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Lady Windermere's Fan
Lady Windermere's Fan
WINDERMERE’S
FAN
By
Oscar Wilde
A PENN STATE ELECTRONIC
CLASSICS SERIES PUBLICATION
Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde is a publication
of the Pennsylvania State University. This Portable
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LADY
WINDERMERE’S
FAN
By
Oscar Wilde
Lady Windermere
The Duchess of Berwick
Lady Agatha Carlisle
Lady Plymdale
Lady Stutfield
Lady Jedburgh
Mrs. Cowper-Cowper
Mrs. Erlynne Rosalie, Maid
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours, beginning on
a Tuesday afternoon at five o’clock, and ending the next day at 1.30 p.m.
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Oscar Wilde
FIRST ACT
SCENE
Morning-room of Lord Windermere’s house in Carlton House Terrace.
Doors C. and R. Bureau with books and papers R. Sofa with small tea-
table L. Window opening on to terrace L. Table R.
[Enter PARKER.]
LADY WINDERMERE. It’s best for me to see him before to-night. I’m
glad he’s come.
[Exit PARKER.]
LORD DARLINGTON. They are quite perfect. [Sees a fan lying on the
table.] And what a wonderful fan! May I look at it?
LADY WINDERMERE. Do. Pretty, isn’t it! It’s got my name on it, and
everything. I have only just seen it myself. It’s my husband’s birthday
present to me. You know to-day is my birthday?
[Enter PARKER and FOOTMAN C., with tray and tea things.]
LADY WINDERMERE. Put it there, Parker. That will do. [Wipes her
hands with her pocket-handkerchief, goes to tea-table, and sits down.] Won’t
you come over, Lord Darlington?
LORD DARLINGTON. [Takes chair and goes across L.C.] I am quite miser-
able, Lady Windermere. You must tell me what I did. [Sits down at table L.]
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Oscar Wilde
LORD DARLINGTON. [Smiling.] Ah, nowadays we are all of us so
hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They’re the
only things we can pay.
LORD DARLINGTON. Ah, but I did mean them. [Takes tea which she
offers him.]
LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you make that your special one? [Still
seated at table L.]
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t you want the world to take you seriously
then, Lord Darlington?
LORD DARLINGTON. No, not the world. Who are the people the
world takes seriously? All the dull people one can think of, from the Bish-
ops down to the bores. I should like you to take me very seriously, Lady
Windermere, you more than any one else in life.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LORD DARLINGTON. [After a slight hesitation.] Because I think we
might be great friends. Let us be great friends. You may want a friend
some day.
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Oscar Wilde
[Enter PARKER C.]
PARKER. The men want to know if they are to put the carpets on the
terrace for to-night, my lady?
LORD DARLINGTON. Yes, I think she should—I think she has the
right.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. Now, Lord Darlington. [Rising and crossing R.,
front of him.] Don’t stir, I am merely going to finish my flowers. [Goes to
table R.C.]
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Oscar Wilde
LADY WINDERMERE. You have the modern affectation of weakness.
LORD DARLINGTON. [Standing L.C.] Very small, very early, and very
select, Duchess.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
secure about dear Berwick. I don’t know what society is coming to. The
most dreadful people seem to go everywhere. They certainly come to my
parties—the men get quite furious if one doesn’t ask them. Really, some
one should make a stand against it.
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Oscar Wilde
my poor wits, Lord Darlington, just explain to me what you really mean.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. Whom are you talking about, Duchess?
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Don’t you really know? I assure you we’re all
so distressed about it. Only last night at dear Lady Jansen’s every one was
saying how extraordinary it was that, of all men in London, Windermere
should behave in such a way.
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Oscar Wilde
making ugly things for the poor, which I think so useful of them in these
dreadful socialistic days, and this terrible woman has taken a house in Curzon
Street, right opposite them—such a respectable street, too! I don’t know
what we’re coming to! And they tell me that Windermere goes there four
and five times a week—they see him. They can’t help it—and although they
never talk scandal, they—well, of course—they remark on it to every one.
And the worst of it all is that I have been told that this woman has got a
great deal of money out of somebody, for it seems that she came to London
six months ago without anything at all to speak of, and now she has this
charming house in Mayfair, drives her ponies in the Park every afternoon
and all—well, all—since she has known poor dear Windermere.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Ah, the dear pretty baby! How is the little
darling? Is it a boy or a girl? I hope a girl—Ah, no, I remember it’s a boy!
I’m so sorry. Boys are so wicked. My boy is excessively immoral. You
wouldn’t believe at what hours he comes home. And he’s only left Oxford
a few months—I really don’t know what they teach them there.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. Windermere and I married for love.
LADY AGATHA. [Entering L.] Yes, mamma. [Stands back of table L.C.]
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Oscar Wilde
tins—most palatable, I believe—I fancy it is the thing the servants always
refuse to eat. But the son is quite interesting. I think he’s attracted by dear
Agatha’s clever talk. Of course, we should be very sorry to lose her, but I
think that a mother who doesn’t part with a daughter every season has no
real affection. We’re coming to-night, dear. [PARKER opens C. doors.] And
remember my advice, take the poor fellow out of town at once, it is the
only thing to do. Good-bye, once more; come, Agatha.
