TABLE OF CONTENTS

EPISODE 1
Prelims 1  Scene 1/1  Scene 1/2a  Scene 1/2b  Scene 1/2c  Scene 1/2d  Scene 1/3  Scene 1/5  Scene 1/6  Scene 1/7  Scene 1/8  Scene 1/9  Scene 1/11  Scene 1/12  Scene 1/13  Scene 1/14b  Scene 1/15  Scene 1/16  Scene 1/17  Scene 1/18  Scene 1/19  Scene 1/20  Scene 1/21  Scene 1/23  Scene 1/24  Scene 1/25  Scene 1/26  Scene 1/27  Scene 1/28  Scene 1/29  Scene 1/30  Scene 1/31  Scene 1/32  Scene 1/33  Scene 1/36  Scene 1/37  Scene 1/38  Scene 1/39  Scene 1/40  Scene 1/42  Scene 1/43  Scene 1/44  Scene 1/45  Scene 1/46  Scene 1/47  Scene 1/48  Scene 1/49  Scene 1/50  Scene 1/51  Scene 1/53  Scene 1/56  Scene 1/57  Scene 1/58  Scene 1/59  Scene 1/60  Scene 1/61  Scene 1/62  Scene 1/63  Scene 1/64  Scene 1/65  Scene 1/66  Scene 1/68  Scene 1/69  Scene 1/71  Scene 1/72  Scene 1/73  Scene 1/74  Scene 1/75  Scene 1/76  Scene 1/77  Scene 1/78  Scene 1/79  Scene 1/80  Scene 1/81  Scene 1/82  Scene 1/83  Scene 1/84  Scene 1/85  Scene 1/86  Scene 1/87 

EPISODE 2
Prelims 2  Scene 2/1  Scene 2/2  Scene 2/3  Scene 2/4  Scene 2/5  Scene 2/6  Scene 2/7  Scene 2/8  Scene 2/9  Scene 2/10  Scene 2/11  Scene 2/12  Scene 2/17  Scene 2/18b  Scene 2/19  Scene 2/20  Scene 2/21A  Scene 2/23  Scene 2/24  Scene 2/25  Scene 2/26  Scene 2/27  Scene 2/28  Scene 2/29  Scene 2/31  Scene 2/32  Scene 2/33  Scene 2/34  Scene 2/37  Scene 2/38  Scene 2/39  Scene 2/40a  Scene 2/42  Scene 2/44  Scene 2/45  Scene 2/46  Scene 2/47  Scene 2/48  Scene 2/49  Scene 2/50  Scene 2/51  Scene 2/52  Scene 2/54  Scene 2/55  Scene 2/57  Scene 2/60  Scene 2/61  Scene 2/62  Scene 2/63  Scene 2/64  Scene 2/65  Scene 2/66  Scene 2/68  Scene 2/69  Scene 2/70  Scene 2/71  Scene 2/72  Scene 2/73 

EPISODE 3
Prelims 3  Scene 3/5  Scene 3/6  Scene 3/7  Scene 3/8  Scene 3/10  Scene 3/11  Scene 3/12  Scene 3/13  Scene 3/14  Scene 3/15  Scene 3/16  Scene 3/17  Scene 3/18  Scene 3/19  Scene 3/20  Scene 3/21  Scene 3/22  Scene 3/23  Scene 3/24  Scene 3/25  Scene 3/26  Scene 3/27  Scene 3/28  Scene 3/29  Scene 3/30  Scene 3/31  Scene 3/32  Scene 3/33  Scene 3/36  Scene 3/37  Scene 3/39  Scene 3/40  Scene 3/41  Scene 3/42  Scene 3/44  Scene 3/47  Scene 3/48  Scene 3/49  Scene 3/50  Scene 3/51  Scene 3/52  Scene 3/53  Scene 3/54  Scene 3/55  Scene 3/56  Scene 3/62  Scene 3/63  Scene 3/64  Scene 3/65  Scene 3/66  Scene 3/67  Scene 3/68  Scene 3/69  Scene 3/70  Scene 3/71  Scene 3/72  Scene 3/73  Scene 3/74  Scene 3/75  Scene 3/76  Scene 3/78  Scene 3/79  Scene 3/80  Scene 3/81  Scene 3/82  Scene 3/83  Scene 3/84 

