Monologue Tommy Proposed to Me Again
Mrs. Cheveley says
Oh, no! I can't stand your English language house-parties. In England people really try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is so dreadful of them! Only dull people are bright at breakfast. And so the family skeleton is always reading family prayers. My stay in England really depends on you, Sir Robert. Quite seriously. I want to talk to yous almost a great political and fiscal scheme, about this Argentine Canal Company, in fact. Oh, I like tedious, practical subjects. What I don't similar are tedious, practical people. There is a wide difference. Besides, you are interested, I know, in International Culvert schemes. You were Lord Radley's secretary, weren't you, when the Government bought the Suez Canal shares?
Sir Robert Chiltern says
Ane dark afterwards dinner at Lord Radley'southward the Baron began talking about success in mod life equally something that one could reduce to an absolutely definite science. With that wonderfully fascinating tranquillity voice of his he expounded to us the most terrible of all philosophies, the philosophy of power, preached to us the most marvellous of all gospels, the gospel of gold. I remember he saw the effect he had produced on me, for some days after he wrote and asked me to come and see him. He was living then in Park Lane, in the house Lord Woolcomb has now. I remember and then well how, with a foreign grin on his pale, curved lips, he led me through his wonderful picture gallery, showed me his tapestries, his enamels, his jewels, his carved ivories, made me wonder at the strange loveliness of the luxury in which he lived; and and then told me that luxury was zero simply a background, a painted scene in a play, and that power, power over other men, power over the world, was the one thing worth having, the i supreme pleasure worth knowing, the ane joy i never tired of, and that in our century only the rich possessed it. Wealth has given me enormous power. Information technology gave me at the very outset of my life freedom, and freedom is everything. You accept never been poor, and never known what ambition is. You cannot understand what a wonderful take chances the Baron gave me. Such a chance as few men get. When I was going away he said to me that if I ever could give him any individual information of real value he would brand me a very rich human. I was mazed at the prospect he held out to me, and my ambition and my desire for ability were at that time boundless. Six weeks later sure private documents passed through my hands. Weak? Oh, I am sick of hearing that phrase. Ill of using it about others. Weak? Practice you lot actually think, Arthur, that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires force, strength and backbone, to yield to. To stake all one'due south life on a single moment, to run a risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not [S ;in that location is no weakness in that. In that location is a horrible, a terrible backbone. I had that courage. I sat down the same afternoon and wrote Businesswoman Arnheim the letter this woman now holds. He made three-quarters of a one thousand thousand over the transaction. I received from the Baron £110,000. No; that money gave me exactly what I wanted, ability over others. I went into the House immediately. The Baron advised me in finance from time to time. Before five years I had most trebled my fortune. Since then everything that I have touched has turned out a success. In all things connected with money I take had a luck so extraordinary that sometimes information technology has made me almost afraid. I remember having read somewhere, in some strange volume, that when the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
Mrs. Cheveley says
Poor sometime Lord Mortlake, who had but two topics of conversation, his gout and his wife! I never could quite make out which of the two he was talking about. He used the nigh horrible language nigh them both. Well, you were giddy, Arthur. Why, Lord Mortlake was never anything more to me than an amusement. 1 of those utterly slow amusements one simply finds at an English land business firm on an English country Sunday. I don't think any one at all morally responsible for what he or she does at an English language country house. I loved you, Arthur. I did dear you. And you lot loved me. Yous know y'all loved me; and love is a very wonderful thing. I suppose that when a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her, except continue to dearest her?
(Subsequently a break.)
I am tired of living away. I want to come up dorsum to London. I want to have a charming house hither. I desire to have a salon. If ane could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish gaelic how to listen, gild hither would be quite civilised. Also, I have arrived at the romantic stage. When I saw yous final night at the Chilterns', I knew you were the only person I had always cared for, if I ever accept cared for anybody, Arthur. And and so, on the morning of the 24-hour interval you ally me, I will give you Robert Chiltern'southward alphabetic character. That is my offer. I volition requite information technology to you at present, if yous promise to ally me.
