"(FANNY) My dear brother William," "I was much delighted by your letter from Gibraltar and by the sketch you sent me of your sloop, which sits now very handsome on this table." "But most of all to learn you may be again in England before the year is out." "My uncle is expected from Antigua in November, and tonight at Mansfield we celebrate the return of my cousin Tom." "He has recently come home from the races at Basingstoke, where I fear he had small success by his own account." "He brings with him a young gentleman, the Honourable John Yates, who is to spend some weeks here." "So with the addition of a fiddler and Mrs Grant, we shall make five couples." "Since five it may be, if I am asked to dance." "(JAUNTY FIDDLE MUSIC)" "We see some happy faces again now." "I mean dear Maria and Mr Rushworth." "She does indeed look happy at this moment." "It is quite delightful to see young people so well suited." "So much the thing." "And what do you say to the chance of another match?" "The couple above, Sister." "Julia and Mr Crawford." "Do you see no symptoms there?" " His property is £4,000 a year." " 4,000?" "It's not a settled thing, of course, but I have no doubt it will be." "He is growing extremely particular in his attentions." "Fanny, if you want to dance, I'll stand up with you." "I thank you, Cousin, but I do not wish to." "I'm glad." "I tell you, I'm tired to death." "How do they keep it up so long?" "They must all be in love to find any amusement in such folly." "And so they are, I fancy, if you look." "All but Yates and Mrs Grant." "And she must want a lover as much as any of them." "A desperate dull life hers must be, with the..." "Dr Grant!" "Strange business this, in America." "What's your opinion?" "I always come to you to know what to think on public matters." "Oh, the embargo, sir?" "Tobacco spoils the palate for good food." "They may keep it." "Very true." "Dear Tom, as you are not dancing, I dare say you will join us in a rubber, shall you?" "You and I and your mother and Dr Grant will just do." "And though we play but half-crowns, we may be half-guineas with him." "I'd be most happy, with the greatest pleasure, but I am this moment going to dance." " Come, Fanny." "Don't dawdle any longer." " Oh, yes, indeed." "A pretty modest request, upon my word." "To nail me to a card table for the next two hours with herself and Dr Grant who are always quarrelling!" "I wish my good aunt would be a little less busy." "It was all ready to be performed at Lord Ravenshaw's seat in Cornwall." " At Ecclesford?" " Oh, yes." " "Lovers' Vows" was to be our play." " Why was it not done, Mr Yates?" "Because Ravenshaw's grandmother died two days before the curtain should have risen." "The worst possible time for the old dowager to pop off." "The news might have been suppressed, but Ravenshaw wouldn't hear of it." "What a pity." "Well, he was never equal to the Baron - the part he had taken for himself." "He's but a little man with a weak voice." "I might have done it but I arrived too late, so I got Count Cassel - a trifling role and not at all to my taste." "Yet I made no difficulties and I believe it would have gone off wonderfully." "A hard case." "So "Lovers' Vows" was at an end?" "A tragedy in place of a comedy, you see." "But we had a splendid theatre." "If I had the stage again, I'd take the Baron's part and show what could be done, for I know every line." " And why not?" "Might not we have a theatre?" " Here at Mansfield?" "Why, yes, indeed." "I suppose any room in the house would suffice." "We should need a curtain - a few yards of green baize is enough." "With a side wing or two and three or four scenes to be let down." "For amusement between ourselves we should want nothing more." " What do you say?" " Nay, let us do nothing by halves!" "If we are to act, let it be in a theatre fitted up with pit, box and gallery, with a figure dance, a hornpipe and a song." "If we don't outdo Ecclesford, we do nothing." "Edmund, don't be disagreeable." "Nobody loves a play better than you." "Or would go further to see one." "And to make Yates amends, he shall be our manager." " Oh, yes!" " What play should we choose?" "I believe I could be fool enough at this moment to undertake anything from Shylock or Richard III to the singing hero of a farce in his cocked hat." "I could rant and storm..." "or sigh and cut capers in any tragedy or comedy in the English language." "Let us be doing something, Tom, be it only half a play." "(MARIA) Please, Tom!" "In this room." "We might do it here, you know, in this very room." " Yes!" " Where would you set the stage?" "Here, at this end." "There's the door to my father's