"Whereas my two sons, James and Antony,
have both achieved uncommon wealth,
the elder from the new-found mines on his estates
and from the handsome dowry he received on marriage,
the younger from his East India trade
and successful business ventures,
so that blessings be to God,
there never was a family more prosperous
in all its branches.
And whereas my son James
will make it up to his son James
and to his daughter Arabella,
to whom I intend no disrespect
for she is a very dutiful child,
and as my son Antony
seems not inclined to married life,
for all these reasons and because my beloved
granddaughter Clarissa has been from infancy,
a matchless creature in her duty to me
and the delight of my old age,
I give and I devise the bulk of my estate
to the said
Clarissa Harlowe."
Mr Lovelace, again.
He seems keen.
Pinch your cheeks, Bella,
your face must be your fortune now.
- Miss Arabella. - Mr Lovelace.
Do you care to walk, sir?
Mr Harlowe, Miss Clarissa.
Heir to a peerage. Splendid paternal estate.
Two unmarried aunts. Mark that.
And an army of whores and bastards. Mark that.
Father, you can manage the estate far better than I can.
Yes,
property is always safest in men's hands.
Since I have no desire to marry,
Where is the man who could deserve you?
Just let me have enough to tend my charities.
I have no desire for wealth.
If she had the money she'd give it all away.
Yours, I believe.
Thank you.
I know, I know Jack
I have boasted I was in love before.
What about the Matthews girl?
Wasn't that the real thing?
- At the time I thought so. - And the one in Richmond, Miss Betterton.
But they were never like this, truly.
When I remember what I felt then
and compare it with how I feel now,
Yes, I'm sure.
First I have to find a way to rid myself of the confounded sister.
Well?
There are so many stimulatives to such a spirit as mine in this affair,
such opportunities for stratagems and contrivances,
And fatigue.
Look, why go to all the trouble, hmm?
And expect, virgins in season are as plentiful as ripe figs.
The exhilaration of it-- to carry off such a girl
as this Clarissa Harlowe, in spite of all her purity and virtue--
...so tantalizing...
What a triumph over all the sex!
Well, have it your way. Remember,
I want all the juicy details.
Just now my charming frost-piece is with her friend Miss Howe.
How cruel of you to rob poor Bella of the only lover she ever had.
Me?
It wasn't me, she refused him.
Most reluctantly though,
The man works her up into such a rage,
and then puts the question!
Well, what could she do?
She was practically speechless-- just managed to stutter something
about her disinclination to change her state
--what you might call a consenting negative.
Oh Bella, such a handsome man.
But wild,
very wild.
- But do you never mean to marry? - Sacrifice my independence?
"Love, honor, and obey"
Could you honestly promise that?
Promising is not the problem.
I could not promise what I would not practice.
With me it is just the opposite:
that little reptile word, "obey", doesn't bother me a bit.
Happy to pronounce it as meekly as you please.
But afterwards...
I have everything I need: my books, my friends,
Your grandfather's estate.
I told you I gave it to my father.
How very obedient!
But was that entirely wise?
Such glaring displays of virtue, you know,
tend to look a little like policy.
Aha!
"To Miss Clarissa Harlowe" Your swains pursue you everywhere!
Imagine!
Leaving all the family paintings to her,
just because she used to tickle with him!
And wipe and clean with her own dainty fingers.
Dainty? Whose fingers could be daintier than these?
He might just as well have left them to the maid!
Which of your heartbroken suitors is this from, I wonder?
You've rejected so many.
Poor Mr Wiley, Mr Mullens,
or do you have a new one...Mr Lovelace?
Throw it away. I don't want it.
Nonsense!
"Dearest Miss Harlowe, (It is Lovelace!)
believe me when I profess,
- I'm not listening! - in the sincerity of my soul,
there is nothing I so much desire
as the chance to prove myself worthy of your esteem."
...insinuating way of hers of stealing in
when anyone else is talking,
with her bewitching meekness and humility,
until everyone else is forced
to listen to Miss Clara's superior opinions.
Didn't you like him at all?
Not just a teeny bit?
- He's so handsome, so wild! - So vain!
I cannot admire a man with no morals.
Clary,
Men put on their morals like we put on our stays.
He has no heart, no truthfulness.
Mr Lovelace does not know how to love.
And you do!
- If I thought - If!
Will you love upon condition?
Who said anything about love?
I speak only of liking.
If I thought he were a moral man,
I might admit a conditional kind of liking.
Clary, if I didn't know you better
I might almost mistake that for a consenting negative!
Clarissa.
I thought it was Bella Mr Lovelace was intent on.
But from the point of view of the estate, so long as Bella don't object,
Me?
Why should I object?
She's welcome to my leavings.
Suppose she were to resume her grandfather's estate.
- I do not wish to seem... - ...worried about his morals?
