elizabeth bennet lines

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LYDIA: Lizzy, there's a note for you from Charlotte.

ELIZABETH and CHARLOTTE: "My dear Lizzy—"

CHARLOTTE: I hope you and your sisters are still planning to join us tonight. It's been ages since we've had a good dance here. Just about all the neighborhood is coming, including the new tenants at Netherfield. Your friend—

ELIZABETH: Charlotte!

CHARLOTTE: Oh, Lizzy…

ELIZABETH: Goodness, you’d think something crawled into his supper and died. Likely he doesn’t dance because he’s bad at it.

CHARLOTTE: But he is so very rich. Would you refuse ten thousand a year?

ELIZABETH: I wouldn't dance with him if he begged me.

JANE: I didn't think Mr. Bingley would ask me to dance a second time.

ELIZABETH: You were the only one in any doubt of it. He certainly is very agreeable. I give you leave to like him.

JANE: Lizzy.

ELIZABETH: You've liked many a stupider person.

JANE: Lizzy! I wouldn't wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think. My opinions, if nothing else, are earned.

ELIZABETH: You take the good of everybody's character and make it still better. For example, this young man. I think we all know how you feel about him, and he may just be deserving of it. And what of this friend of his?

JANE: Mr. Darcy?

ELIZABETH: Your Mr. Bingley is open and warm, while Mr. Darcy is aloof and arrogant.

JANE: Who are we to say what he is like? Of course he was uncomfortable in a room full of

strangers.

ELIZABETH: How like you to defend the person everybody else sees as indefensible.

CHARLOTTE: Betsy made scones. I played the rascal and took a few when she wasn't looking.

ELIZABETH: Charlotte, what do you think of Jane and Mr. Bingley?

CHARLOTTE: She needs to make the most of every moment she has with him. When she is

secure of his affection, then there will be leisure for falling in love.

ELIZABETH: Leisure? You make marriage out to be but a business transaction.

CHARLOTTE: Isn't it? Love comes later.

ELIZABETH: Not for me.

CHARLOTTE: These things require strategy. Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If you plan for it, you're far more likely to be disappointed.

ELIZABETH: I can't imagine anyone not falling in love with you.

JANE: My dearest Lizzy, I find myself very unwell this morning, which is at least partially due to yesterday's downpour. I have a kind friend in Miss Bingley, who won't hear of my returning home till I'm better. Except for a sore throat and a headache, there is not much the matter with me.

ELIZABETH: She's worse than she sounds. I need to see how she is. 

BINGLEY: Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

ELIZABETH: I've come to inquire after my sister, please.

BINGLEY: I'm sorry to say that her head cold has given way to a fever. Would you like to see her?

ELIZABETH: Yes, thank you.

CAROLINE: When you build your house, Charles, we can only hope it might be half as sublime

as Pemberley.

ELIZABETH: Is a house really worth so much fuss?

WICKHAM: Have you good dances here?

ELIZABETH: We enjoy them.

WICKHAM: How long has Mr. Darcy been in the neighborhood?

ELIZABETH: About a month. Do you know him?

WICKHAM: I've been connected to that family since my infancy. His father, the late Mr. Darcy, left me a parish in Derbyshire, as the church should have been my profession. But when the dear old man died, Darcy gave it to another. I've had to make my living elsewhere.

ELIZABETH: I've never liked him, but I had not thought him so bad as this.

WICKHAM: His actions may be traced to pride, and pride has often been his best friend.

ELIZABETH: Can such ways have ever done him good?

CHARLOTTE: Lizzy, what are you doing?

ELIZABETH: Mr. Collins plans to pay me special attention throughout the evening.

CHARLOTTE: There are worse things that could happen.

ELIZABETH: Are there?

CHARLOTTE: You seem to be the desired partner of several men this evening.

ELIZABETH: Why do you say that? Have you seen Wickham?

CHARLOTTE: No. Was he to come tonight?

ELIZABETH: I thought so. I hoped so.

CHARLOTTE: He was not the man I meant.

ELIZABETH: Then who-?

DARCY: Good evening. Might I have the pleasure of the next dance?

ELIZABETH: Yes, thank you.

CHARLOTTE: Think about it, Lizzy. You may find him agreeable.

ELIZABETH: That would be the greatest misfortune of all—to find a man agreeable whom one

is determined to hate. (dance now) It's always a pleasure to hear a good fiddle. (No response.) It's your turn to say something now. I've talked about the music, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.