room, which could be our green room." "It's locked with a bookcase on the other side, but that could be moved." "Well, Edmund would not approve it." "I shall speak to Edmund now." "Yates, give Crawford a better challenge than I have." "Where is my brother?" "I haven't seen him since we dined." "In the drawing room." "Right." "Give me but three minutes with him and I shall settle it." " Depend on that." " Bravo!" "Ma'am." "(LADY BERTRAM) Oh, Fanny, what must I do here?" "Pray let me see, Aunt." "That's a vile billiard table." "Nothing shall ever tempt me to it again." "But one good thing I have ascertained, it's the very room for a theatre." "Precisely the shape and length for it." "And the door to my father's room is the very thing we desired." "It seems to join the billiard room on purpose." "You are not serious, Tom?" "Serious?" "Never more so, I assure you." "What is there to surprise you in it?" "I think it would be very wrong in my father's absence to attempt anything of the kind." "On the contrary." "It would help to keep up my mother's spirits and ease her anxiety till his return." "(SNORING)" "Oh, by Jove!" "My dear mother's anxiety." "Well, I was unlucky there." "Why, what is the matter?" "I was not asleep." "Oh, ma'am, no." "Nobody suspected you a moment." "Well, Edmund..." "But this I maintain, we will be doing no harm." "My father encouraged us to act when we were boys." "How many times have we mourned over the death of Julius Caesar in this very room?" " It was different, you must see that." " No!" "My father wished us as boys to speak well, but he would never wish his daughters to be acting in plays." "Maria is engaged and Julia..." "I am concerned for her and the position of Henry Crawford." "My father would not approve it." "His sense of decorum is very strict." "I know my father as well as you do." "I'll ensure his daughters do nothing to distress him." " Tom..." " Manage your own concerns, Edmund." "I'll take care of the rest of the family." "If you are resolved on acting, I hope it will be in a very small way." "A theatre ought not to be attempted, if only for the expense." "Well, the expense will be prodigious." "It might cost a whole £20." "As the carpenter's work can be done by Jackson, it is absurd to talk of expense." "Don't imagine that nobody in this house can judge but yourself." "Don't act if you don't like it, but don't expect to govern everybody else." "(DOOR CLOSES)" "Perhaps they may not be able to find a play to suit them." "Your brother's taste and your sisters' seem very different." "I have no hopes there, Fanny." "If they persist in the scheme they will find something." "I shall speak to my sisters and try to dissuade them." "I should think my Aunt Norris would be on your side." "She has no influence with Tom that would be of any use." "Things must take their course." ""To be or not to be, that is the question."" "I say there is no question, Mr Crawford." "It must be "The School For Scandal"." " No. "The Heir At Law"." " Surely "Macbeth"." " Or at least "The Rivals"." " Consider "Hamlet" or "Othello"." "Why, here is "Lovers' Vows"." "Had you forgot?" ""Lovers' Vows"." "Indeed." "Why shouldn't it do for us as well as for the Ravenshaws?" "What say you all?" "Here are two tragic parts for Yates and Crawford." "The rhyming butler will do for me." "A trifle, but the sort of thing I don't dislike." "The rest may be filled by... anyone." "There's Count Cassel and the young clergyman." "Mr Rushworth will take one of those." " Well, then, we're agreed?" " Aye!" ""Hamlet, thou art slain." I am content. "The rest is silence."" "As to the baron, I shall not want a prompter." "But we are not fair to the absent." "Here are not women enough." "Agatha and Amelia may do for Maria and me, but there is nothing for your sister, Mr Crawford." "I believe Mary will grieve little..." "No, no, no." "Miss Crawford must play Amelia." "It falls as naturally to her as Agatha does to my sisters." "The Baron for Yates, Frederick for Crawford and Agatha..." "But which?" "It seems improbable... but if I am to be the son of one of these young ladies," "I really must entreat..." "I do entreat Miss Julia Bertram not to play Agatha, or it will be the ruin of my solemnity." "I could not stand to see your countenance dressed up in woe." "The laughs we've had would overpower me." "(TOM) Maria must be Agatha." "Julia cannot do it, she prefers comedy." "Her features are not tragic and she walks too quick." " She'd better play Cottager's wife." " Cottager's wife?" "!" "What are you talking of?" "The most trivial, insignificant..." "There's not a tolerable speech in the piece." "At Ecclesford