10: to a poem's breadth, And where I walk their thorns.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 12: It shall not be.
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 13: So.
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 12: We shall somewhere find green valleys and fresh waters. And
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 12: if we weep well, we shall weep together. Have we
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 12: not both loved him?
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 13: Hester?
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: Waving him back?
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 12: Don't don't. You cannot love me at all unless you
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 12: love her. Also, you cannot honor me unless she is
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 12: holier to you. In her all womanhood is martyred, not
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 12: she alone, but all of us are stricken in her house?
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 13: Hester, Hester, What shall I do?
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 12: Do you respect the man who is your father?
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 13: Respect him? I despise him. He is infamous.
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 12: I thank you for saving me from him last night.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 13: Ah, that is nothing. I would die to save you.
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 13: But you don't tell me what to do now?
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 12: Have I not thanked you for saving me?
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 13: But what should I do?
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 12: Ask your own heart, not mine. I never had a
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 12: mother to save or shame.
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 10: He is hard. He is hard. Let me go away, mother,
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 10: forgive me.
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 13: I have been to blame.
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 10: Don't kiss my hands, they are cold. My heart is cold.
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 10: Something has broken it.
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 12: Ah, don't say that hearts live by being wounded. Pleasure
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 12: may turn a heart to stone. Riches may make it callous.
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 12: But sorrow, oh sorrow, cannot break it. Besides, what sorrows
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 12: have you now? Why, at this moment you are more
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 12: dear to him than ever, dear though you have been,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 12: And oh how dear you have been always? Ah, be
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 12: kind to him.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 13: You are my mother and my father all in one.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 13: I need no second parent. It was for you I
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 13: spoke for you alone. Oh say something, Mother, haven't been
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 13: found one love to lose another? Don't tell me that,
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 13: Oh mother, you are cruel.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: Gets up in flames himself, sobbing on a sofa.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 10: But has he found indeed another love?
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 8: You know?
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 12: I have loved him always, But we are very poor.
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 12: Who being loved is poor?
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 13: Oh?
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 12: No one. I hate my riches. They are a burden.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 12: Let him share it with me.
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 10: But we are disgraced. We rank among the out casts.
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 10: Gerald is nameless. The sins of the parents should be
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 10: visited on the children. It is God's law.
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 12: I was wrong. God's law is only love.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: Rises and, taking hester by the hand, goes slowly over
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: to where Gerald is lying on the sofa with his
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: head buried in his hands. She touches him and he
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: looks up.
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 10: Gerald, I cannot give you a father, But I have
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 10: brought you a wife.
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 13: Whether I am not worthy either of her or you.
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 10: So she comes first. You are worthy. And when you
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 10: are away Gerald with her, Oh, think of me sometimes,
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 10: don't forget me. And when you pray, pray for me.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 10: We should pray when we are happiest, and you will
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 10: be happy.
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 11: Gerald.
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 12: Oh, you don't think of leaving us.
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 13: Mother. You won't leave us.
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 10: I might bring shame upon you, mother for a little then,
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 10: and if you let me near you always.
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 12: Come out with us to the garden.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: Later on, later on, exunt Hester and Gerald. Missus Arbuthnut
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: goes towards door left of center, stops at looking glass
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: over mantel piece and looks into it. Enter Alice, right of.
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 9: Center, a gentleman to see you, ma'am, say I am
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 9: not at home.
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: Show me the card, takes card from Salver and looks
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: at it.
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 10: Say I will not see him.
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: Lord Illingworth enters. Missus Arbuthnut sees him in the glass
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: and starts, but does not turn round. Except Alice, what.
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 10: Can you have to say to me to day? George Harford?
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 10: You can have nothing to say to me. You must
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 10: leave this house.
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 14: Rachael Gerald knows everything about you and me now, so
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 14: some arrangement must be come to that will suit us
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 14: all three. I assure you he will find in me
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 14: the most charming and generous of fathers.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 10: My son may come in at any moment. I saved
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 10: you last night, I may not be able to save
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 10: you again. My son feels my dishonor strongly, terribly strongly,
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 10: I beg you.
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: To go sitting down.
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 14: Last night was excessively unfortunate, that silly Puritan girl making
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 14: a scene merely because I wanted to kiss her. What
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 14: harm is there in a kiss?