DARCY: Do you always find it necessary to talk while dancing?

ELIZABETH: One must speak a little, to give the impression of enjoyment.

DARCY: ...Do you and your sisters often walk to Meryton?

ELIZABETH: We do indeed. When you met us there the other day, we had just formed a new

acquaintance

DARCY: Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends.

Whether or not he may be equally capable of retaining them is less certain.

ELIZABETH: He's been so unlucky as to lose your friendship.

DARCY: …..What think you of books?

ELIZABETH: You once said that you hardly ever forgave. That your resentment, once created,

was unappeasable. You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created.

DARCY: I am.

ELIZABETH: You never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice? (He stops dancing.)

DARCY: May I ask what these questions tend?

ELIZABETH: The illustration of your character.

DARCY: And what is your success. 

ELIZABETH: I cannot say.

MRS. BENNET: I'll do all I can to throw the younger girls in the way of other rich men. Perhaps

you and your mother will one day be as fortunate as Jane and I have been.

ELIZABETH: (Coming over:) Mama. Mr. Darcy can hear you.

WICKHAM: Miss Bennet.

ELIZABETH: Mr. Wickham. We missed your company at the ball last night.

WICKHAM: I'm sorry to have disappointed you. I'm grateful for your society, Miss Bennet. Each

morning, I wake with the knowledge that I might join you for a walk.

ELIZABETH: I feel very much the same. I wish I could erase the cruelty you have suffered.

WICKHAM: It's hard to know if a man such as myself is built for joy or heartbreak. I don't know

which l'm better prepared to handle.

ELIZABETH: You deserve some happiness.

MRS. BENNET: (From off:) Lizzy! Where is that girl?

ELIZABETH: I should probably go in.

MRS. BENNET: There you are Mr. Collins was kind enough to wait on you, Lizzy. He is desirous of your company.

ELIZABETH: But Mama, I-

COLLINS: Ahem. My dear Miss Elizabeth, you should know that I have singled you out as the companion for my future life. Such is the particular recommendation of the very noble Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Now nothing remains but for me to assure you of the violence of my affection.

ELIZABETH: You are too hasty, sir. You forget that I've made no answer. Accept my thanks for

the compliment you're paying me. But I must decline.

COLLINS: Heh heh. I know it is common for young ladies to reject the addresses of the man

whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favor.

ELIZABETH: Sir?

COLLINS: I thank you for wishing to increase my love by suspense, according to the usual

practice of elegant females.

ELIZABETH: I assure you l'm not one of those young ladies—if such young ladies there are— who dare risk their happiness on the chance of being proposed to a second time.

CHARLOTTE: Good morning, Mr. Collins.

ELIZABETH: Of all the ridiculous— Jane? Has something happened?

CAROLINE: My dear friend, you've been so kind as to show me the very best of Meryton.

However, we are leaving for London today and will not return to Netherfield this winter.

ELIZABETH: This is not from him. No one who has seen you and Bingley together can doubt

your affection.

JANE: Can I be happy, even supposing the best, in accepting a man whose sister and friends all

wish him to marry elsewhere?

ELIZABETH: You must decide for yourself.

JANE: If he doesn't return this winter... Oh, Lizzy. A thousand things could happen in six months.

ELIZABETH: I'm sorry, dearest. 

MRS. BENNET: Lizzy! You will be the end of my nerves.

ELIZABETH: I cannot love Mr. Collins any more than my duty as his cousin will allow, and even

that affection is slight.

MRS. BENNET: He will inherit this house and we will have nothing when your father dies. You

are the most foolish girl I ever set eyes on.

ELIZABETH: Would you have me wealthy and miserable?

MRS. BENNET: I would have you comfortable. With a roof overhead and never an empty table.

Love is but taste; it fills your nostrils, not your belly.

ELIZABETH: Then let me starve.

MRS. BENNET: What a blessing you are to your mother.

ELIZABETH: Who is the lucky gentleman?

MRS. BENNET: How can you tell such a story? Everyone knows Mr. Collins wants to marry Lizzy.

ELIZABETH: He proposed to you?

CHARLOTTE: We've spent a good deal of time together, talking. Just a little bit ago, he professed his affections and we're to be married.