LORD WINDERMERE. Well, dear, has the fan been sent home yet?
[Going R.C. Sees book.] Margaret, you have cut open my bank book. You
have no right to do such a thing!
LADY WINDERMERE. You think it wrong that you are found out,
don’t you?
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
kind enough to tell me what every one in London knows already—your
daily visits to Curzon Street, your mad infatuation, the monstrous sums
of money you squander on this infamous woman! [Crossing L.]
LADY WINDERMERE. You gave her the money to do it, which is the
same thing.
LORD WINDERMERE. Her husband died many years ago. She is alone
in the world.
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Oscar Wilde
LADY WINDERMERE. No relations? [A pause.]
LORD WINDERMERE. Margaret, you could save this woman. She wants
to get back into society, and she wants you to help her. [Crossing to her.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. You are mad! [Rises.]
LORD WINDERMERE. No; but because she knows that you are a good
woman—and that if she comes here once she will have a chance of a
happier, a surer life than she has had. She will make no further effort to
know you. Won’t you help a woman who is trying to get back?
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Oscar Wilde
LADY WINDERMERE. What has that to do with me?
LORD WINDERMERE. You are sure in your heart. But don’t make
chasm after chasm between us. God knows the last few minutes have
thrust us wide enough apart. Sit down and write the card.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. Arthur, if that woman comes here, I shall insult
her.
[Enter PARKER.]
Parker!
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LORD WINDERMERE. Margaret, you’ll ruin us!
ACT DROP
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
SECOND ACT
SCENE
Drawing-room in Lord Windermere’s house. Door R.U. opening into
ball-room, where band is playing. Door L. through which guests are en-
tering. Door L.U. opens on to illuminated terrace. Palms, flowers, and
brilliant lights. Room crowded with guests. Lady Windermere is receiv-
ing them.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. [Sitting on sofa.] Just let me see your card. I’m
so glad Lady Windermere has revived cards.—They’re a mother’s only safe-
guard. You dear simple little thing! [Scratches out two names.] No nice girl
should ever waltz with such particularly younger sons! It looks so fast! The
last two dances you might pass on the terrace with Mr. Hopper.
DUMBY. Good evening, Lady Stutfield. I suppose this will be the last
ball of the season?
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Oscar Wilde
LADY STUTFIELD. I suppose so, Mr. Dumby. It’s been a delightful
season, hasn’t it?
DUMBY. Oh, I think not. There’ll probably be two more. [Wanders back
to LADY PLYMDALE.]
PARKER. Mr. Rufford. Lady Jedburgh and Miss Graham. Mr. Hopper.
HOPPER. How do you do, Lady Windermere? How do you do, Duch-
ess? [Bows to LADY AGATHA.]
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. How clever you are, Mr. Hopper. You have
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
a cleverness quite of your own. Now I mustn’t keep you.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Well, I hope she has a dance left. Have you
a dance left, Agatha?
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Sir James, will you take me into the ball-
room? Augustus has been dining with us to-night. I really have had quite
enough of dear Augustus for the moment.
[SIR JAMES ROYSTON gives the DUCHESS his aim and escorts her into
the ball-room.]
PARKER. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Bowden. Lord and Lady Paisley. Lord
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Oscar Wilde
Darlington.
LORD AUGUSTUS. You have seen a good deal of her since then.
LORD AUGUSTUS. Egad! the women are very down on her. I have
been dining with Arabella this evening! By Jove! you should have heard
what she said about Mrs. Erlynne. She didn’t leave a rag on her …. [Aside.]
Berwick and I told her that didn’t matter much, as the lady in question
must have an extremely fine figure. You should have seen Arabella’s ex-
pression! … But, look here, dear boy. I don’t know what to do about Mrs.
Erlynne. Egad! I might be married to her; she treats me with such demmed
indifference. She’s deuced clever, too! She explains everything. Egad! she
explains you. She has got any amount of explanations for you—and all of
them different.
LORD AUGUSTUS. Hem! Well, look here, dear old fellow. Do you
think she will ever get into this demmed thing called Society? Would you
introduce her to your wife? No use beating about the confounded bush.
Would you do that?
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LORD AUGUSTUS. Your wife has sent her a card?
LORD AUGUSTUS. Then she’s all right, dear boy. But why didn’t you
tell me that before? It would have saved me a heap of worry and demmed
misunderstandings!
[LADY AGATHA and MR. HOPPER cross and exit on terrace L.U.E.]
CECIL GRAHAM. By the way, Tuppy, which is it? Have you been twice
married and once divorced, or twice divorced and once married? I say
you’ve been twice divorced and once married. It seems so much more
probable.
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Oscar Wilde
LADY PLYMDALE. Oh, you mustn’t dream of such a thing. It’s most
dangerous nowadays for a husband to pay any attention to his wife in pub-
lic. It always makes people think that he beats her when they’re alone. The
world has grown so suspicious of anything that looks like a happy married
life. But I’ll tell you what it is at supper. [Moves towards door of ball-room.]
LADY WINDERMERE. Will you hold my fan for me, Lord Darlington?