I shouldn't worry.
I'm sure Clary will cure his morals if any woman can.
Besides,
the man's a thoroughbred.
Cultivated, well-traveled
Rather too well-traveled, from what I hear.
Noblesse oblige and so on, not some vulgar lecher.
And just suppose,
with her grandfather's estate,
Mr Lovelace's inheritance, and just suppose
I were to throw in the revenues from mine,
you will live to see your daughter a peeress of the realm!
Sister! You see how it is.
This little siren appears in a fair way
to out-uncle us, as she has already out-grandfathered us.
We must find a way to clip her wings.
So, not satisfied with one sister, you want to bag them both.
No! Only the one that struggles.
Bella might do for some men.
Yours, I think.
Damn it!
Birds are like women, Jack.
Patience, that's the thing.
Observe the lie of the land, the shift of the wind,
the rival predators.
Article One of the Rake's Creed:
"Importunity and opportunity, no woman can withstand."
The artful fowler marks his prey
spreads his snares, sets up his stalking-horse,
plants his decoys and...
...ends up with a crow.
But the sport, Jack. The sport!
Well, she is the Harlowe heiress.
Pox on their money.
Girls, not gold, Jack.
Oh, their place is sprung up from a dung-hill.
Trade! I'd trade the lot of them for one sweet kiss.
And tomorrow I mean to have it.
There's nothing sweeter than a virgin humbled.
Article Two of the Rake's Creed: "Keep them guessing."
Mr Lovelace has honored us with another visit.
The honor is all mine.
- I'll leave you. - Don't go.
I'm sure Mr Lovelace wouldn't want me to monopolize the honor that he pays us.
Indeed, madam. Stay!
The conversation of two such charming ladies as yourselves is a double delight.
I had always heard you preferred not to confine your pleasure to one lady entirely.
That, madam, would depend upon the lady.
Mr Harlowe.
Mr Lovelace.
Again.
If you were hoping to see my sister then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.
She's indisposed.
I'm sorry to hear it.
Perhaps you might like to leave a message.
I'm sure Clary would be happy to take it.
I'm sure Clary wouldn't wish to deprive our guest of both your sister's company.
I very much doubt whether Bella's indisposition is infectious.
May I?
Such fine detail.
It's easy to see where your daughter gets her own exquisite taste.
Which daughter might that be?
Or is the compliment general?
You must mean Bella. She was always far handier with a needle than me.
In a family like this all praise must be general.
I have the profoundest admiration for a family that has raised itself so high
by its own conspicuous merits.
- We have prospered, sir. - Deservedly!
We have prospered by knowing our own worth.
What we have, we hold.
We owe no man a debt.
You are fortunate.
We sir, are prudent.
No man whose soul is mortgaged
should ever presume to take a Harlowe on lease for life.
We are not a family for rent.
"This insolent booby squire is my instrument.
I play upon him as I please.
There is one thing I am resolved upon:
If I have not the sister, I will have him."
Yours, I believe.
Have a care, Mr Harlowe!
For your sister's sake, I warn you.
No kneeling to me, Clarissa Harlowe,
but with the knee of duty and compliance.
Your heart, not your knee, must bend.
You are aware of the outrage committed against your brother.
I am aware of a rash dispute.
Do you deny you have received this fellow's letters?
I deny I have either responded or encouraged.
Do not equivocate with us, girl!
Do you understand
that you are never to see or write to this man again?
I understand, sir, that you are my brother
and only my brother,
and not the one to instruct me in my duty.
It is not your brother but I, your father, who instruct you.
It would be a very shameless sister
who encouraged a man to wade into her favor through her brother's blood.
Sir, what have I done to deserve these accusations?
Clarissa Harlowe,
you have always been a dutiful daughter.
And if you'll remain so,
will continue your rightful place in the affections of all your family.
Mr Roger Solmes will wait upon you tomorrow,
and it is our wish that you should prepare
to receive his proposals of marriage.
His generous proposals.
- Mister - Solmes
Come in.
Bella, come in.
I've nearly finished.
Still writing?
Oh Clary.
Such a pity!
What will you do to amuse yourself now?
Bella.
Naughty, naughty. You know the rules: no letters.
Even to Anna?
Your go-between to Lovelace?
Bella.
What will you do? Run to mama?
Or why not write her a letter?
The servants have been warned,
your letters will be stopped.
I wonder how Mr Solmes will take to
such a literary wife.
Shall I make tea, Mama?
- Perhaps we should... - Sit down.
Betty will make the tea.
- Sir - Clarissa Harlowe
Remember that I will have no child but an obedient one.
A Mr Solmes.
Mr Solmes.
At your service.
Mr Harlowe.
Madam.
Miss Harlowe, sir,
And, uh, Miss Clarissa.
Clarissa Harlowe!