the governess was to do it." " Someone must play Cottager's wife." " Your sister must not accept the part." "Her talents will be wanted in Amelia." "It requires great powers, great nicety." "You must oblige us." "When you have studied the character, I'm sure you will feel it suits you." "You visit me in prison with a basket of provisions." "You will not refuse to visit me in prison?" "I see you coming in..." "You do not seem afraid of not keeping your countenance over a basket of provisions, one might have supposed." "But it is only as Agatha that I shall be so overpowering." " Oh, no!" " Miss Crawford must be Amelia." "Julia is too... robust." "Amelia has a light, girlish figure." "Do not be afraid of my wanting the character!" "If I am not to be Agatha, I am sure I will do nothing else." "As to Amelia, it is of all parts in the world the most disgusting to me." "I quite detest her." "An odious, pert, unnatural, impudent little girl." "It would be no comedy, let me assure you, for me to play it." "It would be a tragedy, a tragedy of the worst kind." " I think she may be vexed." " I fear I was to blame." "Oh, no, but perhaps, Mr Crawford," "I should go with you to the parsonage to beg your sister will accept the part." " Else who shall play it?" " I shall be much obliged." "And I'll return to Christopher Jackson." "My father's bookcase is ready to be moved." " Good evening, Jackson." " Good evening, sir." "Her Ladyship is waiting dinner, sir." "Mr Rushworth is come." "Thank you, Baddeley." "(MRS NORRIS) The baize is sent from Northampton and I have made a saving of full half a yard." "Now, there is Edmund." "Good evening, ma'am." "Mr Rushworth, Mr Yates." "Do you hear our latest?" "We have got a play." "It's to be "Lovers' Vows" and I am to be Count Cassel." "I come in first with a blue dress and a pink satin cloak." "I don't know how I shall like it." " "Lovers' Vows"?" " Yes." "After all our difficulties, the wonder is we should not have thought of it at first." " We have cast almost every part." " But what do you do for women?" "I take the part that Lady Ravenshaw was to have done and Miss Crawford is to be Amelia." "I come in three times and I have two-and-forty speeches." "I shall hardly know myself in a blue dress and a pink satin cloak." "Your Ladyship, the carpenter wishes to speak to Mr Bertram." " If you'll oblige, sir." " Of course." "Come, Yates." "Let us see how we progress." "Oh, and..." "Rushworth!" "If you'd care to see how we progress..." "Of course." "I hesitated to speak before Mr Yates, but now I must say..." "My dear Maria, I cannot believe that you have read this play and still approve it." "Read only the first act to your mother or your aunt." "It will not be necessary to send to my father's judgment, I am convinced." "We see things very differently, Edmund." "I'm perfectly acquainted with the play, I assure you." "And with a very few omissions, I can see nothing objectionable." "And you'll find I am not the only young woman who thinks so." "Then I am sorry for it." "But in this matter, it..." "You are the daughter of the house and your conduct should guide the rest." "Do not act anything improper, my dear." "Sir Thomas would not like it." "Fanny, ring the bell." "I must have my dinner." "To be sure, Julia is dressed by this time." "I am convinced, madam, Sir Thomas would not like it." " If I declined the part, Julia would take it." " If she knew your reasons..." "She would point out the difference in our situations." "She is not engaged." "I am sure she would argue so." "No!" "You must excuse me." "It is too far settled." "Everyone would be so disappointed." "Tom would be quite angry." "You know that, Edmund." "Besides, if we are to be so very nice, we shall never act anything." "I was just going to say the same thing." "If every play is to be objected to, you will act nothing and the preparations and all the money will be thrown away." "Now, I am sure that would be a great discredit to us all." "And as Maria says, if there is anything about the play a little too warm, it can easily be left out." "And as Mr Rushworth is to act too, there can be no harm." "I only wish Tom had known his mind when the carpenters began." "There was the loss of half a day's work about those side doors." "The curtain will be a good job." "I told the maids there was no occasion to put the rings so close together." "I am of some use, I hope, in preventing waste and making the most of things." "Thank you, Mrs Norris." " I must congratulate Your Ladyship." " Indeed, Miss Crawford, upon what?" "Why, on a play being chosen." "You bear it with exemplary patience, but I am sure you must be sick