ELIZABETH: Everything comes down to marriage and money. Money and marriage. Property that passes from father to son, but not father to daughter. The expectation to marry weighs heavily. Why can't we just live?

CHARLOTTE: I can't afford to think that way. I can’t refuse a good living on a whim.

ELIZABETH: I’m sorry, Charlotte. I didn’t mean to- You’ll be so happy, running your own household, and managing it very well.

CHARLOTTE: You’ll have to come and stay with us, Lizzy. Rosings Park, I’m told, is quite a sight to see.

ELIZABETH: Jane? What are you doing?

JANE: I will visit our aunt in London and help with her little ones.

ELIZABETH: Because Bingley is there.

CHARLOTTE: You can't fully understand the joy of running your own home until you find

yourself in the midst of it.

ELIZABETH: This is lovely. You'll be very happy here.

COLLINS: (Entering:) My dear cousin! What felicity it is to have you here with us in our humble abode. Lady Catherine has invited us to dine, as two of her nephews are visiting.

ELIZABETH: Nephews? But that means Mr. Darcy.

FITZWILLIAM: It's good to finally make your acquaintance, Miss Bennet, as I've only heard

stories of your beauty before now.

ELIZABETH: You have me confused with someone else; I know myself to be no more than

tolerable.  Mrs. Collins tells me you are leaving before the week is out.

FITZWILLIAM: Darcy arranges the business as he pleases.

ELIZABETH: I don't know anybody who enjoys more the power of doing what he likes.

FITZWILLIAM: I think you misjudge his character. He is a good man who seldom thinks of

himself. I'll give you an example. A few months back, his friend Bingley—

ELIZABETH: You know Mr. Bingley?

FITZWILLIAM: I've met him once or twice. I have reason to think Bingley is especially indebted to Darcy. He recently found himself in an imprudent relationship that would have turned to matrimony if not for Darcy's interference.

ELIZABETH: Did Mr. Darcy give any reason for this interference?

FITZWILLIAM: I understand there were some very strong objections against the lady and her

family. Forgive me, Miss Bennet. Are you unwell?

ELIZABETH: You're not the one in need of my forgiveness.

DARCY: Miss Bennet. You left before I could— I wanted to— In vain have I struggled. It won't do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire you. No one is more shocked at this turn of events than myself. I have endeavored to overcome my feelings, but I have failed. Therefore, I willingly surrender, and I ask that you do me the honor of accepting my hand.

ELIZABETH: You-surrender?

DARCY: Yes.

ELIZABETH: I am amazed. I have never desired your good opinion, and you have bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to have occasioned pain to anyone. It has been most unconsciously done, and I hope it will be of short duration.

DARCY: Is this all the reply I am to have?

ELIZABETH: Do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps forever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?

DARCY: I have no wish to deny that I did everything in my power to separate my friend from

your sister. I have been kinder to him than to myself.

ELIZABETH: Because you allowed yourself to offer your hand to someone as unworthy as l?

Never have I witnessed such terrible self-loathing.

DARCY: You mistake me.

ELIZABETH: No. I have known your true self since we first met, and my opinion of your character was further decided upon hearing the words of Mr. Wickham.

DARCY: You take an eager interest in that gentleman's concerns.

ELIZABETH: You have reduced him to his present state of poverty. Yet you can treat the mention of his misfortunes with contempt.

DARCY: And this is your opinion of me. My faults are heavy indeed. But perhaps these offenses

might have been overlooked, had not your pride—

ELIZABETH: My pride?

DARCY: —Had not your pride been hurt by the fact that I have misgivings about your family.

Can you expect me to congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?

ELIZABETH: I might have felt some concern in refusing you had you behaved in a more

gentleman-like manner.

DARCY: Miss Bennet—

ELIZABETH: I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world

whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.

DARCY: Miss Bennet. Good morning.

ELIZABETH: Good morning.

DARCY: Will you do me the honor of reading this?

ELIZABETH: "Dear Madam, I write to answer the two offenses you have laid to my charge. First, that I detached Mr. Bingley from your sister; and second, that l've ruined the immediate prosperity and prospects of Mr. Wickham." "I had not been long in Hertfordshire_"

DARCY: This is a faithful narrative of every event in which we have been concerned together. I

remain, Fitzwilliam Darcy.

ELIZABETH: How could I have been so deceived?

JANE: Lizzy, you're home!