Thanks. [Comes down to him.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LORD DARLINGTON. You have dropped your fan, Lady Windermere.
[Picks it up and hands it to her.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [C.] How do you do, again, Lord Windermere? How
charming your sweet wife looks! Quite a picture!
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Smiling.] The wisest thing I ever did in my life. And,
by the way, you must pay me a good deal of attention this evening. I am
afraid of the women. You must introduce me to some of them. The men
I can always manage. How do you do, Lord Augustus? You have quite
neglected me lately. I have not seen you since yesterday. I am afraid you’re
faithless. Every one told me so.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [R.C.] No, dear Lord Augustus, you can’t explain any-
thing. It is your chief charm.
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Oscar Wilde
Oh, how do you do, Mr. Graham? Isn’t that your aunt, Lady Jedburgh? I
should so much like to know her.
MRS. ERLYNNE. So pleased to meet you, Lady Jedburgh. [Sits beside her
on the sofa.] Your nephew and I are great friends. I am so much interested in
his political career. I think he’s sure to be a wonderful success. He thinks
like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that’s so important nowadays. He’s
such a brilliant talker, too. But we all know from whom he inherits that.
Lord Allandale was saying to me only yesterday, in the Park, that Mr. Gra-
ham talks almost as well as his aunt.
LADY JEDBURGH. [R.] Most kind of you to say these charming things
to me! [MRS. ERLYNNE smiles, and continues conversation.]
CECIL GRAHAM. Had to, my dear fellow. Couldn’t help it! That woman
can make one do anything she wants. How, I don’t know.
DUMBY. Haven’t got the slightest idea! Looks like an edition de luxe of a
wicked French novel, meant specially for the English market.
MRS. ERLYNNE. So that is poor Dumby with Lady Plymdale? I hear
she is frightfully jealous of him. He doesn’t seem anxious to speak to me
to-night. I suppose he is afraid of her. Those straw-coloured women have
dreadful tempers. Do you know, I think I’ll dance with you first,
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
Windermere. [LORD WINDERMERE bits his lip and frowns.] It will make
Lord Augustus so jealous! Lord Augustus! [LORD AUGUSTUS comes
down.] Lord Windermere insists on my dancing with him first, and, as it’s
his own house, I can’t well refuse. You know I would much sooner dance
with you.
LORD AUGUSTUS. [With a low bow.] I wish I could think so, Mrs.
Erlynne.
MRS ERLYNNE. You know it far too well. I can fancy a person dancing
through life with you and finding it charming.
LORD AUGUSTUS. [Placing his hand on his white waistcoat.] Oh, thank
you, thank you. You are the most adorable of all ladies!
MRS. ERLYNNE. What a nice speech! So simple and so sincere! Just the
sort of speech I like. Well, you shall hold my bouquet. [Goes towards ball-
room on LORD WINDERMERE’S arm.] Ah, Mr. Dumby, how are you? I
am so sorry I have been out the last three times you have called. Come
and lunch on Friday.
LADY PLYMDALE. [To MR. DUMBY.] What an absolute brute you are!
I never can believe a word you say! Why did you tell me you didn’t know
her? What do you mean by calling on her three times running? You are
not to go to lunch there; of course you understand that?
LADY PLYMDALE. You haven’t told me her name yet! Who is she?
DUMBY. [Coughs slightly and smooths his hair.] She’s a Mrs. Erlynne.
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Oscar Wilde
DUMBY. Yes; that is what every one calls her.
DUMBY. Why?
[They pass into the ball-room, and LADY WINDERMERE and LORD
DARLINGTON enter from the terrace.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
took it—used it—spoiled it! I am degraded in my own eyes; and I lack
courage—I am a coward! [Sits down on sofa.]
LORD DARLINGTON. If I know you at all, I know that you can’t live
with a man who treats you like this! What sort of life would you have with
him? You would feel that he was lying to you every moment of the day.
You would feel that the look in his eyes was false, his voice false, his touch
false, his passion false. He would come to you when he was weary of
others; you would have to comfort him. He would come to you when he
was devoted to others; you would have to charm him. You would have to
be to him the mask of his real life, the cloak to hide his secret.
LADY WINDERMERE. You are right—you are terribly right. But where
am I to turn? You said you would be my friend, Lord Darlington.—Tell
me, what am I to do? Be my friend now.
LORD DARLINGTON. Yes, I love you! You are more to me than anything
in the whole world. What does your husband give you? Nothing. Whatever is
in him he gives to this wretched woman, whom he has thrust into your soci-
ety, into your home, to shame you before every one. I offer you my life—
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Oscar Wilde
LADY WINDERMERE. [Moving slowly away from him, and looking at
him with startled eyes.] I have not the courage.
LORD DARLINGTON. [Following her.] Yes; you have the courage. There
may be six months of pain, of disgrace even, but when you no longer bear
his name, when you bear mine, all will be well. Margaret, my love, my
wife that shall be some day—yes, my wife! You know it! What are you
now? This woman has the place that belongs by right to you. Oh! go—go
out of this house, with head erect, with a smile upon your lips, with
courage in your eyes. All London will know why you did it; and who will
blame you? No one. If they do, what matter? Wrong? What is wrong? It’s
wrong for a man to abandon his wife for a shameless woman. It is wrong
for a wife to remain with a man who so dishonours her. You said once you
would make no compromise with things. Make none now. Be brave! Be
yourself!
