How utterly unromantic you are!
ALGERNON
I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very roman
tic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal.
Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement
is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married,
I'll certainly try to forget the fact.
4. As we learn later, the estate is in Hertfordshire, about geography? No gentleman is accurate about a long distance from Shropshire. In the four-act geography. Why, 1 got a prize for geography when version of the play, when this discrepancy is I was at school. I can't be expected to know any- pointed out by Algernon, Jack replies: 'My dear thing about it now.' fellow! Surely you don't expect me to be accurate
.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, ACT 1 / 17 11
JACK
I have no doubt about that, dear Algy. The Divorce Court was specially
invented for people whose memories are so curiously constituted.
ALGERNON
Oh! there is no use speculating on that subject. Divorces are made in Heaven?[JACK -puts out his hand to take a sandwich. ALGERNON at once interferes.] Please don't touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta. [Takes one and eats it.]
JACK
Well, you have been eating them all the time. ALGERNON That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt. [Takes plate from below.] Have some bread and butter. The bread and butter is for Gwendolen.
Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter. JACK [Advancing to table and helping himself. ] And very good bread and butter it is too.
ALGERNON
Well, my dear fellow, you need not eat as if you were going to eat
it all. You behave as if you were married to her already. You are not married
to her already, and I don't think you ever will be.
JACK
Why on earth do you say that?
ALGERNON
Well, in the first place, girls never marry the men they flirt with.
Girls don't think it right.
JACK
Oh, that is nonsense!
ALGERNON
It isn't. It is a great truth. It accounts for the extraordinary number
of bachelors that one sees all over the place. In the second place, I don't
give my consent.
JACK
Your consent!
ALGERNON
My dear fellow, Gwendolen is my first cousin. And before I allow
you to marry her, you will have to clear up the whole question of Cecily.
[Rings bell.]
JACK
Cecily! What on earth do you mean? What do you mean, Algy, by
Cecily? I don't know anyone of the name of Cecily.
[Enter LANE.]
ALGERNON
Bring me that cigarette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking-
room the last time he dined here. LANE Yes, sir. [LANE goes out.] JACK