of all our noise and difficulties." "No, I assure you, I quite disregard it." "Disregard it, ma'am?" "Why, the Mansfield theatricals will be the talk of the whole neighbourhood." "I trust they will give you joy, and Mrs Norris too." "And every other bystander." " One scene will serve for the open spaces." " You will need a scene painter." "(TOM) Indeed, and one for the castle and another for the cottage." "Side wings may show the alehouse and the cottage." "My good friends, I shall admire your alehouse and your cottage, but meanwhile pray, let me know my fate." "Who is to be Anhalt?" "What gentleman am I to have the pleasure of making love to?" "It's a question not yet resolved." "Mr Rushworth is to be Count Cassel, but no one has undertaken Anhalt." "I had my choice of the parts, but I thought I should like the Count best." "You chose very wisely, I am sure." "Anhalt is a... heavy part." "The Count has two-and-forty speeches, which is no trifle." "I am not surprised by this want of an Anhalt." "Amelia deserves no better." "Such a forward young lady may well frighten the men." " Cannot you double it, Tom?" " I don't believe so." "The butler and Anhalt are in together." "I'll not entirely give it up." "I'll look it over again." "Your brother should take the part." "Do you think he would?" " Well, I shall not ask him." " Or we must apply to some other gentleman." "Have no fear, Miss Crawford, your Anhalt shall be resolved." "Now to more important matters." "The cottage should be on the left... (VOICES OVERLAPPING)" "They do not wish me of their party." "They have other business." "Mr Edmund Bertram, as you do not act yourself," "I appeal to you, as a disinterested person..." "What shall we do for an Anhalt?" "Can any of the others double it?" "What is your advice?" "My advice is that you change the play." "If any part could tempt you to act, I suppose it would be Anhalt, for he is a clergyman, you know." "That would by no means tempt me." "I should make the profession appear ridiculous - as such bad acting would." " (TOM) Fanny, we want your services." " Yes, I'm here." "Oh, we don't want you now." "But for the play, you must be Cottager's wife." "No!" "Indeed, you must excuse me." "I could not act for anything." "If you were to give me the world." "No, indeed, I cannot." "(TOM) Well, indeed you must." "It needn't frighten you." "It's a nothing of a part, not half a dozen speeches." "It won't signify if nobody hears a word." " You may be as creep mouse as you like." " No, Cousin." "If you're afraid of half a dozen speeches, what would you do with such a part as mine?" "I have two-and-forty to learn." "It's not that I'm afraid of learning by heart, but I cannot act." "You could act well enough for us." "You've only got two scenes." "I'll put you in and push you about." "You'll do it very well, I'll answer for it." "No, indeed, you must excuse me." "You cannot have an idea." "It would be absolutely impossible for me." "I would only disappoint you." "Fanny, we don't expect perfection." "You must have a brown gown and an apron and a mob cap." "We'll make you a few wrinkles and have a crow's foot at the corner of your eyes." "No!" "Indeed you must excuse me, I pray you." "(MRS NORRIS) What a piece of work about nothing." "I'm ashamed of you to make such a difficulty of obliging your cousins in such a trifle." "So kind as they are to you." "Take the part with a good grace." "Do not urge her, madam." "It is not fair to urge her." "She does not like it." "Let her choose for herself." "Her judgment may be as trusted as any of the rest." "I am not going to urge her." "But I shall think her an ungrateful girl if she does not do what her aunt and cousins wish her." "Very ungrateful indeed, considering who and what she is." "Never mind, my dear Miss Price." "This is a cross evening." "Everybody is cross and teasing." " But do not let us mind them." " No, indeed." "I shall ask my sister, Mrs Grant." "I'm sure she will oblige us by taking Cottager's wife." " Oh, if she would..." " Yes." "Yes, I assure you, have no more fears." "But of my clergyman lover, I am much less certain." "I fear it must be some stranger, which will be very disagreeable to me and by no means what I had hoped." "Ah, me." " (KNOCKING)" " Come in." "Fanny, can I speak with you for a few minutes?" "Yes, certainly." "I mean to consult." " I want your opinion." " My opinion?" "Yes." "Your advice and opinion." "I do not know what to do." "This acting scheme gets worse and worse, you see." "They have chosen almost as bad a play as they could." "Now they are to ask Charles Maddox to take the part." "Tom is to ride over to Stoke this morning." "A