Monday 31 March 2008

Wilde

I am writing a short play in which one of the scenes is taken directly from Wilde's "Importance of Being Ernest" (always a dangerous thing to do because my play by the side of Wilde's will obviously suffer). So there I am reading the "Handbag scene" from a book which has everything that Wilde ever wrote in it.
Well, not quite everything because one of his most quoted, famous lines is not there.
Jack says: "I have lost both my parents."
To which Lady Bracknell says, in this version, :"Both?.... That seems like carelessness...."
How is it that this book has left out the most famous line in the play? The thing is, it seems deliberate.
Jack: I have lost both my parents.
Lady Bracknell: Both? To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

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