Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

lord windermere

Allow me!

mrs. erlynne

No; I want Lord Augustus. I have a special message for the dear Duchess. Won’t you carry the fan, Lord Augustus?

lord augustus

If you really desire it, Mrs. Erlynne.

mrs. erlynne

[ Laughing .] Of course I do. You’ll carry it ·130· so gracefully. You would carry off anything gracefully, dear Lord Augustus.

[ When she reaches the door she looks back for a moment at Lady Windermere. Their eyes meet. Then she turns, and exit C. followed by Lord Augustus .]

lady windermere

You will never speak against Mrs. Erlynne again, Arthur, will you?

lord windermere

[ Gravely .] She is better than one thought her.

lady windermere

She is better than I am.

lord windermere

[ Smiling as he strokes her hair .] Child, you and she belong to different worlds. Into your world evil has never entered.

lady windermere

Don’t say that, Arthur. There is the same world for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in hand. To shut one’s eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a land of pit and precipice.

·131· lord windermere

[ Moves down with her .] Darling, why do you say that?

lady windermere

[ Sits on sofa .] Because I, who had shut my eyes to life, came to the brink. And one who had separated us——

lord windermere

We were never separated.

lady windermere

We never must be again. Oh Arthur, don’t love me less, and I will trust you more. I will trust you absolutely. Let us go to Selby. In the Rose Garden at Selby the roses are white and red.

[ Enter Lord Augustus C .

lord augustus

Arthur, she has explained everything!

[ Lady Windermere looks horribly frightened at this. Lord Windermere starts. Lord Augustus takes Windermere by the arm and brings him to front of stage. He talks rapidly and in a low voice. Lady Windermere stands watching them in terror .]

My dear fellow, she has explained every demmed thing. We all wronged her immensely. It was ·132· entirely for my sake she went to Darlington’s rooms. Called first at the Club—fact is, wanted to put me out of suspense—and being told I had gone on—followed—naturally frightened when she heard a lot of us coming in—retired to another room—I assure you, most gratifying to me, the whole thing. We all behaved brutally to her. She is just the woman for me. Suits me down to the ground. All the conditions she makes are that we live entirely out of England. A very good thing, too. Demmed clubs, demmed climate, demmed cooks, demmed everything. Sick of it all!

lady windermere

[ Frightened .] Has Mrs. Erlynne——?

lord augustus

[ Advancing towards her with a low bow .] Yes, Lady Windermere—Mrs. Erlynne has done me the honour of accepting my hand.

lord windermere

Well, you are certainly marrying a very clever woman!

lady windermere

[ Taking her husband’s hand .] Ah, you’re marrying a very good woman!

Curtain



by

Oscar Wilde

London: John Lane at the

Sign of the Bodley Head

in Vigo Street, 1894

[The text follows the

first edition.]

contents.



First Act.

Second Act.

Third Act.

Fourth Act.

·[v]· to

gladys

countess de grey

·[vii]· the persons of the play

lord illingworth

sir john pontefract

lord alfred rufford

mr. kelvil, M.P.

the ven. archdeacon daubeny, D.D.

gerald arbuthnot

farquhar, Butler

francis, Footman

lady hunstanton

lady caroline pontefract

lady stutfield

mrs. allonby

miss hester worsley

alice, Maid

mrs. arbuthnot

·[ix]· the scenes of the play

Act I: The Terrace at Hunstanton Chase .

Act II: The Drawing-room at Hunstanton Chase .

Act III: The Hall at Hunstanton Chase .

Act IV: Sitting-room in Mrs. Arbuthnot’s House at Wrockley .

Time The Present .

Place The Shires .

The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours.

·[xi]· LONDON: HAYMARKET THEATRE

Lessee and Manager: Mr. H. Beerbohm Tree April 19 th, 1893

·1· SCENE—Lawn in front of the terrace at Hunstanton.

[ Sir John and Lady Caroline Pontefract, Miss Worsley, on chairs under large yew tree .]

lady caroline

I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley?

hester

Yes, Lady Caroline.

lady caroline

You have no country houses, I am told, in America?

hester

We have not many.

lady caroline

Have you any country? What we should call country?

·2· hester

[ Smiling .] We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used to tell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together.

lady caroline

Ah! you must find it very draughty, I should fancy. [ To Sir John .] John, you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you won’t wear them?

sir john

I am quite warm, Caroline, I assure you.

lady caroline

I think not, John. Well, you couldn’t come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here. [ To Sir John .] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle——

sir john

Kelvil, my love, Kelvil.

lady caroline

He must be quite respectable. One has never ·3· heard his name before in the whole course of one’s life, which speaks volumes for a man, now-a-days. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very suitable person.

hester

I dislike Mrs. Allonby. I dislike her more than I can say.

lady caroline

I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate likes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet. Mrs. Allonby is very well born. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster’s. It is said, of course, that she ran away twice before she was married. But you know how unfair people often are. I myself don’t believe she ran away more than once.