Sir.
Unusually cold, sir, for the time of year.
Oh yes indeed.
Do you find it so, miss?
My sister finds it rather warm, I fancy.
Inform the gentleman that we are not at home.
Leave this to me.
No, there's no need for that.
Tell Mr Lovelace that the Harlowe family are not at home
to a brawling street fighter,
and that our sister is at present in the company of a gentleman.
Perhaps you might prefer our
grandmother's jewels reset.
In deference to your charitable inclinations.
It would look charming.
Come in.
The silks are come from London.
They are the finest we could procure.
Mama.
Please send them back.
Clary,
either we must give up our authority,
which you know we can never do,
or you must give up your humor,
which we have every reason to expect.
You've always been a dutiful girl.
Much good it does me.
Have I no duty to myself?
Aren't they beautiful.
Come and look!
And Mr Solmes will give you jewels,
quite besides the very handsome allowance he has agreed to,
you will have more independence than a wife perhaps ought to have.
Mother.
Nothing will ever persuade me to marry that man.
But the terms, child!
Where people marry to their liking in,
their terms are the least things stood upon.
I can't see what you have against him.
He's an honest man,
- virtuous, - Virtuous?
What, to try to force a girl against her will?
We hear far too much about your will young lady.
- Be told. Your father's determined. - And you?
- What about you? - Your father
I know, I know, determined, but I asked about you,
or has a vow of silence been added to the other marriage vows?
You must not ask me.
Oh, mother!
I was required to fetch your letters.
Is this all?
Oh, it's enough.
Clary, a woman must know when to bend,
or else she will surely break.
Is this all?
James, why must you be so spiteful?
Madam,
you do not know how to deal with your own daughter.
If she had been left to me to manage,
we would now be rejoicing in her happy fortunes
as the wife of a wealthy man,
instead--now where's she off to?
Here it is, miss.
Is it safe?
Try and test it, miss.
You're not the only one with secrets.
In a hurry, sister?
It may be,
you are unacquainted with this fellow Lovelace's reputation.
In Bath, Miss Matthews and Miss Medlicott,
who died giving birth to his bastard.
At Richmond, Miss James, Mrs Wilson,
and two barmaids at the Rose and Crown.
At Hammersmith, Miss Oliver, her mother,
and their upstairs maid!
You see, he goes for quantity more than quality.
Are you so very anxious
to add the name of Harlowe to this list?
Your spies are very busy, sir.
But how come you never thought to warn my sister of his ways?
Your sister, Clary, had no need of warning.
She saw him for what he is.
There, take it!
It may amuse you to see what company you keep.
There are his stables, the back walk cloister.
- All of these? - Yeah.
1200 acres, the farmhouse, and grange cottage, all with tenancies?
If I may say so sir, Miss Clarissa is worth
any amount of my acreage.
Then we are all agreed.
Heh.
Hoo.
Good.
Then I shall sign.
Clary? Anyone about?
Good.
Here.
I know how you love to scribble.
Don't tell anybody where you got them.
Dear Uncle!
Clary.
Clary, I have to talk to you.
I've always loved you like my own child.
You've always been so kind.
I know this is no trivial thing we ask,
but then you're no trivial girl.
You are a Harlowe.
It is in the family's interests for you to marry Mr Solmes.
- No. - Clary,
Why me? Why must it be me?
Why not Bella?
Mr Solmes has reasons for preferring you!
And I have reasons for disliking him.
Does the family honor mean nothing to you?
How can honor be founded on falsehood?
A falsehood is in your heart, Clarissa Harlowe.
You reject an honest man
because your heart is whoring after a rake.
No sir!
I swear to you, if there were no such man as Mr Lovelace,
if there were no other man in all creation,
I still would not have Mr Solmes.
Look to your conscience, girl.
The serpent has you in its coils.
Thank you.
- The letter. - Hand it over.
Stand still!
There!
Now get out.
Get out of this house.
You're dismissed!
And you needn't apply to your mistress for a reference,
you shan't be seeing her again.
Perhaps you might try Miss Howe.
Which dress shall I lay out, miss?
That's all right Betty. Hannah will see to it.
Oh not Hannah, miss. Hannah's gone.
What do you mean?
Packed her bags and left last night, miss.
I'm to be your servant now.
The blue dress, miss, or would you prefer the grey?
(Without a word! I don't believe it.)
This is my brother's doing.
No, the grey. I'm going to church.
Church?
Are you to be my jailer, Betty?
- No miss, only - Am I to ask your leave
when I am disposed to walk into the garden
or feed my hens?
No, miss.
Oh I see.
Your authority only extends to the care of my soul,
not to the care of my chickens.
Lay out my grey dress.
No, leave it.
Leave me.
I'll do it myself.
