Good heavens! .. . I had quite forgotten that point. Your decision on the subject of my name is irrevocable, I suppose?
GWENDOLEN
I never change, except in my affections.
CECILY
What a noble nature you have, Gwendolen!
JACK
Then the question had better be cleared up at once. Aunt Augusta, a
moment. At the time when Miss Prism left me in the handbag, had I been
christened already?
LADY BRACKNELL
Every luxury that money could buy, including christening,
had been lavished on you by your fond and doting parents.
JACK
Then I was christened! That is settled. Now, what name was I given?
Let me know the worst.
LADY BRACKNELL
Being the eldest son you were naturally christened after your father.
JACK [Irritably.] Yes, but what was my father's Christian name? LADY BRACKNELL [Meditatively.] I cannot at the present moment recall what the General's Christian name was. But I have no doubt he had one. He was eccentric, I admit. But only in later years. And that was the result of the Indian climate, and marriage, and indigestion, and other things of that kind. JACK Algy! Can't you recollect what our father's Christian name was? ALGERNON
My dear boy, we were never even on speaking terms. He died
before I was a year old.
1. When the scribes and Pharisees brought to answered: 'He that is without sin among you, let Jesus an adulterous woman with the reminder that him first cast a stone at her' (John 8.7). the law of Moses required her to be stoned, he
.
1 1740 / OSCAR WILDE
JACK His name would appear in the Army Lists of the period, I suppose, Aunt
Augusta?
LADY BRACKNELL
The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his
domestic life. But I have no doubt his name would appear in any military
directory.
JACK The Army Lists of the last forty years are here. These delightful records should have been my constant study. [Rushes to bookcase and tears the books out.] M. Generals . . . Mallam, Maxbohm,2 Magley, what ghastly names they
have?Markby, Migsby, Mobbs, Moncrieff! Lieutenant 1840, Captain, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, General 1869, Christian names, Ernest John. [Pwis book very quietly down and speaks quite calmly.] I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn't I? Well it is Ernest after all. I mean
it naturally is Ernest.
LADY BRACKNELL
Yes, I remember now that the General was called Ernest. I knew I had some particular reason for disliking the name.
GWENDOLEN
Ernest! My own Ernest! I felt from the first that you could have
no other name!
JACK
Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?
GWENDOLEN
I can. For I feel that you are sure to change.
JACK My own one! CHASUBLE [To MISS PRISM.] Laetitia! [Embraces her.] MISS PRISM
[Enthusiastically.] Frederick! At last!