EPISODE 4
Prelims 4  Scene 4/1  Scene 4/2  Scene 4/3  Scene 4/4  Scene 4/6  Scene 4/7a  Scene 4/7b  Scene 4/9  Scene 4/11  Scene 4/12  Scene 4/13  Scene 4/15  Scene 4/17  Scene 4/18  Scene 4/20  Scene 4/21  Scene 4/23  Scene 4/25  Scene 4/26  Scene 4/27  Scene 4/28  Scene 4/30  Scene 4/31  Scene 4/32  Scene 4/33  Scene 4/35  Scene 4/36  Scene 4/37  Scene 4/38  Scene 4/39  Scene 4/41  Scene 4/42  Scene 4/43  Scene 4/44  Scene 4/45  Scene 4/47  Scene 4/49  Scene 4/50  Scene 4/51  Scene 4/54  Scene 4/55  Scene 4/56  Scene 4/60  Scene 4/61  Scene 4/62  Scene 4/63  Scene 4/64 

EPISODE 5
Prelims 5  Scene 5/1  Scene 5/2  Scene 5/4  Scene 5/5  Scene 5/6  Scene 5/7  Scene 5/8  Scene 5/9  Scene 5/10  Scene 5/11  Scene 5/12  Scene 5/13  Scene 5/14  Scene 5/15  Scene 5/16  Scene 5/17  Scene 5/18  Scene 5/19  Scene 5/20  Scene 5/21  Scene 5/24  Scene 5/25  Scene 5/26  Scene 5/27  Scene 5/28  Scene 5/29  Scene 5/31  Scene 5/32  Scene 5/33  Scene 5/34  Scene 5/35  Scene 5/36  Scene 5/37  Scene 5/40  Scene 5/41  Scene 5/42  Scene 5/43  Scene 5/43a  Scene 5/45  Scene 5/46  Scene 5/47a  Scene 5/48  Scene 5/50  Scene 5/51  Scene 5/53  Scene 5/54  Scene 5/55  Scene 5/57  Scene 5/58 

EPISODE 6
Prelims 6  Scene 6/1  Scene 6/2  Scene 6/3  Scene 6/4  Scene 6/5  Scene 6/6  Scene 6/8  Scene 6/9  Scene 6/10  Scene 6/12  Scene 6/13  Scene 6/14  Scene 6/15  Scene 6/16  Scene 6/17  Scene 6/18  Scene 6/19  Scene 6/21  Scene 6/22  Scene 6/23  Scene 6/24  Scene 6/25  Scene 6/26  Scene 6/28  Scene 6/30  Scene 6/31  Scene 6/32a  Scene 6/32b  Scene 6/32c  Scene 6/33  Scene 6/34  Scene 6/36  Scene 6/37  Scene 6/38  Scene 6/39a  Scene 6/39b  Scene 6/41  Scene 6/42  Scene 6/43  Scene 6/44  Scene 6/45  Scene 6/46  Scene 6/48  Scene 6/51  Scene 6/52  Scene 6/54  Scene 6/55  Scene 6/56a  Scene 6/56b  Scene 6/57  Scene 6/60  Scene 6/61  Scene 6/63  Scene 6/64  Scene 6/65  Scene 6/66  Scene 6/68  Scene 6/69  Scene 6/71  Scene 6/72  Scene 6/73  Scene 6/74  Scene 6/75  Scene 6/76  Scene 6/77  Scene 6/78  Scene 6/79  Scene 6/80  Scene 6/83  Scene 6/84  Scene 6/85  Scene 6/86  Scene 6/87  Scene 6/88  Scene 6/89  Scene 6/90  Scene 6/91 

[Page] [i]

THE SENDING OF THIS SCRIPT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY PART IN IT.