young man scarcely known to any of us." "This is the end of all the privacy that was talked of at first." "It must, it shall be prevented." "Don't you agree?" "But what can be done?" "Your brother seems so determined." "There is but one thing to be done, Fanny." "I must take the part of Anhalt myself." "Nothing else will quiet Tom." "Of that, I am sure." "It is not at all what I like." "After being known to oppose the scheme from the beginning, it appears absurd." "But I can think of no alternative." "Can you?" "No, not immediately." "But..." "But what?" "I see your judgment is not with me." "But think it over." "Put yourself in Miss Crawford's place." "Consider what it would be like to act Amelia with a stranger." "It would be wrong, ungenerous, to expose her to it." "Doesn't it strike you so?" "I..." "I am very sorry for Miss Crawford." "But I am more sorry to see you drawn into what you are resolved against and what you know would be disagreeable to my uncle." "It may be the means of restraining the publicity." "As it is now, I can do nothing." "When I have put them in good humour, I may persuade them to confine it to Mrs Rushworth and the Grants." "Won't that be worth gaining?" "Yes." "But still, it hasn't your approval." "Give me your approbation, Fanny." "I am not comfortable without it." "Oh, Cousin." "If you are against me, I must distrust myself." "And yet it is absolutely impossible to let Tom go on this way, riding about the country in quest of anybody who can be persuaded to act." "I thought you would have entered more into Miss Crawford's feelings." "No doubt she will be very glad." "She never appeared more amiable than to you last night." "It gave her a very strong claim to my goodwill." "Yes." "She was very kind." "I shall walk down immediately after breakfast." "I am sure of giving pleasure there." "And now I won't interrupt you any longer." "If Tom is up, I shall go to him directly and get it over." "Do you still read Cowper?" "You remember the hours we spent together in this old schoolroom?" "Yes, indeed." "You have made it yours." "I admire your little establishment exceedingly." "But you have no fire." "Do not stay to be cold." "And trust me, Fanny." ""But tell me, had the father his daughter's innocence to deplore?"" "(TOM) "Aye, my lord, you must hear that part in rhyme." ""Loss of innocence never sounds well except in verse..." ""For, ah, the very night before, no prudent guard upon her." ""The county gave her oaths a score and took in charge her honour."" "Mrs Grant, I am seeking Mr Rushworth." " Where is he, Mary?" " He's to come on." ""Then you who now lead single lives, from this sad tale beware," ""And do..." ""And do not act as you were wives before you really are."" ""Leave the room instantly."" "(APPLAUSE)" "Where is Rushworth?" "Surely he knows his cue." "Count Cassel enters here." "Rushworth!" " Miss Price is come to see for him." " He was here but a moment since." " He cannot be far afield." " I shall go and find him, Mr Yates." "We may rehearse this scene again till he is come." "We shall not want Miss Crawford." "From Amelia's exit." ""No, no, that did not cause my reluctance to speak."" " Oh, Miss Price." " Oh, Mr Rushworth." " I was seeking you." " What?" "My Aunt Norris sent me to finish your dress and I cannot find it." "My blue dress?" "It's in the green room." " You are wanted on the stage." " What?" "You were wanted a moment since." " No, I shall not go yet." " Oh, but Mr Yates..." "I have not the lines." "I pray you, hear me a scene." "It will take but a moment." "Yes, yes." "I think I have it now - my two-and-forty speeches." "But this!" "Confound the piece, it's all confused." ""I am the epitome of the world..."" " Do you find it?" " Yes, yes, indeed." ""An epitome of the world." ""In my travels, I have learned..." ""...delicacy in Italy..." ""hauteur in Spain," ""in France..."" " "Enterprise."" " That's Russia." "No, no, no, no." "So it is." "Er..." ""In France..." ""enterprise." ""In Russia, prudence," ""and in England..."" "Oh, hang it!" "What did I learn in England?" ""Sincerity."" ""In England, sincerity," ""in Scotland, frugality," ""and in the wilds of America..."" " "Love."" " Is that all?" " Yes, Mr Rushworth." " Oh, very well." "I shall say it all together now." ""In my travels, I have learned delicacy in Italy, enterprise in Russia..."" " No, no, no, no." "Indeed, no." " No?" "!" "Why?" "Why, Fanny, what do you here, at your ease, going from room to room?" "No, it was Mr Rushworth who sought my help." ""Hauteur in Spain." Didn't I say so?" "I have been slaving myself till I can scarcely stand." "Where is Mr Rushworth's dress?" "You