Dearest sister,
it seems odd that a girl
who lays so much stress on church-going
should obstinately persist in defying...
Which commandment is it?
The one about the mother and the father.
The fifth.
Dearest Bella.
So devout!
We recommend you to your solitary devotions
in the hopes that you may acquire a more...
Humble?
...a more humble spirit.
We are well aware
upon what Savior your pious hopes are pinned.
Yours, I believe.
Bold as ninepence, miss.
Your brother says is how you must have cooked it up between you.
He says it's a wonder there wasn't a murder done.
- If you want my advice, miss, - Which I don't, Betty.
No miss, but all the same miss,
if you don't mind me saying,
all this fine how-d'ye-do of yours don't signify that.
They mean to make you have Mr Solmes,
and that's that.
Don't cry out.
- Mr Lovelace! - Forgive me.
- Let me go. - Wait.
- Let me go! - Go where? Back to your pretty cage?
Back to being spied on and searched
and prepared for sacrifice to the charming Mr Solmes?
Go on, then.
Go on.
I'm not stopping you.
I thought you had more spirit.
Don't you know the danger you're in?
If I am, whose fault is that?
Would you prefer me to do nothing?
When I see you insulted,
wire-drawn and ensnared like one of those silly birds?
Nothing?
The dangers that I suffer are not lessened
by your making them the occasion for your sport.
Save your gallantries for your admirers.
Madam,
You may, if you choose,
compel me to ignore your brother's insults to your dignity,
but I cannot overlook the affronts to mine.
My brother's faults, sir, do not blot out your own.
Tell me, how is Miss Matthews?
And Miss Medlicott?
Madam,
whichever enemy has sought to poison your regard for me
deserves my endless...
...gratitude.
- Sir! - I have been much to blame, I confess it.
I have committed crimes against your sex.
Lies, betrayals, things it makes me sick at heart to think of.
Dearest creature, I would hide nothing from you.
I insist that you should know the very worst of me.
The blackest sins that taint my soul.
Only then will you begin to see how much I am transformed...
...inspired by my love for you.
Until now, all I have ever known is lust,
not love.
This is the first time.
I beseech you, dearest madam,
if you will let my aunt, Lady Betty, offer you her protection,
And who will protect me from my protectors?
Trust me.
Meet me again, here. I'll be waiting.
Do not abandon me.
I promise you this:
if they do force you to be that monster's wife,
you will be the youngest and prettiest widow in all the county.
Taking the night air, sister?
Do I need my maid's permission?
Remember this, my pretty little flighty one:
Your father's living will shall control your grandfather's dead one.
The pink, I think, would become you.
It would be a little insipid for my complexion.
Kindness, Bella, would suit you better.
Oh yes.
And this, I think,
for your wedding-night gown.
To match your charming eyes.
Don't Mr Lovelace say you have charming eyes?
Is that what he told you?
How many hours do you spend in prayer?
Or are your thoughts entirely
devoted to love?
How opportune that Mr Solmes should pop up
to rescue us from your romantic whims.
Is it my fault, Bella, the opportune gentlemen don't pop up for you?
A fickle head attracts the feckless heart.
Oh!
Then I will learn prudence from you.
I will do as you do, say as you say, in everything.
Then say, "Lovelace is a villain."
So I will, when I believe it.
Then you don't believe it now.
Did you believe it, Bella, when he kissed you?
Mr Harlowe.
Your servant, sir.
Mrs Harlowe.
Miss Arabella.
Mr Harlowe, sir.
Mr James.
Miss Clarissa.
Sir.
- Madam. - Sir.
I would, if it were in my power, have spared you this interview,
which can only be painful to us both.
I fail to see how any man who has the slightest regard
for his own happiness could so persist!
Persist?
I would persist forever,
- and I hope in time, - Time will not change my feelings, sir.
Then I shall be a miserable man.
Better you were miserable by yourself, sir, than make us both so.
- For God's sake, dearest madam, - For God's sake, what Sir?
How came God's sake and your sake to be the same?
Madame,
you may have heard certain things said against me.
No man is without his enemies.
If you would tell me what you have heard,
I will strive to correct those faults.
Then, sir, correct this fault.
Do not attempt to have a woman forced against her will
in the most important decision of her life
for the sake of motives she despises.
So, niece, sitting in state like a queen giving audience.
Mr Solmes, why this distance, man?
I had hoped to see you on a more intimate footing.
Am I to have no free will?
You have had your will in everything till now.
Now is the time for obedience.
You shall marry Mr Solmes.
No. No, never.
I would rather starve.
I would rather die.
Hooh.
I would rather be sealed and bricked up in the family vault.
Off-going, sister?
We don't want you bricked up yet.
Such a pretty little martyr's face,
but such an obstinate neck.
What will you do for letters in your vault, eh?
Here, sir.
Stop, sir, no violence!