Alison Steadman credited as playing...
Mrs. Bennet
- 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]
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.