may put it all together." "Indeed, Mr Rushworth has just told me it's in the green room." "Oh, you are the best off." "If nobody did more than you, we should not get on very fast." "Mr Rushworth, I think I may contrive your cloak without sending for more satin." "May you, ma'am?" "I dare say it will look well enough." "But I am to be somewhat splendid, you know." "Oh, indeed." "Pick up your books." "We must cut his lines from the beginning of the act to the middle." " Oh, that's a little hard." " Which act?" " All his lines?" " Yes." "He takes over the scene." "He is bad." "(TOM) Now, come along, Mr Yates... (HENRY) "To do good satisfies both hunger and thirst." ""Take this, good woman."" " Frederick!" " Mother." "How is this?" "Why do I find my mother thus?" " Speak." " I cannot." "(MARIA) What was that?" "(HENRY) Nothing." "Oh, Miss Bertram, forgive me." "For what?" "May not a poor mother embrace her son?" "And how should Mr Rushworth protest at that?" "(KNOCKING)" "Am I right?" "Yes, this is the east room." "My dear Miss Price, I beg your pardon." "Miss Crawford." "Pray come in." "I have made my way to you on purpose to entreat your help." "You will excuse me, I have no fire." "Oh, I'm quite warm, I assure you, very warm." "You see, I have brought my book." "If you will but read a scene with me, I shall be so obliged." "I am to rehearse it with Edmund, but I do not think I could go through it with him until I have hardened myself a little." "For there is a speech or two..." "You will, won't you?" " Oh, if I am able." " Thank you." "Oh, but these are schoolroom chairs." "Not made for such a scene as this, but for girls to kick their feet against." "What would your governess have said?" "There!" "Now, look at that speech." "And that!" "How can I ever look him in the face and say such things?" "Could you do it?" "But then he is your cousin, which makes all the difference." "I shall imagine you him and get on by degrees." " You have a look of his sometimes." " Have I?" "I'll do my best with the greatest readiness, but I think I'll do it very ill." "Pray, do not be too modest or you will quite undo me." "(KNOCKING)" " Who is this?" " Come in." "Why, Mr Bertram!" "Miss Crawford." "What do you here with Fanny?" "Can it be your business was the same as mine?" " To read with her that scene." " Act Three." "It is." "This is a happy chance." "We may rehearse it here together with Fanny to hold the book, may we not?" "I had rather do it so the first time than before all the rest." "Wouldn't you also?" "That was indeed my reason for seeking out Miss Price." "She shall be our confessor and hear us both together." "How say you?" "I begin to feel I may be bold enough now." "Yet..." "Miss Price..." "If we both entreat her, Fanny will not refuse." " Will you?" " No, Cousin." "Pray be seated." "Um..." "You may blush for us both." "This scene." "I have scanned it so often, I have the lines almost by heart." " Indeed, I too." " Where shall we begin?" ""I have been sent to you by your father as his clergyman" ""to teach you the meaning of the married state..."" "Here." "Anhalt says, "You mean to say..."" " "You will not fall in love?"" " Do you have it, Miss Price?" "Yes." "Yes, yes, I do." "Mr Bertram, give me my cue." ""You mean to..." "You mean to say you will not fall in love?"" " "I am in love." - "With the Count?"" ""I wish I was." "Perhaps he would love me."" " "Who is there who would not?" - "Would you?"" ""I?" "I?" "I am out of the question."" ""No, you are the very person to whom I put the question."" " "But I cannot answer." - "Then let me teach you."" ""There are some things I had rather never know."" ""Why, so I said when you began to teach me mathematics." ""But now I know it, it gives me a great deal of pleasure." ""None but a woman may teach the science of herself" ""and though I own I am very young," ""a young woman may be..." ""as agreeable for a governess as an old one." ""I learned faster from you than from the old clergyman who used to teach me."" ""This is nothing to the subject, Miss Wildenheim."" ""What is the subject, Mr Anhalt?" "Do you remember?"" " "Love." - "Then teach it to me."" ""Teach it to me."" "Do you see it, Fanny?" "It will festoon more evenly if you pull that ring to the right." "Mr Bertram, I do not think there are quite rings enough." "Aye, it is better so." "And the next one along." "We must begin on time if we are to do three acts together." "Ah, the Crawfords, come at last!" "Welcome, my friends." "We have a curtain and our first scene ready for your appearance." "But I fear we bring ill news." "My sister cannot rehearse tonight." " What's this?" " I'm afraid