- Miss Bingley: I fear this latest escapade may have lessened your regard for her "fine eyes".
- Mr. Darcy: Not at all. They were brightened by the exercise.
- Mrs. Bennet: Oh, Mr. Bennet, nothing you say shall ever vex me again.
- Mr. Bennet: I'm sorry to hear it.
- Mrs. Bennet: Oh, you take delight in vexing me! You have no compassion on my poor nerves!
- Mr. Bennet: You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They've been my old friends these 20 years at least.
- Miss Bingley: And now the mother! Are we to be invaded by every Bennet in the country? Oh, too much to be borne.
- Mr. Hurst: Oh, lord!
- [the door opens and Mrs. Bennet, Lizzy, Kitty and Lydia enter]
- Mr. Bingley: Mrs. Bennet, you are very welcome.
- [He and Darcy bow]
- Mr. Bingley: I hope you do not find Miss Bennet worse than you expected.
- Mrs. Bennet: Indeed I do, sir. She is very ill indeed, and suffers a vast deal...
- [Lizzy looks down, mortified; Bingley looks worried]
- Mrs. Bennet: ...though with the greatest patience in the world, for she has the sweetest temper, Mr. Bingley. But she is a great deal too ill to be moved.
- [Bingley's sisters, off to the side, look furious at this imposition]
- Mrs. Bennet: We must trespass, a little longer, on your kindness.
- Mr. Bingley: But of course.
- Miss Bingley: Miss Bennet will receive every possible attention, ma'am, I assure you.
- Mrs. Bennet: You are very good.
- [She laughs, and then immediately dismisses the matter of Jane's health]
- Mrs. Bennet: Well, you have a sweet room here! I think you will never want to leave Netherfield, now you are come here.
- Mr. Bingley: I believe I should be happy to live in the country forever! Wouldn't you, Darcy?
- Mr. Darcy: You would? You don't find the society somewhat confined and unvarying for your taste?
- Mrs. Bennet: "Confined and unvarying?" Indeed, it is not, sir! The country is a vast deal pleasanter than town, whatever *you* may say about it!
- [Darcy turns his back and walks over to look out the window. Lizzy feels humiliated]
- Elizabeth Bennet: Mama, you mistake Mr. Darcy's meaning.
- Mrs. Bennet: Do I? Do I? He seems to think the country nothing at all!
- Elizabeth Bennet: Mama!
- Mrs. Bennet: "Confined!" "Unvarying!" I would have him know we dine with four-and-twenty families!
- [the Bingley sisters try unsuccessfully to contain their sniggers; Bingley looks at them in anger and distress]
- [At the party at Lucas Lodge, Sir William Lucas endeavors to make conversation with Mr. Bingley's two sisters]
- Sir William Lucas: No doubt you attend assemblies at St. James's Court, Miss Bingley?
- Miss Bingley: We go but rarely, sir.
- Sir William Lucas: Indeed, I am surprised. I should be happy to introduce you there, you know, at any time when I'm in town.
- [Mrs. Hurst looks in suppressed shock and mirth at her sister]
- Miss Bingley: You are too kind, sir.
- [She curtsies, and the two sisters move away]
- Sir William Lucas: [Feeling awkward, but not quite sure why] Well, well, good, good! Capital, capital!
- Miss Bingley: Insufferable conceit! To imagine that we'd need *his* assistance in society.
- Mrs. Hurst: I am sure he is a very good kind of man, Caroline.
- Miss Bingley: And I am sure he kept a very good kind of *shop* before his elevation to the Knighthood.
- [They both giggle maliciously]
- Sir William Lucas: [to Elizabeth as she's trying to pass] Oh, Miss Eliza, why are you not dancing? - Mr. Darcy, allow me to present this young lady to you as a very desirable partner. You cannot refuse to dance, I am sure, when so much beauty is before you.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Indeed, Sir, I have not the least intention of dancing. Please don't suppose that I moved this way in order to beg for a partner.
- Mr. Darcy: I would be very happy if you'd do me the honour of dancing with me, Miss Bennet.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Thank you, but excuse me... - I am... not inclined to dance.
- Sir William Lucas: Come, come, why not, when you see that Mr. Darcy has no objection, although he dislikes the amusement so much in general.
- Elizabeth Bennet: [Sardonically] Mr. Darcy is all politeness.
- Sir William Lucas: He is, he is! And why should he not be, considering the inducement, for who could object to such a partner! Eh, Darcy?
- Elizabeth Bennet: I beg you would excuse me.
- [She leaves]
- Sir William Lucas: Oh, well, well...
- [Looks away]
- Sir William Lucas: Oh, capital, Lydia, capital!
- Mr. Darcy: Miss Bennet!
- Elizabeth Bennet: Mr Darcy.
- [Long, awkward pause]
- Elizabeth Bennet: I am come to see my sister.
- Mr. Darcy: On foot?
- Elizabeth Bennet: As you see.
- [Another long, awkward pause]
- Elizabeth Bennet: Would you be so kind as to take me to her?
