Candida: A Pleasant PlayCandida is a woman who is married to the Reverend Morell. Candida is a woman of many talents and her husband has his wife to thank for much of his success. When a young man by the name of Marchbanks professes his love for Candida, Morell must reexamine his relationship with his wife and ultimately discovers a side to her that he never knew existed. |
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Common terms and phrases
affectionate afraid Anarchists arms band beautiful better bimself bookcase burries Candida comes Candy champagne cockney collar comfort dear dida door easy chair Eugene Eugene's eyes Fabian Society face feel fire fireplace fool forgive give goes Good-night Guild of St gurl half hand happy heart hearth-rug Heaven horror Hoxton huse James Mavor Morell Kingdom of Heaven knee looks round MARCHBANKS earnestly MARCHBANKS rising MARCHBANKS turning mean measles Miss Garnett Miss Prossy Morell takes MORELL turning Morell's morning Never mind nice offer onions paraffin oil pardon park poetic poker preaching Prossy's complaint puts quietly Scarlatina shake shame shew shoulder silly sits sofa spare chair speak stands staring stay to lunch stops takes talk tell there's things thought touch turns to Morell typewriter understand Victoria Park wife woman words
Popular passages
Page 76 - CANDIDA [retreating, chilled] I beg your pardon, James: I did not mean to touch you. I am waiting to hear your bid. MORELL [with proud humility] I have nothing to offer you but my strength for your defence, my honesty for your surety, my ability and industry for your livelihood, and my authority and position for your dignity.
Page 9 - We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
Page 19 - A wise-hearted observer, looking at her, would at once guess that whoever had placed the Virgin of the Assumption over her hearth did so because he fancied some spiritual resemblance between them, and yet would not suspect either her husband or herself of any such idea, or indeed of any concern with the art of Titian.
Page 45 - No, not a scrubbing brush, but a boat — a tiny shallop to sail away in, far from the world, where the marble floors are washed by the rain and dried by the sun, where the south wind dusts the beautiful green and purple carpets. Or a chariot — to carry us up into the sky, where the lamps are stars, and don't need to be filled with paraffin oil every day.
Page 77 - Eton: how your father is trying to starve you into returning to Oxford: how you have had to live without comfort or welcome or refuge: always lonely, and nearly always disliked and misunderstood, poor boy! Marchbanks (faithful to the nobility of his lot) I had my books. I had Nature. And at last I met you. " Candida. Never mind that just at present. Now I want you to look at this other boy here: my boy! spoiled from his cradle. We go once a fortnight to see his parents. You should come with us, Eugene,...
Page 51 - For abandoning him to the bad women for the sake of my goodness, of my purity, as you call it? Ah, James, how little you understand me, to talk of your confidence in my goodness and purity! I would give them both to poor Eugene as willingly as I would give my shawl to a beggar dying of cold, if there were nothing else to restrain me.
Page 52 - He recoils as if stung, and springs up. ] MORELL How can you bear to do that when — oh, Candida [with anguish in his voice] I had rather you had plunged a grappling iron into my heart than given me that kiss.
Page 75 - That foolish boy can speak with the inspiration of a child and the cunning of a serpent. He has claimed that you belong to him and not to me; and, rightly or wrongly, I have come to fear that it may be true. I will not go about tortured with doubts and suspicions. I will not live with you and keep a secret from you. I will not suffer the intolerable degradation of jealousy. We have agreed — he and I — that you shall choose between us now.
Page 10 - Oh, a man ought to be able to be fond of his wife without making a fool of himself about her.
Page 6 - He is a first rate clergyman, able to say what he likes to whom he likes, to lecture people without setting himself up against them, to impose his authority on them without humiliating them, and, on occasion, to interfere in their business without impertinence.