it's true." "Mrs Grant desires her apologies, but she must stay this evening with Dr Grant." "Dr Grant is ill." "He has been ill ever since he didn't eat his pheasant today." "He fancied it tough and sent it away." "He has been suffering ever since." "The devil he has." "What's to be done?" "We cannot act without your sister." "Yates!" "All of you in there, come up!" "We are to have an audience." "My mother and Mrs Norris were to come up." "And Julia too." " What is it, Tom?" " Oh, Mrs Grant cannot rehearse." "She has to stay with the doctor." "Dr Grant's state is precarious." "The worst case of uneaten pheasant we ever saw." " How shall we manage?" " Who is to play Cottager's wife?" "That is the question." " Fanny?" " Oh, Mr Bertram, I told you..." "But Cottager will make a sad appearance with no wife at all." " Come, Fanny." " Miss Price has but to read the part." "She can say every word." "She put Mrs Grant right in twenty places." "She has learned it as well as I learned "delicacy in Italy"." " Fanny!" " Or maybe Spain..." " Why will you be so obdurate?" " Will you not read it but this once?" "Do, Fanny." "If it isn't very disagreeable to you." " Oh, Cousin." " (YATES) Why, I declare she will!" "(HENRY) The young lady's first appearance upon the stage." "(TOM) Come, Fanny." "Give your hand." "(HENRY) Applause." "Stay!" "Have you heard nothing yet?" "My father is come." "He is in the hall this moment." "(YATES) Sir Thomas?" "(MARIA) Oh, heavens!" " He was not expected till next month." " Do what you will." "I need not be afraid of facing him." "Edmund, what's to be done?" "We must give him welcome." "Shall I go too?" "Shall I come too?" "My dear wife and dear children." "How fortunate to find you thus together." "And Mr Rushworth also." "Sir Thomas, I'm here often now with the act..." "He has so eagerly awaited this opportunity of making himself known to you, sir." "My sister could scarce contain her own impatience till your return." "I would not be come so soon had I waited for the packet, but my affairs in Antigua being completed," "I took my passage on a private vessel." "I come direct from Liverpool." "We are very glad to see you, sir, in such good looks." " Aye, indeed, sir." " My dear Sir Thomas, take some dinner." " Let me but send to the kitchen." " Thank you." "I want nothing but tea." "Sir Thomas, I do entreat you, soup would be a much better thing for you than tea." "Do have a basin of soup." "Still the same concern for everybody's comfort, my dear Mrs Norris." "But I assure you, I would rather have nothing but tea." "And so you shall, dear Sir Thomas." "I have told Baddeley to speak for tea directly." "I'm afraid he will be behind hand somewhat tonight." "How do you think the young ones have been amusing themselves lately?" "They have been acting." "We have all been alive with acting." "Indeed." "And what have you been acting?" "Oh, they will tell you all about it themselves." "And the all will soon be told." "We must not bore my father with it now." "You will hear enough of it tomorrow, sir." " We've had such excessive rain..." " Indeed." "I've hardly taken a gun out." " "Lovers' Vows"." " Here is Fanny." "(SIR THOMAS) Why, of course, Fanny." "My little Fanny." "My, you have grown." "Where is the tender waif I left behind me?" "Such a fine young woman now." "I thank you, sir." "I'm glad to see you well." "And your family?" "Your mother and father in Portsmouth, are they well?" "And best of all, your brother William." "How is young William?" "Very well." "William is in hopes of coming to England by the end of the month." "We shall see him in Mansfield." "Now, where is my baggage?" "Did Charles take it to my room?" " He did." " Sir, if there is anything you want..." "No, no, I will go myself." "I have some trifles for my girls and know how I've disposed them." "You cannot imagine how often I have longed to see my own dear room again." "My desk, my hangings, my library..." "I shall be but a moment." " Something must be done." " Where did you leave Miss Crawford?" "I showed Miss Crawford and her brother out." "They desired their apologies." "They asked Mr Yates to go with them, but he would not." "He preferred to pay his respects to the old gentleman." " Poor Yates is all alone." " Someone must fetch him." " Edmund!" " Shall I go too?" "Yes." "(YATES FAINTLY) "Desist, barbarian." ""Savage, stop!" ""What can this mean?" ""Go, Anhalt, advise me, help me." ""Go to the poor woman, his mother." "Make haste." "Speed to protect her." "Go!" ""And your heart will tell you how to act." ""Who am I?" "What am I?" ""Mad, raving..." ""No, I have a son." ""The bravest." ""I will, I must..." ""Oh, why