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: Turning round?
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 10: A kiss may ruin a human life? George Harford, I
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 10: know that I know that too well.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 14: We won't discuss that at present. What is of importance
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 14: to day as yesterday is still our son. I am
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 14: extremely fond of him, as you know, and odd though
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 14: it may seem to you, I admired his conduct last
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 14: night immensely. He took up the cudgels for that pretty
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 14: prude with wonderful promptitude. He is just what I should
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 14: have liked a son of mine to be, except that
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 14: no son of mine should ever take the side of
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 14: the Puritans. That is always an error. Now what I
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 14: propose is.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 10: This, Lord Illingworth, no proposition of yours interests me.
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 14: According to our ridiculous English laws, I can't legitimize Gerald,
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 14: but I can leave him my property. Illingworth is entailed,
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 14: of course, but it is a tedious barrakub a place
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 14: he can have Ashby, which is much prettier, Harborough, which
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 14: has the best shooting in the north of England, and
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 14: the house in Saint James's Square. What more can a
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 14: gentleman require in this world?
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 10: Nothing more, I am quite sure.
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 14: As for a title, a title is really rather a
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 14: nuisance in these democratic days. As George Harford, I had
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 14: everything I wanted. Now I have merely everything that other
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 14: people want, which isn't nearly so pleasant. Well, my proposal
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 14: is this.
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 10: I told you I was not interested, and I beg
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 10: you to go.
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 14: The boy is to be with you for six months
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 14: in the year, and with me for the other six.
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 14: That is perfectly fair, is it not. You can have
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 14: whatever allowance you like and live where you choose. As
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 14: for your past, no one knows anything about it except
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 14: myself and Gerald. There is the Puritan, of course, the
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 14: Puritan in White Muslin, but she doesn't count She couldn't
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 14: tell the story without explaining that she objected to being kissed.
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 14: Could she And all the women would think her a fool,
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 14: and the men think her a bore. And you need
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 14: not be afraid that Gerald won't be my heir. I
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 14: needn't tell you I have not the slightest intention of marrying.
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 10: You come too late. My son has no need of you.
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 10: You are not necessary.
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 14: What do you mean, Rachel, that.
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 10: You are not necessary to Gerald's career. He does not
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 10: require you.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 14: I do not understand you look into the garden.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 10: You had better not let them see you. You bring
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 10: unpleasant memories. She loves him, They love each other. We
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 10: are safe from you, and we are going away where
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 10: we will not tell you, and if you find us,
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 10: we will not know you. You seem surprised. What welcome
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 10: would you get from the girl whose lips you try
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 10: to soil, From the boy whose life you have shamed,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 10: From the mother whose dishonor comes from you.
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 14: You have grown hard, Rachel.
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 10: I was too weak once. It is well for me
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 10: that I have changed.
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 14: I was very young at the time. We men know
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 14: life too early.
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 10: And we women no life too late. That is the
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 10: difference between men and women.
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 14: Rachel, I want my son. My money may be of
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 14: no use to him now I may be of no
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 14: use to him, but I want my son. Bring us together, Rachel.
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 14: You can do it if you choose.
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: Sees letter on table.
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 10: There is no room in my boy's life for you.
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 10: He is not interested in you.
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 14: Then why does he write to me?
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 10: What do you mean?
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 14: What letter is this?
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 10: That is nothing? Give it to me.
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 14: It is addressed to me.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 10: You are not to open it. I forbid you to
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 10: open it.
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 14: And in Gerald's handwriting, it was not.
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 10: To have been sent. It is a letter he wrote
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 10: to you this morning before he saw me. But he
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 10: is sorry now he wrote it very sorry. You are
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 10: not to open it. Give it to me.
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 14: It belongs to me. You have read this letter, I suppose, Rachel. No,
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 14: you know what is in it. Yes, I don't admit
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 14: for a moment that the boy is writing what he says.
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 14: I don't admit that it is any duty of mine
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 14: to marry you. I deny it in entirely. But to
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 14: get my son back, I am ready. Yes, I am
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 14: ready to marry you, Rachel, and to treat you always
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 14: with the deference and respect due to my wife. I
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 14: will marry you as soon as you choose. I give
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 14: you my word of honor.
