THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, ACT 1 / 17 11
such as William Congreve's Love for Love (1695). In its genial and lighthearted tone,
it has some affinities with the festive comedies of Shakespeare, such as Twelfth Night
(ca. 1601), and with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer (1773). A more imme
diate predecessor was Engaged (1877), a comic play by W. S. Gilbert that anticipated
some of the burlesque effects exploited by Wilde, such as the inviolable imperturb
ability of the speakers and the interrupting of sentimental scenes by the consumption
of food. Gilbert's advice to the actors who were putting on his Engaged is worth citing
as a clue to how The Importance of Being Earnest may be most effectively imagined
as a stage representation: It is absolutely essential to the success of this piece that it should be played with
the most perfect earnestness and gravity throughout. . . . Directly the actors
show that they are conscious of the absurdity of their utterances the piece begins
to drag.
The Importance of Being Earnest
First Act
SCENE?Morning room in ALGERNON'S flat in Half-Moon Street.'
The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room.
[LANE is arranging afternoon tea on the tahle, and after the music has ceased, ALGERNON enters.]
ALGERNON
Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
LANE
I didn't think it polite to listen, sir.
ALGERNON
I'm sorry for that, for your sake. I don't play accurately?anyone
can play accurately?but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the
piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.
LANE Yes, sir.
ALGERNON
And, speaking of the science of Life, have you got the cucumber
sandwiches cut for Lady Bracknell?2 LANE Yes, sir. [Hands them on a salver.] ALGERNON [Inspects them, takes two, and sits down on the sofa.] Oh! ... by
the way, Lane, I see from your book3 that on Thursday night, when Lord
Shoreham and Mr. Worthing were dining with me, eight bottles of cham
pagne are entered as having been consumed.
LANE
Yes, sir; eight bottles and a pint.
ALGERNON
Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably
drink the champagne? I ask merely for information.
LANE
I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often
observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate
brand.
ALGERNON
Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?
LANE
I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience
of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in
1. A highly fashionable location (at the time of the summer home, which Wilde had visited. play) in the West End of London. 3. Cellar book, in which records were kept of 2. Bracknell is the name of a place in Berkshire wines. where the mother of Lord Alfred Douglas had her