LORD DARLINGTON. And you would take him back! You are not
what I thought you were. You are just the same as every other woman.
You would stand anything rather than face the censure of a world, whose
praise you would despise. In a week you will be driving with this woman
in the Park. She will be your constant guest—your dearest friend. You
would endure anything rather than break with one blow this monstrous
tie. You are right. You have no courage; none!
LADY WINDERMERE. [Rising from the sofa.] Then, not at all! [A pause.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
ment our lives met—our souls touched. They must never meet or touch
again. Good-bye, Margaret. [Exit.]
[The music stops. Enter the DUCHESS OF BERWICK and LORD PAIS-
LEY laughing and talking. Other guests come on from ball-room.]
HOPPER. Awfully sorry, Duchess. We went out for a moment and then
got chatting together.
HOPPER. Yes!
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. And what answer did you give him, dear
child?
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Oscar Wilde
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. [Affectionately.] My dear one! You always
say the right thing. Mr. Hopper! James! Agatha has told me everything.
How cleverly you have both kept your secret.
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Agatha, you say the most silly things pos-
sible. I think on the whole that Grosvenor Square would be a more healthy
place to reside in. There are lots of vulgar people live in Grosvenor Square,
but at any rate there are no horrid kangaroos crawling about. But we’ll
talk about that to-morrow. James, you can take Agatha down. You’ll come
to lunch, of course, James. At half-past one, instead of two. The Duke
will wish to say a few words to you, I am sure.
HOPPER. I should like to have a chat with the Duke, Duchess. He has
not said a single word to me yet.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. No!
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Oscar Wilde
[Exit MR. CECIL GRAHAM with rest of guests. LADY WINDERMERE
watches, with a look of scorn and pain, MRS. ERLYNNE and her husband.
They are unconscious of her presence.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh, no! I do the encouraging. But you will make me
a handsome settlement, Windermere, won’t you?
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
that excellent habit. It’s a great mistake on her part. When men give up
saying what is charming, they give up thinking what is charming. But
seriously, what do you say to 2000 pounds? 2500 pounds, I think. In
modern life margin is everything. Windermere, don’t you think the world
an intensely amusing place? I do!
[Exit.]
PARKER. No, madam. Her ladyship has just gone out of the house.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Starts, and looks at the servant with a puzzled expres-
sion in her face.] Out of the house?
PARKER. Yes, madam—her ladyship told me she had left a letter for his
lordship on the table.
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Oscar Wilde
PARKER. Yes, madam.
[Exit PARKER. The music in the ball-room stops.] Gone out of her house! A
letter addressed to her husband! [Goes over to bureau and looks at letter. Takes
it up and lays it down again with a shudder of fear.] No, no! It would be
impossible! Life doesn’t repeat its tragedies like that! Oh, why does this
horrible fancy come across me? Why do I remember now the one moment
of my life I most wish to forget? Does life repeat its tragedies? [Tears letter
open and reads it, then sinks down into a chair with a gesture of anguish.] Oh,
how terrible! The same words that twenty years ago I wrote to her father!
and how bitterly I have been punished for it! No; my punishment, my real
punishment is to-night, is now! [Still seated R.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. She is very tired. She has gone to bed. She said she had
a headache.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Rising hurriedly.] Oh, no! It’s nothing serious. She’s
only very tired, that is all. Besides, there are people still in the supper-
room. She wants you to make her apologies to them. She said she didn’t
wish to be disturbed. [Drops letter.] She asked me to tell you!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh yes, thank you, that is mine. [Puts out her hand to
take it.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
writing, isn’t it?
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Takes the letter quickly.] Yes, it’s—an address. Will
you ask them to call my carriage, please?
MRS. ERLYNNE. Thanks! What can I do? What can I do? I feel a pas-
sion awakening within me that I never felt before. What can it mean? The
daughter must not be like the mother—that would be terrible. How can
I save her? How can I save my child? A moment may ruin a life. Who
knows that better than I? Windermere must be got out of the house; that
is absolutely necessary. [Goes L.] But how shall I do it? It must be done
somehow. Ah!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Lord Augustus, listen to me. You are to take Lord
Windermere down to your club at once, and keep him there as long as
possible. You understand?
LORD AUGUSTUS. But you said you wished me to keep early hours!
MRS. ERLYNNE. Your reward? Your reward? Oh! ask me that to-mor-
row. But don’t let Windermere out of your sight to-night. If you do I will
never forgive you. I will never speak to you again. I’ll have nothing to do
with you. Remember you are to keep Windermere at your club, and don’t
let him come back to-night.
[Exit L.]
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LORD AUGUSTUS. Well, really, I might be her husband already. Posi-
tively I might. [Follows her in a bewildered manner.]
ACT DROP
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
THIRD ACT
SCENE
Lord Darlington’s Rooms. A large sofa is in front of fireplace R. At the
back of the stage a curtain is drawn across the window. Doors L. and R.
