classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.1 What
is your income?
JACK
Between seven and eight thousand a year. LADY BRACKNELL [Makes a note in her book.] In land, or in investments? JACK
In investments, chiefly.
LADY BRACKNELL
That is satisfactory. What between the duties expected of
one during one's lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one's death,2
land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and
prevents one from keeping it up. That's all that can be said about land.
JACK
I have a country house with some land, of course, attached to it, about
fifteen hundred acres, I believe; but I don't depend on that for my real
income. In fact, as far as I can make out, the poachers are the only people
who make anything out of it.
LADY BRACKNELL
A country house! How many bedrooms? Well, that point
1. A fashionable residential area in the West End 2. The wordplay is on 'death duties'?i.e., inherof London. itance taxes.
.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, ACT 1 / 17 11
can be cleared up afterwards. You have a town house, I hope? A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature, like Gwendolen, could hardly be expected to reside in the country.
JACK Well, I own a house in Belgrave Square,3 but it is let by the year to Lady Bloxham. Of course, I can get it back whenever I like, at six months' notice.
LADY BRACKNELL
Lady Bloxham? I don't know her.
JACK Oh, she goes about very little. She is a lady considerably advanced in years. LADY BRACKNELL
Ah, nowadays that is no guarantee of respectability of character. What number in Belgrave Square?
JACK 149. LADY BRACKNELL [Shaking her head..] The unfashionable side. I thought there was something. However, that could easily be altered.
JACK Do you mean the fashion, or the side? LADY BRACKNELL [Sternly.] Both, if necessary, I presume. What are your politics? JACK
Well, I am afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.4
LADY BRACKNELL
Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the evening, at any rate. Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?
JACK
I have lost both my parents.
LADY BRACKNELL
Both? To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune? to lose both seems like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of aristocracy?
JACK
1 am afraid I really don't know. The fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my parents. It would be nearer the truth to say that my parents seem to have lost me. .. . I don't actually know who I am by birth. I was . . . well, I was found.
LADY BRACKNELL Found!
JACK
The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentleman of a very charitable and kindly disposition, found me, and gave me the name of Worthing, because he happened to have a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.
LADY BRACKNELL
Where did the charitable gentleman who had a first-class ticket for this seaside resort find you?
JACK [Gravely.] In a handbag. LADY BRACKNELL A handbag?