REVISED ISSUE 3 - 16.02.93

MIDDLEMARCH

by GEORGE ELIOT

Screenplay for television in six parts

by ANDREW DAVIES

EPISODE 1

PRODUCER ··· LOUIS MARKS
Associate Producer ... ALISON GEE
Script Editor ··· SUSIE CHAPMAN
Producer's Secretary ··· LUCY HOARE

DIRECTOR ... ANTHONY PAGE
First Assistant Director ... ROB EVANS
Production Manager ... JULIE EDWARDS
Location Manager ··· SAM BRECKMAN
Location Manager ... JEFF GOLDING
Continuity ··· JANE GRIFFITHS
P.A. ··· UNA SAPLAMIDES
Finance Assistant ··· IAN BOALER
Second Assistant Director ... KATY BRIERS
Second Assistant Director ... TANIA NORMAND
Third Assistant Director ··· ANNE-MARIE CRAWFORD

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN ... BRIAN TUFANO
Camera Assistant ··· IAN JACKSON
Clapper Loader ... JULIAN BUCKNALL
SOUND RECORDIST ... DICK BOULTER
Sound Assistant ··· TIM BOISSAUD-COOKE
Grip ... ROY RUSSELL
LIGHTING GAFFER ... ALAN MUHLEY
Best Boy ... TERRY MONTAGUE
FILM EDITOR ... JERRY LEON
FILM EDITOR ... PAUL TOTHILL

DESIGNER ... GERRY SCOTT
Art Director ... JOHN COLLINS
Art Director ... MARK KEBBY
Buyer ... SARA RICHARDSON
Set Dresser ··· MARJ PRATT
Construction Manager ... BARRY MOLL
Design Op. Supervisor ... VIC YOUNG
Prop Master ··· BOB ELTON
Prod. Op. ... MARK BEVAN
Prod. Op. ··· DANNY EUSTON
Prod. Op· ··· JOE MALONE

CONTINUED

[Page] [ii]

COSTUME DESIGNER ... ANUSHIA NIERADZIK
Costume Assistant ... THERESA HUGHES
Costume Assistant ... SALLY PLUMB
Dresser ... SUE BURROWS
Dresser ... RUSSELL BARNETT
MAKE-UP DESIGNER ... DEANNE TURNER
Make-Up Assistant ... JUDITH GILL-DOUGHERTY
Make-Up Assistant ... JANE BURSTOW
Make-Up Assistant ... PHILLIPPA HALL
VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGNER ... STUART BRISDON

CASTING DIRECTOR ... GAIL STEVENS
Assistant ... ANDY PRYOR

Artists Booker ... MAGGIE ANSON

Researcher ... JUNE AVERIL

[Page] 1/1

1/1. EXT. COUNTRYSIDE.OCTOBER 1829. DAY 1 (1030).

LYDGATE [to himself.]
The future.

[Page] 1/2

[Page] l/2a

[Page] l/2b

INN KEEPER
Dr. Lydgate! Welcome to Middlemarch!

LYDGATE
Thank you.

INN KEEPER [to his assistant]
Bring down those bags, John.

[Page] l/2c

[Page] 1/3

[No Sc 1/4: no page 1/4]

[Page] 1/5

[Page] 1/6

DOROTHEA [to the GROOM]
Thank you, Pimble.
[And then almost in the same breath, as she turns away to walk across the yard]
I believe I shall give up riding, Celia.

CELIA
Oh, Dodo. Horses need exercise you know, and Pimble needs employment.

DOROTHEA
Yes - yes, I know, but is that all we can do: exercise horses and give employment to servants?

CELIA
Well, I don't know, Dodo.

[Page] 1/7

BROOKE
Yes, that's all very fine, Roach, but fences cost money, you know.

ROACH
Cost you more in the long run to let 'em rot, Mr. Brooke.

BROOKE
Ah, now I think you'll find there's a middle way, Roach, a middle way ...