Sir Robert Chiltern says
There was your mistake. There was your error. The mistake all women commit. Why can't y'all women love united states, faults and all? Why exercise you lot place u.s.a. on monstrous pedestals? Nosotros have all feet of clay, women besides as men; simply when we men honey women, nosotros love them knowing their weaknesses, their follies, their imperfections, love them all the more than, information technology may be, for that reason. Information technology is non the perfect, but the imperfect, who accept need of dearest. It is when we are wounded our ain easily, or the easily of others, that love should come up to cure u.s.- else what use is love at all? All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon. A man's beloved is similar that. Information technology is wider, larger, more human than a woman'south. Women retrieve that they are making ideals of men. What they are making of us are false idols merely. You made your faux idol of me, and I had not the courage to come downwards, testify y'all my wounds, tell you my weaknesses. I was agape that I might lose your beloved, as I have lost information technology now. And then, final nighttime you ruined my life for me- yes, ruined it! What this adult female asked of me was nothing compared to what she offered to me. She offered security, peace, stability. The sin of my youth, that I had idea was cached, rose up in front of me, hideous, horrible, with its hands at my throat. I could have killed it for ever, sent it back into its tomb, destroyed its tape, burned the one witness against me. Y'all prevented me. No one but you, you know it. And now what is there before me just public disgrace, ruin, terrible shame, the mockery of the globe, a lonely dishonoured life, a lonely dishonoured death, information technology may be, some day? Allow women make no more ethics of men! let them not put them on alters and bow before them, or they may ruin other lives every bit completely as you- you whom I have then wildly loved- have ruined mine!
Lady Chiltern says
Robert, that is all very well for other men, for men who care for life but equally a sordid speculation; but not for you, Robert, not for you. You are unlike. All your life yous have stood apart from others. You accept never permit the world soil you. To the world, as to myself, you have been an platonic e'er. Oh! be that ideal nevertheless. That peachy inheritance throw not away -that belfry of ivory exercise non destroy. Robert, men can love what is beneath them -things unworthy, stained, dishonoured. Nosotros women worship when we honey; and when we lose our worship, we lose everything. Oh! don't kill my love for you, don't kill that! I know that there are men with horrible secrets in their lives -men who have washed some shameful thing, and who in some disquisitional moment have to pay for it, doing some other act of shame -oh! don't tell me you are such as they are! Robert, is there in your life any hush-hush dishonour or disgrace? Tell me, tell me at once, that –
(Speaking very slowly.)
That our lives may drift apart.
Lord Goring says
Lady Chiltern, allow me. Yous wrote me a letter terminal night in which you said you trusted me and wanted my aid. Now is the moment when you really desire my help, now is the time when you have got to trust me, to trust in my counsel and judgment. You love Robert. Do you desire to kill his love for you? What sort of existence will he accept if y'all rob him of the fruits of his appetite, if you take him from the splendour of a great political career, if y'all close the doors of public life against him, if you condemn him to sterile failure, he who was fabricated for triumph and success? Women are not meant to judge usa, merely to forgive us when we need forgiveness. Pardon, not penalty, is their mission. Why should you scourge him with rods for a sin done in his youth, earlier he knew you, before he knew himself? A man's life is of more value than a adult female'southward. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman's life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man'southward life progresses. Don't make any terrible fault, Lady Chiltern. A woman who can go on a man's dear, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them.
Mabel Chiltern says
Well, Tommy has proposed to me over again. Tommy actually does nothing only propose to me. He proposed to me terminal night in the music-room, when I was quite unprotected, as there was an elaborate trio going on. I didn't dare to make the smallest repartee, I need hardly tell y'all. If I had, it would have stopped the music at once. Musical people are and so absurdly unreasonable. They always want i to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be absolutely deaf. And so he proposed to me in wide daylight this morning, in front end of that dreadful statue of Achilles. Actually, the things that get on in front of that work of fine art are quite appalling. The constabulary should interfere. At luncheon I saw the glare in his eye that he was going to propose again, and I just managed to check him in fourth dimension assuring him that I was a bimetallist. Fortunately I don't know what bimetallism means. And I don't believe everyone else does either. But the ascertainment crushed Tommy for x minutes. He looked quite shocked. And then Tommy is so abrasive in the way he proposes. If he proposed at the acme of his voice, I should not mind so much. That might produce some effect on the public. But he does information technology in a horrid confidential way. When Tommy wants to exist romantic he talks to one just like a doctor. I am very addicted of Tommy, but his methods of proposing are quite out of engagement. I wish, Gertrude, you would speak to him, and tell him that one time a calendar week is quite ofttimes enough to suggest to any one, and that it should always be done in a manner that attracts some attention.
