Pride and Prejudice (1940)

Edna May Oliver: Lady Catherine de Bourgh

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Quotes 

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : You must learn, Mrs. Collins, to draw a firm line between the deserving poor and the undeserving.

• Elizabeth Bennet : Lady Catherine, I think it would be very hard on younger sisters to be kept without society or amusement until the elder ones were married. It would hardly promote sisterly affection or even delicacy of mind.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Upon my word, Miss Bennet! You express your opinions very decidedly.

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Mr. Darcy's sister, Georgiana, is a very accomplished musician. And, I, too, should have been a great proficient, if I'd ever learned.

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Are the chicken seedlings satisfactory?

  Mrs. Collins : They've fallen to half a little these last days.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Then, give them half full, Mrs. Collins. If that has no effect, then, it means they're incorrigible. It must be killed and boiled! Killed and boiled.

• Footman : Dinner is served, milady!

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Come. I hate cold soup.

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Imagine it! My nephew, Darcy, scouring the courts and alleys of London looking for him! Huh! Setting him up with an income! Forcing him to marry that silly little - libertied jibbit!

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Insolent headstrong girl! I'm ashamed of you!

• Mrs. Collins : Lady Catherine! Lady Catherine! What an honor for this humble house!

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : No honor was intended, Mr. Collins.

• Elizabeth Bennet : Goodbye, Lady Catherine.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother! You deserve no such attention! I am seriously displeased!

• Mr. Darcy : Well?

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : A blank refusal.

  Mr. Darcy : She refused to see me?

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : She refused not to see you.

  Mr. Darcy : Did she?

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Most emphatically! But that's not the worst, Darcy. I told her that I could strip you of your fortune if I chose to. But she refused to be the least impressed.

  Mr. Darcy : You see?

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Yes, I see, Darcy. I grant I was wrong about that. But there's one thing I can't agree with. You told me at Rosings she was nothing if not decided. That's not true. The young woman is positively obstinate.

  Mr. Darcy : What? Did she refuse anything else?

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Well, she... she merely refused to refuse to marry you.

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Miss Bennet, a report has reached me of a most alarming nature. I was told that you, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, was shortly to be engaged to my nephew, Mr. Darcy. Of course, I could not believe this report could possibly be true. Nevertheless, I immediately resolved upon setting out to see you.

  Elizabeth Bennet : If it could not possibly be true, madam, I wonder you gave yourself the trouble of coming so far.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : I came to insist upon the report being universally contradicted.

  Elizabeth Bennet : But won't your coming here seem rather to confirm it?

• Lady Catherine de Bourgh : But remember this: marry him and you will be poor.

  Elizabeth Bennet : That would be no novelty for me, Lady Catherine.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Once and for all, are you engaged to him?

  Elizabeth Bennet : No, I am not.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Ah. And, uh, will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?

  Elizabeth Bennet : No, I will not.

• Elizabeth Bennet : Thank you for telling me, Lady Catherine. Thank you.

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : I will not be thanked. Let us have no more of this mummery, Miss Bennet. I shall not leave this house until you have given me the assurance for which I ask.

  Elizabeth Bennet : In that case, Lady Catherine, I had better ring for the butler. He will show you to your bedroom. Or, if you decide after all, not to stay, he will conduct you to your carriage.

• Mr. Darcy : How can I ever thank you, Aunt Catherine?

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh : Upon my word, I'm not accustomed to so much gratitude. Everybody seems to be thanking me today.