Table R. with writing materials. Table C. with syphons, glasses, and
Tantalus frame. Table L. with cigar and cigarette box. Lamps lit.
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Oscar Wilde
[Enter MRS. ERLYNNE L.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! You are on the brink of ruin, you are on the brink
of a hideous precipice. You must leave this place at once, my carriage is
waiting at the corner of the street. You must come with me and drive
straight home.
[LADY WINDERMERE throws off her cloak and flings it on the sofa.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes! he shall. Had he come himself, I admit I
would have gone back to the life of degradation you and he had prepared
for me—I was going back—but to stay himself at home, and to send you
as his messenger—oh! it was infamous—infamous.
LADY WINDERMERE. How simple you think me! [Going to her.] You
are lying to me!
MRS. ERLYNNE. [R.C.] Your husband has never seen the letter. I—saw
it, I opened it. I—read it.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Dare! Oh! to save you from the abyss into which you
are falling, there is nothing in the world I would not dare, nothing in the
whole world. Here is the letter. Your husband has never read it. He never
shall read it. [Going to fireplace.] It should never have been written. [Tears
it and throws it into the fire.]
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Oscar Wilde
MRS. ERLYNNE. Oh! why do you disbelieve everything I tell you? What
object do you think I have in coming here, except to save you from utter
ruin, to save you from the consequence of a hideous mistake? That letter
that is burnt now was your letter. I swear it to you!
MRS. ERLYNNE. You do, and you know that he loves you.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes, and I will tell you what it is. It is his love for you,
Lady Windermere.
MRS. ERLYNNE. You must believe it! It is true. It is his love for you that
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
has made him submit to—oh! call it what you like, tyranny, threats, any-
thing you choose. But it is his love for you. His desire to spare you—
shame, yes, shame and disgrace.
LADY WINDERMERE. You talk as if you had a heart. Women like you
have no hearts. Heart is not in you. You are bought and sold. [Sits L.C.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Starts, with a gesture of pain. Then restrains herself, and
comes over to where LADY WINDERMERE is sitting. As she speaks, she
stretches out her hands towards her, but does not dare to touch her.] Believe
what you choose about me. I am not worth a moment’s sorrow. But don’t
spoil your beautiful young life on my account! You don’t know what may
be in store for you, unless you leave this house at once. You don’t know
what it is to fall into the pit, to be despised, mocked, abandoned, sneered
at—to be an outcast! to find the door shut against one, to have to creep in
by hideous byways, afraid every moment lest the mask should be stripped
from one’s face, and all the while to hear the laughter, the horrible laugh-
ter of the world, a thing more tragic than all the tears the world has ever
shed. You don’t know what it is. One pays for one’s sin, and then one pays
again, and all one’s life one pays. You must never know that.—As for me,
if suffering be an expiation, then at this moment I have expiated all my
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Oscar Wilde
faults, whatever they have been; for to-night you have made a heart in one
who had it not, made it and broken it.—But let that pass. I may have
wrecked my own life, but I will not let you wreck yours. You—why, you
are a mere girl, you would be lost. You haven’t got the kind of brains that
enables a woman to get back. You have neither the wit nor the courage.
You couldn’t stand dishonour! No! Go back, Lady Windermere, to the
husband who loves you, whom you love. You have a child, Lady
Windermere. Go back to that child who even now, in pain or in joy, may
be calling to you. [LADY WINDERMERE rises.] God gave you that child.
He will require from you that you make his life fine, that you watch over
him. What answer will you make to God if his life is ruined through you?
Back to your house, Lady Windermere—your husband loves you! He has
never swerved for a moment from the love he bears you. But even if he
had a thousand loves, you must stay with your child. If he was harsh to
you, you must stay with your child. If he ill-treated you, you must stay
with your child. If he abandoned you, your place is with your child.
[LADY WINDERMERE bursts into tears and buries her face in her hands.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Is about to embrace her. Then restrains herself. There is
a look of wonderful joy in her face.] Come! Where is your cloak? [Getting it
from sofa.] Here. Put it on. Come at once!
[Voices outside.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
MRS. ERLYNNE. Silence! I’m here to save you, if I can. But I fear it is
too late! There! [Points to the curtain across the window.] The first chance
you have, slip out, if you ever get a chance!
DUMBY. What a nuisance their turning us out of the club at this hour!
It’s only two o’clock. [Sinks into a chair.] The lively part of the evening is
only just beginning. [Yawns and closes his eyes.]
CECIL GRAHAM. Oh! We all know what that is! Tuppy can’t talk about
anything but Mrs. Erlynne.
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Oscar Wilde
CECIL GRAHAM. None! That is why it interests me. My own business
always bores me to death. I prefer other people’s.
CECIL GRAHAM. I usen’t to be, but I am now. Why! she actually made
me introduce her to poor dear Aunt Caroline. I believe she is going to
lunch there.
LORD DARLINGTON. Excuse me, you fellows. I’m going away to-
morrow. And I have to write a few letters. [Goes to writing table and sits
down.]