[Page] 1/8

1/7. INT. TIPTON. GIRLS' SITTING ROOM. OCTOBER 1829. DAY 1 (1638)

CELIA
Dodo.

DOROTHEA
Come and look. Do you think I have got the fireplaces in proportion? It is so important to do this right.

CELIA
Farmworkers cottages: a new design. Yes, very nice, but you know Uncle. They will never be built. [so much for that]
Dodo: do you think we might look through Mamma's jewels now, and divide them between us? I think it would be lacking in respect to Mamma's memory if we were to put them by and never look at them ... and you know Uncle has invited Sir James Chettam and that other gentleman to dine with us this evening ...

DOROTHEA
Mr. Casaubon.
[she pronounces his name with awe]
Uncle says he is the most learned man in the county.

[Page] 1/9

CELIA
Please Dodo, what do you think about Mamma's jewels?

DOROTHEA
You mean you would like to wear them?

CELIA
I thought we both might. Look.

DOROTHEA
Come ... let me.

CELIA
And Dodo I thought this cross for you ­

DOROTHEA
No, no. I don't want it, Celia, not a cross, not as a trinket. No - you have it - have them all.

[Page] 1/10

CELIA
Dodo how can I wear ornaments if you never will?

DOROTHEA
How very beautiful they are, though. It's strange how deeply colours seem to ... penetrate one ... like scent. They look like fragments of heaven.

CELIA [seizing her chance]
Look, here's a bracelet to match it. Try it. Please, Dodo.

DOROTHEA
They are lovely.

CELIA
And necklaces are quite usual now, really, Dodo. Even for Christians - surely there must be women in heaven now, who wore jewels!

CELIA
You must keep these, if nothing else. Say you will, Dodo.

DOROTHEA
Yes. Yes, I shall keep them.

[Page] 1/11

CELIA [eagerly]
And shall you wear them in company?

DOROTHEA
Perhaps I shall ...

DOROTHEA
... Who knows to what level I may sink?

[Page] 1/12

BROOKE
Sir Humphrey Davy, now! I dined with him years ago at Cartwright's - Wordsworth was there, you know, the poet Wordsworth, Davy was a poet too, or, as you might say, Wordsworth was poet one and Davy was poet two, d'ye follow? Wordsworth was poet one, and Davy was poet two.

BROOKE
Do you know Davy, Casaubon?

CASAUBON
No, sir, I regret that I do not.

[Page] 1/13

BROOKE
Chettam here has studied Davy, studied his Agricultural Chemistry, but it won't do.

CHETTAM
I am reading the Agricultural Chemistry, Miss Brooke, because I want to take one of my farms into my own hands, and see if I can set a good pattern of farming amongst my tenants. Do you approve of that?

DOROTHEA [warmly]
Yes, very much indeed, Sir James - I wish you could persuade my uncle to do the same!

BROOKE
No, no, no, it won't do, it won't do. Fancy farming I call it, the most expensive sort of whistle you can buy. You may as well keep a pack of hounds.

DOROTHEA [with some energy]
Surely it's not a sin, Uncle, to spend money in finding out how we can make the most of the land that supports us all?

CHETTAM
Thank you, Miss Brooke! I only wish I could express myself so cogently. You have such ... excellent opinions and you always express them with such ...

CELIA [amusing herself]
... cogency.

[Page] 1/14

CHETTAM
Yes.

BROOKE [to Casaubon]
Young ladies don't understand political economy, you know.

BROOKE
No, a little light literature is more to their taste ...

DOROTHEA [almost an undertone]
Uncle.

BROOKE [undeterred]
Novels, you know, poetry, Scott, Shelley, Southey, now, do you know Southey at all, Casaubon?

CASAUBON [shakes his head]
I have at present little leisure for modern literature. I live too much with the dead, perhaps.

BROOKE
Casaubon's engaged in a great work, y'know, a great work, isn't that so, Casaubon?

CASAUBON
I believe I am, yes. Perhaps too great a work for the mind of one man to compass.