Well, Tommy has proposed to me again. Tommy really does zip only propose to me. He proposed to me last night in the music-room, when I was quite unprotected, equally there was an elaborate trio going on. I didn't dare to brand the smallest repartee, I demand hardly tell you. If I had, it would have stopped the music at once. Musical people are so absurdly unreasonable. They ever want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be absolutely deaf. Then he proposed to me in broad daylight this morning, in front end of that dreadful statue of Achilles. Really, the things that go along in front end of that work of art are quite appalling. The police force should interfere. At luncheon I saw by the glare in his heart that he was going to propose once more, and I just managed to check him in fourth dimension by assuring him that I was a bimetallist. Fortunately I don't know what bimetallism means. And I don't believe everyone else does either. But the observation crushed Tommy for x minutes. He looked quite shocked. And and so Tommy is and so annoying in the way he proposes. If he proposed at the top of his voice, I should not heed and so much. That might produce some effect on the public. But he does it in a horrid confidential way. When Tommy wants to exist romantic he talks to one merely like a physician. I am very fond of Tommy, but his methods of proposing are quite out of date. I wish, Gertrude, y'all would speak to him, and tell him that once a week is quite frequently enough to propose to whatever one, and that it should always be done in a manner that attracts some attention.
Sir Robert Chiltern says
Arthur, do you think that what I did nearly eighteen years ago should exist brought up against me at present? Do you call up it off-white that a man's whole career should be ruined for a fault done in one's boyhood almost? I was twenty-two at the time, and I had the double misfortune of being well-born and poor, ii unforgiveable things nowadays. Is it fair that the folly, the sin of 1's youth, if men cull to call it a sin, should wreck a life like mine, should place me in the pillory, should shatter all that I have worked for, all that I have built up. Is it fair, Arthur? Every homo of ambition has to fight his century with its ain weapons. What this century worships is wealth. The God of this century is wealth. To succeed ane must have wealth. At all costs one must have wealth.
Sir Robert Chiltern says
There was your fault. There was your error. The error all women commit. Why can't yous women dear usa, faults and all? Why do you place us on monstrous pedestals? We have all feet of clay, women also every bit men; but when nosotros men love women, nosotros love them knowing their weaknesses, their follies, their imperfections, dear them all the more, information technology may be, for that reason. It is not the perfect, just the imperfect, who have need of dear. It is when we are wounded our own hands, or the easily of others, that beloved should come to cure us- else what use is dear at all? All sins, except a sin against itself, Dear should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon. A homo's honey is like that. It is wider, larger, more human than a adult female's. Women recollect that they are making ethics of men. What they are making of usa are false idols but. You lot fabricated your false idol of me, and I had non the courage to come downwards, evidence you my wounds, tell you my weaknesses. I was agape that I might lose your honey, every bit I have lost information technology at present. And so, last dark you lot ruined my life for me- yes, ruined it! What this woman asked of me was nothing compared to what she offered to me. She offered security, peace, stability. The sin of my youth, that I had idea was buried, rose upwards in front end of me, hideous, horrible, with its hands at my throat. I could have killed it for always, sent it back into its tomb, destroyed its record, burned the one witness against me. You prevented me. No one simply you lot, you know it. And at present what is there before me but public disgrace, ruin, terrible shame, the mockery of the world, a lonely dishonoured life, a alone dishonoured decease, it may exist, some twenty-four hours? Permit women make no more ideals of men! allow them not put them on alters and bow before them, or they may ruin other lives as completely as y'all- y'all whom I have so wildly loved- take ruined mine!
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