Ah, you may laugh, my boy, but it is a great thing to come across a woman
who thoroughly understands one.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
CECIL GRAHAM. But I thought, Tuppy, you were never going to see
her again! Yes! you told me so yesterday evening at the club. You said
you’d heard—
[Whispering to him.]
LORD AUGUSTUS. [In a very serious voice.] She’s going to explain that
to-morrow.
LORD AUGUSTUS. You want to make her out a wicked woman. She is
not!
CECIL GRAHAM. Oh! Wicked women bother one. Good women bore
one. That is the only difference between them.
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Oscar Wilde
LORD AUGUSTUS. You’re getting annoying, dear-boy; you’re getting
demmed annoying.
CECIL GRAHAM. [Puts his hands on his shoulders.] Now, Tuppy, you’ve
lost your figure and you’ve lost your character. Don’t lose your temper;
you have only got one.
CECIL GRAHAM. We’d treat you with more respect, wouldn’t we, Tuppy?
[Strolls away.]
DUMBY. The youth of the present day are quite monstrous. They have
absolutely no respect for dyed hair. [LORD AUGUSTUS looks round an-
grily.]
CECIL GRAHAM. Mrs. Erlynne has a very great respect for dear Tuppy.
DUMBY. Then Mrs. Erlynne sets an admirable example to the rest of her
sex. It is perfectly brutal the way most women nowadays behave to men
who are not their husbands.
LORD WINDERMERE. Dumby, you are ridiculous, and Cecil, you let
your tongue run away with you. You must leave Mrs. Erlynne alone. You
don’t really know anything about her, and you’re always talking scandal
against her.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LORD AUGUSTUS. Just my sentiments, dear boy, just my sentiments.
CECIL GRAHAM. Sorry to hear it, Tuppy; whenever people agree with
me, I always feel I must be wrong.
CECIL GRAHAM. But you never were, Tuppy, and you never will be.
[Goes up C.] I say, Darlington, let us have some cards. You’ll play, Arthur,
won’t you?
DUMBY. [With a sigh.] Good heavens! how marriage ruins a man! It’s as
demoralising as cigarettes, and far more expensive.
CECIL GRAHAM. Now, my dear Tuppy, don’t be led astray into the
paths of virtue. Reformed, you would be perfectly tedious. That is the
worst of women. They always want one to be good. And if we are good,
when they meet us, they don’t love us at all. They like to find us quite
irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good.
DUMBY. I don’t think we are bad. I think we are all good, except Tuppy.
LORD DARLINGTON. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are
looking at the stars. [Sits down at C. table.]
DUMBY. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars?
Upon my word, you are very romantic to-night, Darlington.
CECIL GRAHAM. Too romantic! You must be in love. Who is the girl?
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Oscar Wilde
LORD DARLINGTON. The woman I love is not free, or thinks she
isn’t. [Glances instinctively at LORD WINDERMERE while he speaks.]
LORD DARLINGTON. Oh! she doesn’t love me. She is a good woman.
She is the only good woman I have ever met in my life.
CECIL GRAHAM. The only good woman you have ever met in your
life?
DUMBY. I congratulate you, my dear fellow. In this world there are only
two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting
it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy! But I am interested
to hear she does not love you. How long could you love a woman who
didn’t love you, Cecil?
CECIL GRAHAM. A woman who didn’t love me? Oh, all my life!
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LORD DARLINGTON. How can you be so conceited, Dumby?
DUMBY. No, time to forget all I have learned. That is much more im-
portant, dear Tuppy. [LORD AUGUSTUS moves uneasily in his chair.]
LORD DARLINGTON. You always amuse me, Cecil. You talk as if you
were a man of experience.
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Oscar Wilde
DUMBY. Life would be very dull without them.
CECIL GRAHAM. Of course you are quite faithful to this woman you
are in love with, Darlington, to this good woman?
CECIL GRAHAM. Dear me! How very interesting! Tuppy, I want to talk
to you. [LORD AUGUSTUS takes no notice.]
DUMBY. It’s no use talking to Tuppy. You might just as well talk to a
brick wall.
CECIL GRAHAM. But I like talking to a brick wall—it’s the only thing
in the world that never contradicts me! Tuppy!
LORD AUGUSTUS. Well, what is it? What is it? [Rising and going over
to CECIL GRAHAM.]
CECIL GRAHAM. [In a low voice.] Yes, here is her fan. [Points to the
fan.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LORD WINDERMERE. What?
CECIL GRAHAM. Darlington has got a woman here in his rooms. Here
is her fan. Amusing, isn’t it? [A pause.]
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Oscar Wilde
LORD DARLINGTON. [Aside.] She is here after all!
LORD WINDERMERE. You scoundrel! I’ll not leave your room till I
have searched every corner of it! What moves behind that curtain? [Rushes
towards the curtain C.]
[Every one starts and turns round. LADY WINDERMERE slips out from
behind the curtain and glides from the room L.]
ACT DROP
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
FOURTH ACT
SCENE—Same as in Act I.