have I not embraced him yet?" ""Why not pressed him to my heart?" ""Ah, see..."" "Sir, who are you?" " Who am I?" "What am I?" " He's here." "Sir..." "You have stumbled upon my friend, my very particular friend, the Honourable John Yates." "Mr Yates has been assisting us in our theatricals... as we should have told you." "Mr Yates, sir." " (TOM) My father." " Ah, Sir Thomas." "I am delighted, sir, to make your acquaintance." "I hope my rantings did not disturb you." "Why, no, sir." "To speak true, I was more surprised in the appearance of this room and of my own room." "It shall all be put to right, sir, at the earliest moment." "Christopher Jackson shall see to it." "He built the theatre himself." "And it does him credit, though I had not imagined work so extensive." "I confess, sir, it was very wrong to embark on such an undertaking and in your absence." "We should have heeded Fanny." "Fanny was against it from the first." "Ah, yes, dear Fanny." "If I must say what I think, it is very disagreeable to be always rehearsing." "I find I am not so fond of acting as I was at first." "I think we were all a great deal better employed sitting comfortably amongst ourselves and doing nothing." "My own sentiments exactly, Mr Rushworth." "I come home to be happy and indulgent." "Tomorrow, I shall consider this." "We'll rant no more tonight." "There shall be no waste." "Be assured, my dear Sir Thomas, I shall see to that." "There are curtains wanted here for the maids' bedrooms and my own house lacks provision at many windows." "Fanny will make the seams, and Mrs Grant at the parsonage has quantities of rings..." "It is not the waste, Mrs Norris." "Tom I have reproved and Edmund sought me out this morning to make his own apologies, but you..." "I am sorry your advice did not prevent what your judgment must have disapproved of." "Considering the status of my daughters, and Maria especially." "As to our dear Maria, I do believe, Sir Thomas, that I must have some credit there." "That, you will allow." "If I have not been active and made a point of being introduced to Mrs Rushworth and then prevailed upon my sister to pay her visit," "I am as certain as I stand here that nothing would have come of it." "But I left no stone unturned." "I was ready to move heaven and earth." "If you had seen the state of the roads that day!" "I thought we should never have got through." "And poor old Coachman was hardly able to sit on the box on account of rheumatism, which I had been doctoring since last Michaelmas." ""Coachman," I told him, "you had much better not go."" "He was already putting on his wig." ""Your lady and I shall be quite safe with Stephen."" "But he would not do." "He was bent on going." "And as I hate to be worrying and officious, I said no more." "That is what my advice has done - to make Maria's marriage." "Only look at her, my dear Sir Thomas, and you may judge how much I have achieved." "(GENTLE PIANO MELODY)" "Dr Grant, Sir Thomas, with Mr Crawford." "Dr Grant, I am pleased to see you." "I hope you are well." "Tolerably well, Sir Thomas." "Though you are bronzed, I fear you have lost some weight." "You'll never tempt me on board a vessel, sir." "Salt beef and biscuits are the very devil." "Oh, Sir Thomas..." "My brother-in-law is come to pay his respects." " Mr Henry Crawford." " Mr Crawford, how do you do?" "I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance." "My sister Mary desires her warmest greetings and will attend you soon." "Pray thank your sister and tell her I look forward to meeting her." "Dr Grant, you will stay to drink some tea with us?" "I shall stay with the greatest of pleasure, Sir Thomas, but as to tea..." " Lady Bertram." " Good evening, Mr Crawford." "Miss Price." "Miss Bertram, I fear we intruded upon your music." "Will you resume for the entertainment of myself and Dr Grant?" "Gladly, Mr Crawford, when you choose." "Mr Bertram and Mr Yates..." "(GENTLE PIANO MELODY)" "Pray tell me, is there some prospect of resumption of "Lovers' Vows"?" "What of our play?" ""Lovers' Vows"?" "It is not even talked of." " I fear "Lovers' Vows" are broken." " Oh, yes, quite at an end." "The painter has gone and little of our theatre will remain tomorrow." "I go myself in a few days, but I have stayed for the shooting." "I am sorry to hear it, although I shall leave tomorrow also." " In the morning." " Where?" "To Bath, to join my uncle, Admiral Crawford." "It's very early for Bath." "You will find nobody there." "That's about my uncle's usual time." " Excuse me, Papa." " Indeed, my dear." "(DOOR CLOSES)" " And you'll get as far as Banbury tomorrow?" " Yes, as far as Banbury."