认真的重要性 英文版 The Importance of Being Earnest
奥斯卡.王尔德 Oscar Wilde
THIRD ACT Page 2
MISS PRISM. Lady Bracknell, I admit with shame that I do not know.I only wish I did. The plain facts of the case are these. On themorning of the day you mention, a day that is for ever branded onmy memory, I prepared as usual to take the baby out in itsperambulator. I had also with me a somewhat old, but capacioushand-bag in which I had intended to place the manuscript of a workof fiction that I had written during my few unoccupied hours. In amoment of mental abstraction, for which I never can forgive myself,I deposited the manuscript in the basinette, and placed the baby inthe hand-bag.
JACK. (Who has been listening attentively. ) But where did youdeposit the hand-bag?
MISS PRISM. Do not ask me, Mr. Worthing.
JACK. Miss Prism, this is a matter of no small importance to me.I insist on knowing where you deposited the hand-bag that containedthat infant.
JACK. What railway station?
MISS PRISM. (Quite crushed. ) Victoria. The Brighton line.(Sinks into a chair. )
JACK. I must retire to my room for a moment. Gwendolen, wait herefor me.
GWENDOLEN. If you are not too long, I will wait here for you allmy life. (Exit JACK in great excitement. )
CHASUBLE. What do you think this means, Lady Bracknell?
LADY BRACKNELL. I dare not even suspect, Dr. Chasuble. I needhardly tell you that in families of high position strangecoincidences are not supposed to occur. They are hardly consideredthe thing.
(Noises heard overhead as if some one was throwing trunks about.Every one looks up. )
CECILY. Uncle Jack seems strangely agitated.
CHASUBLE. Your guardian has a very emotional nature.
LADY BRACKNELL. This noise is extremely unpleasant. It sounds asif he was having an argument. I dislike arguments of any kind.They are always vulgar, and often convincing.
CHASUBLE. (Looking up. ) It has stopped now. (The noise isredoubled. )
LADY BRACKNELL. I wish he would arrive at some conclusion.
GWENDOLEN. This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.(Enter JACK with a hand-bag of black leather in his hand. )
JACK. (Rushing over to MISS PRISM. ) Is this the handbag, MissPrism? Examine it carefully before you speak. The happiness ofmore than one life depends on your answer.
MISS PRISM. (Calmly. ) It seems to be mine. Yes, here is theinjury it received through the upsetting of a Gower Street omnibusin younger and happier days. Here is the stain on the liningcaused by the explosion of a temperance beverage, an incident thatoccurred at Leamington. And here, on the lock, are my initials. Ihad forgotten that in an extravagant mood I had had them placedthere. The bag is undoubtedly mine. I am delighted to have it sounexpectedly restored to me. It has been a great inconveniencebeing without it all these years.
JACK. (In a pathetic voice. ) Miss Prism, more is restored to youthan this hand-bag. I was the baby you placed in it.
MISS PRISM. (Amazed. ) You?
JACK. (Embracing her. ) Yes . . . mother!
MISS PRISM. (Recoiling in indignant astonishment. ) Mr. Worthing!I am unmarried
JACK. Unmarried! I do not deny that is a serious blow. But afterall, who has the right to cast a stone against one who hassuffered? Cannot repentance wipe out an act of folly? Why shouldthere be one law for men, and another for women? Mother, I forgiveyou. (Tries to embrace her again. )
MISS PRISM. (Still more indignant. ) Mr. Worthing, there is someerror. (Pointing to LADY BRACKNELL. ) There is the lady who cantell you who you really are.
JACK. (After a pause. ) Lady Bracknell, I hate to seeminquisitive, but would you kindly inform me who I am?
LADY BRACKNELL. I am afraid that the news I have to give you willnot altogether please you. You are the son of my poor sister, Mrs.Moncrieff, and consequently Algernon's elder brother.
JACK. Algy's elder brother! Then I have a brother after all. Iknew I had a brother! I always said I had a brother! Cecily, -how could you have ever doubted that I had a brother? (Seizes holdof ALGERNON. ) Dr. Chasuble, my unfortunate brother. Miss Prism,my unfortunate brother. Gwendolen, my unfortunate brother. Algy,you young scoundrel, you will have to treat me with more respect inthe future. You have never behaved to me like a brother in allyour life.
ALGERNON. Well, not till to-day, old boy, I admit. I did my best,however, though I was out of practice.
(Shakes hands. )
GWENDOLEN. (To JACK. ) My own! But what own are you? What isyour Christian name, now that you have become some one else?
JACK. Good heavens! . . . I had quite forgotten that point. Yourdecision 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. AuntAugusta, a moment. At the time when Miss Prism left me in thehand-bag, had I been christened already?
LADY BRACKNELL. Every luxury that money could buy, includingchristening, had been lavished on you by your fond and dotingparents.
JACK. Then I was christened! That is settled. Now, what name wasI given? Let me know the worst.
LADY BRACKNELL. Being the eldest son you were naturally christenedafter your father.
JACK. (Irritably. ) Yes, but what was my father's Christian name?
LADY BRACKNELL. (Meditatively. ) I cannot at the present momentrecall what the General's Christian name was. But I have no doubthe had one. He was eccentric, I admit. But only in later years.And that was the result of the Indian climate, and marriage, andindigestion, and other things of that kind.
lavished on you.
JACK. Algy! Can't you recollect what our father's Christian namewas?
ALGERNON. My dear boy, we were never even on speaking terms. Hedied before I was a year old.
JACK. His name would appear in the Army Lists of the period, Isuppose, Aunt Augusta?
LADY BRACKNELL. The General was essentially a man of peace, exceptin his domestic life. But I have no doubt his name would appear inany military directory.
retire to my room for a .
JACK. The Army Lists of the last forty years are here. Thesedelightful records should have been my constant study. (Rushes tobookcase and tears the books out. ) M. Generals . . . Mallam,Maxbohm, Magley, what ghastly names they have - Markby, Migsby,Mobbs, Moncrieff! Lieutenant 1840, Captain, Lieutenant-Colonel,Colonel, General 1869, Christian names, Ernest John. (Puts bookvery quietly down and speaks quite calmly. ) I always told you,Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn't I? Well, it is Ernest afterall. I mean it naturally is Ernest.
LADY BRACKNELL. Yes, I remember now that the General was calledErnest, I knew I had some particular reason for disliking the name.
GWENDOLEN. Ernest! My own Ernest! I felt from the first that youcould have no other name!
JACK. Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find outsuddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but thetruth. 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!
ALGERNON. Cecily! (Embraces her. ) At last!
JACK. Gwendolen! (Embraces her. ) At last!
JACK. On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I've now realised for thefirst time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.
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