LADY WINDERMERE. [Lying on sofa.] How can I tell him? I can’t tell
him. It would kill me. I wonder what happened after I escaped from
that horrible room. Perhaps she told them the true reason of her being
there, and the real meaning of that—fatal fan of mine. Oh, if he knows—
how can I look him in the face again? He would never forgive me. [Touches
bell.] How securely one thinks one lives—out of reach of temptation,
sin, folly. And then suddenly—Oh! Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not
rule it.
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. Have you found out at what time Lord
Windermere came in last night?
ROSALIE. Yes, my lady—at half-past nine. I told him your ladyship was
not awake yet.
ROSALIE. Something about your ladyship’s fan. I didn’t quite catch what
his lordship said. Has the fan been lost, my lady? I can’t find it, and Parker
says it was not left in any of the rooms. He has looked in all of them and on
the terrace as well.
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Oscar Wilde
LADY WINDERMERE. It doesn’t matter. Tell Parker not to trouble.
That will do.
[Exit ROSALIE.]
LORD WINDERMERE. My dear child, you are not well. You’ve been
doing too much. Let us go away to the country. You’ll be all right at Selby.
The season is almost over. There is no use staying on. Poor darling! We’ll
go away to-day, if you like. [Rises.] We can easily catch the 3.40. I’ll send
a wire to Fannen. [Crosses and sits down at table to write a telegram.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. Far more than that. [Rises and goes to him.] I
will tell you, Arthur, but only love me, love me as you used to love me.
LORD WINDERMERE. Used to? You are not thinking of that wretched
woman who came here last night? [Coming round and sitting R. of her.]
You don’t still imagine—no, you couldn’t.
LADY WINDERMERE. But I want to see her. I want her to come here.
LADY WINDERMERE. She came here once as your guest. She must
come now as mine. That is but fair.
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Oscar Wilde
LORD WINDERMERE. She should never have come here.
[Enter PARKER with a tray on which lie LADY WINDERMERE’S fan and
a card.]
PARKER. Mrs. Erlynne has called to return your ladyship’s fan which she
took away by mistake last night. Mrs. Erlynne has written a message on
the card.
LORD WINDERMERE. [Takes card and looks at it.] Margaret, I beg you
not to. Let me see her first, at any rate. She’s a very dangerous woman. She
is the most dangerous woman I know. You don’t realise what you’re doing.
[Enter PARKER.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
[Exit PARKER.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes; I am going to live abroad again. The English cli-
mate doesn’t suit me. My—heart is affected here, and that I don’t like. I
prefer living in the south. London is too full of fogs and—and serious
people, Lord Windermere. Whether the fogs produce the serious people
or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don’t know, but the
whole thing rather gets on my nerves, and so I’m leaving this afternoon by
the Club Train.
MRS. ERLYNNE. I am afraid not. Our lives lie too far apart. But there is
a little thing I would like you to do for me. I want a photograph of you,
Lady Windermere—would you give me one? You don’t know how grati-
fied I should be.
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Oscar Wilde
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With an amused smile.] My dear Windermere, man-
ners before morals!
MRS. ERLYNNE. You are much prettier. But haven’t you got one of
yourself with your little boy?
LADY WINDERMERE. I’ll go and get it for you, if you’ll excuse me for
a moment. I have one upstairs.
[Exit LADY WINDERMERE R.] You seem rather out of temper this morn-
ing, Windermere. Why should you be? Margaret and I get on charmingly
together.
LORD WINDERMERE. I can’t bear to see you with her. Besides, you
have not told me the truth, Mrs. Erlynne.
MRS. ERLYNNE. I have not told her the truth, you mean.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
after bill, extravagance after extravagance, to risk what occurred yesterday,
the first quarrel I have ever had with my wife. You don’t understand what
that means to me. How could you? But I tell you that the only bitter
words that ever came from those sweet lips of hers were on your account,
and I hate to see you next her. You sully the innocence that is in her.
[Moves L.C.] And then I used to think that with all your faults you were
frank and honest. You are not.
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Oscar Wilde
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Looks steadily at him.] I question that.
LORD WINDERMERE. Yes, you took it—and spoiled it all last night
by being found out.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With a strange smile.] You are quite right, I spoiled it
all last night.
MRS. ERLYNNE. I think I shall keep it. [Goes up.] It’s extremely pretty.
[Takes up fan.] I shall ask Margaret to give it to me.
LORD WINDERMERE. I wish that at the same time she would give
you a miniature she kisses every night before she prays—It’s the miniature
of a young innocent-looking girl with beautiful dark hair.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Ah, yes, I remember. How long ago that seems! [Goes
to sofa and sits down.] It was done before I was married. Dark hair and an
innocent expression were the fashion then, Windermere! [A pause.]
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With a note of irony in her voice.] To bid good-bye to
my dear daughter, of course. [LORD WINDERMERE bites his under lip
in anger. MRS. ERLYNNE looks at him, and her voice and manner become
serious. In her accents at she talks there is a note of deep tragedy. For a moment
she reveals herself.] Oh, don’t imagine I am going to have a pathetic scene
with her, weep on her neck and tell her who I am, and all that kind of
thing. I have no ambition to play the part of a mother. Only once in my
life like I known a mother’s feelings. That was last night. They were ter-
rible—they made me suffer—they made me suffer too much. For twenty
years, as you say, I have lived childless,—I want to live childless still.
