Act One, Pt.1

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

Mrs. Bennet: Mr. Bennet! My dear Mr. Bennet, have you heard that Netherfield Park is to be let at last?

Mr. Bennet: I…have not.

Mrs. Bennet: Do not you want to know who has taken it?

Mr. Bennet: You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.

Mrs. Bennet: Well my dear, I heard that Netherfield was taken by a young man of large fortune and he is to take possession before Michaelmas.

Mr. Bennet: What is his name?

Mrs. Bennet: Bingley. Oh! What a fine thing for our girls?

Mr. Bennet: How so? How can it affect them?

Mrs. Bennet: Oh! Mr. Bennet, how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.

Mr. Bennet: Is that his design in settling here?

Mrs. Bennet: Design! nonsense, but he may fall in love with one of them. Therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.

Mr. Bennet: I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better; for, as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party.

Mrs. Bennet: My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be any thing extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.

Mr. Bennet: In such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think of.

Mrs. Bennet: But indeed, you must go and visit Mr. Bingley.

Mr. Bennet: It is more than I engage for, I assure you.

Mrs. Bennet: But consider your daughters. Think what an establishment it would be for Jane, or Lizzy, or Kitty ,or Lydia…or even Mary. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible for us to visit him, if you do not.

Mr. Bennet: You are over-scrupulous, surely. I dare say Mr. Bingley will be very glad to see you; and I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my heartfelt consent to his marrying which ever he chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy.

Mrs. Bennet: I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others, but you are always giving her the preference. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.

Mr. Bennet: You mistake me, my dear. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.

Mr. Bennet was, in fact, among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley. He had always intended to visit him, though to the last always assuring his wife that he should not go.

Mrs. Bennet: Ahh...I knew I should persuade him. Your father loves your girls too well to neglect such an acquaintance. Jane, you look in rare beauty.

Jane: Mamma.

Lydia: Mrs. Meryton told Maria Lucas that Mr. Bingley brings eight ladies to the ball tonight. Eight ladies! Lord!

Mary: Lydia.

Elizabeth: That is a grievous number of ladies indeed. Mr. Bingley is quite sunken my estimation.

Mrs. Bennet: I beg you would not be so pert, Lizzy. Uh—Kitty, do something with your hair ribbons.

Kitty: Yes, Mamma.

Mrs. Bennet: And Lydia, pull up your bodies for mercy sake. And Mary—Uh…Lydia, though you are the youngest, I dare say Mr. Bingley will dance with you, too.

Lydia: I’m not afraid. Kitty and I have been practicing our steps. But listen, besides eight ladies, my aunt Philip said Mr. Bingley is to bring two gentlemen.

Mary: Far be it from me, sister, to dispute your information. But to my sating knowledge, Mr. Bingley has only six guests—his five sisters and a cousin.

Lydia: Ten, Mary!

Mary: Six.

Lydia: Ten!

Mary: Six.

Lydia: Ahh!