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 10: You made that promise to me once before and broke it.
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 14: I will keep it now, and that will show you
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 14: that I love my son at least as much as
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 14: you love him. For when I marry you, Rachel, there
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 14: are some ambitions I shall have to surrender high ambitions too.
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 14: If any ambition is high.
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 10: I decline to marry you, Lord Illingworth.
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 14: Are you serious?
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 10: Yes?
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 14: Do tell me your reasons. They would interest me enormously.
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 10: I have already explained them to my son.
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 14: I suppose they were intensely sentimental, weren't they? You women
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 14: live by your emotions and for them. You have no
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 14: philosophy of life.
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 10: You are right. We women live by our emotions and
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 10: for them, by our passions, and for them, if you will.
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 10: I have two passions, Lord Illingworth, my love him, my
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 10: hate of you. You cannot kill those They feed each other.
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 14: What sort of love is it which needs to have
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 14: hate as its brother?
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 10: It is the sort of love I have for Gerald.
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 10: Do you think that terrible? Well, it is terrible. All
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 10: love is terrible. All love is a tragedy. I loved
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 10: you once Lord Illingworth. Oh, what a tragedy for a
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 10: woman to have loved you.
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 14: So you really refuse to marry me?
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 10: Yes?
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 14: Because you hate me?
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 11: Yes?
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 14: And does my son hate me as you do?
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 10: No?
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 14: I am glad of.
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 10: That, Rachel, He merely despises you.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 14: What a pity, What a pity for him?
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 10: I mean, don't be deceived, George. Children begin by loving
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 10: their parents after a time. They judge them. Rarely, if ever,
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 10: do they forgive them.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: Reads the letter over again, very slowly.
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 14: May I ask by what arguments you made the boy
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 14: who wrote this letter, this beautiful, passionate letter, believe that
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 14: you should not marry his father, the father of your
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 14: own child.
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 10: It was not I who made him see it? It
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 10: was another, what thin desecal person, the puritan Lord Illingworth?
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: Lord Illingworth winters, then rises slowly and goes over to
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: table where his hat and gloves are. Missus Arbuthnet is
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: standing close to the table. He picks up one of
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: the gloves and begins pulling it on.
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 14: There is not much then for me to do here, Rachel.
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 10: Nothing.
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 14: It is good bye? Is it?
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 13: For ever?
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 10: I hope this time?
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 14: Lord Illingworth, how curious at this moment you look exactly
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 14: as you look the night you left me twenty years ago.
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 14: You have just the same expression in your mouth upon
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 14: my word, Rachel, no woman ever loved me as you did.
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 14: Why you gave yourself to me like a flower to
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 14: do anything I liked with You were the prettiest of playthings,
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 14: the most fascinating of small romances. Quarter to two must
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 14: be strolling back to Huntstanton. Don't suppose I shall see
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 14: you there again. I'm sorry, I am really, it's been
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 14: an amusing experience to have met amongst people at one's
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 14: own rank, and treated quite seriously too, one's mistress and
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 14: one's missus.
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: Sarbuthne snatches up glove and strikes Lord Illingworth across the
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: face with it. Lord Illingworth starts, he is dazed by
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: the insult of his punishment. Then he controls himself and
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: goes to window and looks out at his son, sighs
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: and leaves the room. Missus Arbuthnet falls sobbing on the sofa.
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 10: He would have said it, He would have said it.
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: Entered Gerald and Hester from the garden.
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 13: Well, dear mother, you never came out after all, so
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 13: we have come to fetch you.
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 10: Mother.
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 13: You've not been crying.
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: Kneels down beside her, My boy, my boy, my boy,
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: running her fingers through his hair.
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 12: But you have two children, now you'll let me be
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 12: your daughter.
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 10: Would you choose me for a mother?
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 12: You of all women I have ever known.
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: They moved towards the door leading into garden, with their
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: arms round each other's waist. Gerald goes to table left
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: of center for his hat. On turning round, he sees
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: Lord Illingworth's glove lying on the floor and picks it up.
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 13: Hello, mother, whose glove is this? You've had a visitor?
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 13: Who was it?
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 6: Oh?
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 10: No one, no one in particular a man of no importance.
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: Curtain end of fourth act, End of a Woman of
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: No Importance by Oscar Wilde