[Hiding her feelings with a trivial laugh.] Besides, my dear Windermere,
how on earth could I pose as a mother with a grown-up daughter? Marga-
ret is twenty-one, and I have never admitted that I am more than twenty-
nine, or thirty at the most. Twenty-nine when there are pink shades, thirty
when there are not. So you see what difficulties it would involve. No, as
far as I am concerned, let your wife cherish the memory of this dead,
stainless mother. Why should I interfere with her illusions? I find it hard
enough to keep my own. I lost one illusion last night. I thought I had no
heart. I find I have, and a heart doesn’t suit me, Windermere. Somehow it
doesn’t go with modern dress. It makes one look old. [Takes up hand-
mirror from table and looks into it.] And it spoils one’s career at critical
moments.
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Oscar Wilde
LORD WINDERMERE. I am sorry now I did not tell my wife the whole
thing at once.
MRS. ERLYNNE. I regret my bad actions. You regret your good ones—
that is the difference between us.
LORD WINDERMERE. I don’t trust you. I will tell my wife. It’s better
for her to know, and from me. It will cause her infinite pain—it will
humiliate her terribly, but it’s right that she should know.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [After a pause.] If I said to you that I cared for her,
perhaps loved her even—you would sneer at me, wouldn’t you?
LORD WINDERMERE. I should feel it was not true. A mother’s love means
devotion, unselfishness, sacrifice. What could you know of such things?
MRS. ERLYNNE. You are right. What could I know of such things?
Don’t let us talk any more about it—as for telling my daughter who I am,
that I do not allow. It is my secret, it is not yours. If I make up my mind
to tell her, and I think I will, I shall tell her before I leave the house—if
not, I shall never tell her.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. I am so sorry, Mrs. Erlynne, to have kept you
waiting. I couldn’t find the photograph anywhere. At last I discovered it
in my husband’s dressing-room—he had stolen it.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [Takes the photograph from her and looks at it.] I am not
surprised—it is charming. [Goes over to sofa with LADY WINDERMERE,
and sits down beside her. Looks again at the photograph.] And so that is your
little boy! What is he called?
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes. [Pause.] You are devoted to your mother’s memory,
Lady Windermere, your husband tells me.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They
wound, but they’re better.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Did your father often speak to you of your mother?
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Oscar Wilde
with tears as he spoke. Then he begged me never to mention her name to
him again. It made him suffer even to hear it. My father—my father really
died of a broken heart. His was the most ruined life know,
MRS. ERLYNNE. I think I had better. My carriage must have come back
by this time. I sent it to Lady Jedburgh’s with a note.
LADY WINDERMERE. I must speak of it. I can’t let you think that I am
going to accept this sacrifice. I am not. It is too great. I am going to tell
my husband everything. It is my duty.
MRS. ERLYNNE. It is not your duty—at least you have duties to others
besides him. You say you owe me something?
MRS. ERLYNNE. Then pay your debt by silence. That is the only way in
which it can be paid. Don’t spoil the one good thing I have done in my life
by telling it to any one. Promise me that what passed last night will remain
a secret between us. You must not bring misery into your husband’s life.
Why spoil his love? You must not spoil it. Love is easily killed. Oh! how
easily love is killed. Pledge me your word, Lady Windermere, that you will
never tell him. I insist upon it.
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. [With bowed head.] It is your will, not mine.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Yes, it is my will. And never forget your child—I like
to think of you as a mother. I like you to think of yourself as one.
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With a slight shudder.] Hush, last night is quite over.
LORD WINDERMERE. Your carriage has not come back yet, Mrs.
Erlynne.
LADY WINDERMERE. Oh, certainly, if it will give you any pleasure. But
it has my name on it. It has ‘Margaret’ on it.
[Enter PARKER.]
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Oscar Wilde
LORD AUGUSTUS. Good morning, dear boy. Good morning, Lady
Windermere. [Sees MRS. ERLYNNE.] Mrs. Erlynne!
MRS. ERLYNNE. How do you do, Lord Augustus? Are you quite well
this morning?
MRS. ERLYNNE. You don’t look at all well, Lord Augustus. You stop up
too late—it is so bad for you. You really should take more care of yourself.
Good-bye, Lord Windermere. [Goes towards door with a bow to LORD
AUGUSTUS. Suddenly smiles and looks back at him.] Lord Augustus! Won’t
you see me to my carriage? You might carry the fan.
[When she reaches the door she looks back for a moment at LADY
WINDERMERE. Their eyes meet. Then she turns, and exit C. followed by
LORD AUGUSTUS.]
LADY WINDERMERE. You will never speak against Mrs. Erlynne again,
Arthur, will you?
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t say that, Arthur. There is the same world
for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
hand. To shut one’s eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as
though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a
land of pit and precipice.
LORD AUGUSTUS. [Advancing towards her with a low bow.] Yes, Lady
Windermere— Mrs. Erlynne has done me the honour of accepting my
hand.
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Oscar Wilde
LORD WINDERMERE. Well, you are certainly marrying a very clever
woman!
CURTAIN
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Lady Windermere’s Fan
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