- Mrs. Bennet: [Discussing Darcy] He slighted poor Lizzy you know, flatly refused to stand up with her.
- Mr. Bennet: Slighted my Lizzy, did he?
- Elizabeth Bennet: I didn't care for him either, father, so it's of little matter.
- Mr. Bingley: All young ladies are accomplished. They sing, they draw, they dance, speak French and German, cover screens and I know not what.
- Mr. Darcy: But not half a dozen would satisfy my notion of an accomplished woman.
- Miss Bingley: Oh, certainly. No woman can be really esteemed accomplished who does not also possess a certain something in her air, in her manner of walking, in the tone of her voice, her address and expressions.
- Mr. Darcy: And to all this she must yet add something more substantial in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.
- Elizabeth Bennet: I am no longer surprised at you knowing only *six* accomplished women, Mr. Darcy. I rather wonder at your knowing *any*.
- Miss Bingley: Miss Eliza Bennet, let me persuade you to follow my example and take a turn about the room. It's so refreshing. - Will you not join us, Mr Darcy?
- Mr. Darcy: That would defeat the object.
- Miss Bingley: What do you mean, sir? What on earth can he mean?
- Elizabeth Bennet: I think we would do better not to inquire.
- Miss Bingley: Nay, we insist on knowing your meaning, sir.
- Mr. Darcy: Well, that your figures appear to best advantage when walking and that I might best admire them from my present position.
- Miss Bingley: Shocking, abominable reply! How shall we punish him, Miss Eliza?
- Elizabeth Bennet: Nothing so easy. Tease him, laugh at him.
- Miss Bingley: Laugh at Mr. Darcy? Impossible, he is a man without fault.
- Elizabeth Bennet: I am determined that nothing but the deepest love could ever induce me into matrimony.
- Elizabeth Bennet: For a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
- Mrs. Bennet: Yes, he must indeed! And who better than one of our five girls?
- Lydia Bennet: What a fine joke if he were to choose me!
- Kitty Bennet: Or me!
- [Lydia and Kitty laugh]
- Jane Bennet: [Reprimanding] Lydia!
- Jane Bennet: [Referring to Mr. Darcy and his company at the first dance] They're very elegant.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Better pleased with themselves than what they see, I think.
- Jane Bennet: He's just what a young man ought to be, Lizzie. Sensible, lively and I never saw such happy manners.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Handsome, too, which a young man ought to be, if he possibly can. And he seemed to like you very much, which shows good judgment. No, I give you leave to like him, you've liked many a stupider person.
- Jane Bennet: And Mr. Darcy may improve on closer acquaintance.
- Elizabeth Bennet: You mean he'll be in a humour to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men? "She is tolerable, I suppose, but she's not handsome enough to tempt me".
- Jane Bennet: It was very wrong of him to say so.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Aye, a capital offence!
- Mr. Bingley: Darcy, I shall never understand why you go through the world determined to be displeased with everything and everyone in it.
- Mr. Darcy: And I will never understand why you are always in a rage to approve of everything and everyone that you meet.
- Mrs. Bennet: Did you ever meet such a proud, disagreeable man?
- Elizabeth Bennet: The very rich can afford to give offense wherever they go. We need not care for his good opinion.
- Mrs. Bennet: No, indeed.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Perhaps he is not so handsome after all...?
- Mrs. Bennet: Indeed not. Quite ill-favored.
- [Elizabeth notices that Darcy is watching her, and looks for a new subject of conversation with Colonel Forster]
- Elizabeth Bennet: Are you in Meryton to subdue the discontented populace, sir, or do you defend Hertfordshire against the French?
- Col. Forster: Neither, ma'am, I trust. We hope to winter very peacefully at Meryton. My soldiers are in great need of training, and my officers, they have a great need of society.
- Elizabeth Bennet: Then, as soon as you are settled, I hope you will give a ball.
- Mrs Forster: Oh, yes, my dear, do!
- Col. Forster: You think a ball would be well received?
- Lydia Bennet: A ball? Who's giving a ball? I long for a ball!
- Mrs. Bennet: From Netherfield? Oh, Jane, well, what does it say?
- Jane Bennet: It's from Miss Bingley.
- Mrs. Bennet: Oh, well, that is a good sign, too. Give it to me! - My dear friend... there now... dine with Louisa and me today... la-di-da, la-di-da, la-di-da... as the gentlemen are to dine with the officers. - Oh, that's unlucky! Still you must go and make what you can out of it. - Yours ever, Caroline Bingley. - Very elegant hand.
- Jane Bennet: May I have the carriage, father?
- Mrs. Bennet: The carriage? No indeed! You must go on horseback for it looks like rain. Then you will have to stay the night!
- Jane Bennet: Mother!
- Mrs. Bennet: Oh, why do you look at me like that? Would you go all the way to Netherfield and back without seeing Mr. Bingley? No indeed. - You will go on Nellie, that will do very well, indeed.