ELIZABETH: Oh, Jane. I had the most peculiar time. The strange bit involved, well...Mr. Darcy.

JANE: Mr. Darcy!

ELIZABETH: He proposed.

JANE: To whom? (Off ELIZABETH's look, in pure astonishment:) To you?! What did you say?

ELIZABETH: Too many things. Chief among them— No.

JANE: Oh. Are you certain?

ELIZABETH: I treated him with such disdain. I threw Wickham in his face, and it happens Mr.

Darcy was right. You were both right. Wickham is a rake. I should have seen it, but that smile...

JANE: Well, you'll be glad to hear that Wickham's regiment is moving to Brighton. We shan't

have to see that young man again.

ELIZABETH: Oh, thank goodness. You haven't said a word about London. Did you see anyone

of our acquaintance while you were there?

JANE: No. I didn't.

ELIZABETH: Jane.

JANE: I wish to look back on Mr. Bingley's friendship as a highlight; it would be a greater pain

to forget the memory entirely than to glance at it from time to time.

ELIZABETH: You should come with Aunt Gardiner and me. Nothing but peace and solitude at

the lakes.

JANE: Home is a better fit for me at the moment. I will find the quiet, or it will find me. Be sure

to write.

ELIZABETH: Oh, Jane. If ink and paper could fully express to you the events of today... I'm so astonished that I cannot quite believe the truth of them. To begin, we forfeited our original plans to visit the Lake District in favor of Lambton, the village where our aunt had lived as a child. Lambton, you see, is quite close to—

ELIZABETH and JANE: Pemberley.

ELIZABETH: Mr. Darcy's family home. Oh, Jane. Such a house. Plainer than Rosings, and yet somehow more grand. To see his home—to feel the affection of his father in every room, the admiration of his sister in every hall— That house is not merely impressive. It is good. As he is.

JANE: Oh!

ELIZABETH: Mr. Darcy.

ELIZABETH: (Simultaneously:) We were — I was just—

DARCY: (Simultaneously:) Would you care to— It's good to see you. 

ELIZABETH: And you. I'm sorry to disturb. The housekeeper said you were away—

DARCY: Please don't apologize. I'm simply home earlier than expected. How do you find the

house?

ELIZABETH: It exceeds expectation. You have some very fine-books. ELIZABETH: Oh, Jane. I am all confusion. He is so different from the man we met so many months ago. Warm and affable. Humble, even. I believe I enjoyed his company.

DARCY: Miss Bennet? What's wrong?

ELIZABETH: Lydia has run off.

DARCY: Wickham.

ELIZABETH: Mv father has gone to London in hopes of finding them, but chances are slim— She has no money, no connections. She is lost forever. And I-I must go home.

LYDIA: Oh! I promised him I wouldn't say. He mustn't know I mentioned it.

ELIZABETH: Mr. Darcy was at your wedding?

LYDIA: Hush! It was supposed to be a secret.

ELIZABETH: Mr. Darcy paid for the wedding, didn't he? He knew Papa could not afford it.

KITTY: Someone is with him. I think it's the tall, proud gentleman who—

ELIZABETH: Mr. Darcy?

KITTY: Yes! That is he.

ELIZABETH: I suppose we shall both sit in perfect indifference.

MRS. BENNET: Jane, he's coming. Here.

JANE, ELIZABETH, and MRS. BENNET: What?

DARCY: (Simultaneously:) Miss Bennet, I

ELIZABETH: (Simultaneously:) Mr. Darcy, I- Thank you for your kindness to my poor sister.

DARCY: Your family owes me nothing. I thought only of you.

ELIZABETH: Me?

DARCY: I must know— Are your feelings still what they were last April? My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.

ELIZABETH: I thought I hated you more than a person could be hated.

DARCY: My behavior to you and your sister was unpardonable.

ELIZABETH: You were acting on behalf of others. I only thought of how I felt, and how you were

responsible for it.

DARCY: I was responsible. "Had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner." You can't

know how those words have tortured me.

ELIZABETH: I hadn't the smallest idea of them being felt in such a way. How I regret them.

DARCY: Don't. I'm grateful to you, for saying to me what no one has dared say. I've spent too much of my life holding myself up as if I was somehow better. But I've found a way to be better. I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, when first I realized that you have bewitched me body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you.

ELIZABETH: Was it one of the many times my behavior toward you bordered on the uncivil?