[Page] 1/15

DOROTHEA
May I know what it is, Mr. Casaubon?

CASAUBON
I am compiling a Key to All Mythologies, Miss Brooke. I am seeking to elucidate those elements which underpin every system of belief know to man.
[He seems really fired up and intense ­ then he recollected himself]
Not, perhaps, a subject of much interest to young ladies.

DOROTHEA
On the contrary - I - to me that seems a wonderful endeavour.

CASAUBON
You are very kind, Miss Brooke. I feel much encouraged.

BROOKE
How do you arrange your documents?

CASAUBON
In pigeonholes partly.

[Page] 1/16

BROOKE
Ah, pigeonholes will not do. I never know whether a paper is in A or Z.

DOROTHEA
I wish you would let me sort your papers for you Uncle. I would letter them all and then make a list of subjects under each letter.

CASAUBON
You have an excellent secretary at hand, you perceive.

BROOKE
Oh, I can't let young ladies meddle with my documents! Young ladies are too flighty, Casaubon, too flighty, you know!

DOROTHEA [mortified]
Uncle!

CHETTAM
I hear you are determined to give up riding, Miss Brooke - surely that isn't true?

DOROTHEA
It is true, Sir James.

CHETTAM
Oh, but why? You're such an accomplished horsewoman and it is such healthy exercise - and every lady should be a good horsewoman, you know, that she may accompany her husband.

[Page] 1/17

DOROTHEA
You see how widely we differ, Sir James. I have made up my mind that I ought not to be a perfect horsewoman, and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady.

CHETTAM [ rather ponderously flirting again]
I should like to know the reasons for this cruel resolution. Surely it isn't possible you should think riding is wrong?

DOROTHEA
It is quite possible that I should think it wrong for me.

CHETTAM
Oh, why?

DOROTHEA
I simply feel that - for me - there ought to be a better way to live.

CHETTAM
But surely ...!

CASAUBON
Perhaps we should not inquire too closely into motives. I believe I understand your response, Miss Brooke.

DOROTHEA [softly]
Thank you.

[Page] 1/18

1/9. INT. TIPTON. DOROTHEA'S BEDROOM. OCTOBER 1829. NIGHT 1 (2248).

CELIA
Poor Mr. Casaubon; he's so very ugly, isn't he?

DOROTHEA
Celia! He's one of the most distinguished looking men I ever saw!

CELIA
With his hollow cheeks, and his sallow skin, and his two big moles with hairs sprouting out of them? I s'pose they do distinguish him, yes.

DOROTHEA
Celia it's painful to me that you look at people as if they were ... animals with a toilette, and not see the great soul in a man's face.

CELIA [teasing]
Has Mr. Casaubon a great soul, then?

DOROTHEA [simply]
Yes, I think so. I believe he has, Celia.

[No Sc. 1/10 : No page 1/19]

[Page] 1/20

1/11. EXT. TIPTON GROUNDS. OCTOBER 1892. DAY 2 (1423).

DOROTHEA
I was very grateful to you last night. I could not explain about the riding, but I think you understood my feeling that there must be better things I could be doing ­ but I am so very ignorant ... my education has been so imperfect - I have little Latin and no Greek at all.

DOROTHEA
There is so much to do, so much to learn ...

CASAUBON
You are truly interested in scholarship, then?

DOROTHEA
Oh, yes! It must be wonderful to be engaged in some great work, as you are!

[Page] 1/21

CASAUBON
It is a great challenge to bring together all the major disciplines - to show how every faith springs from the same ultimate source. It is a great endeavour.

CASAUBON
At this stage it is not light or speedy work to gather in this great harvest - but the crowning task will be to condense all these still expanding insights into a single unified whole.

CASAUBON [VO]
This visit, for me, has been - may I say this? - more than pleasant, Miss Brooke ... I have felt the disadvantage of loneliness that inevitably accompanies any serious scholarship. The presence of youth, that cheerful companionship ... perhaps I have said too much?

DOROTHEA
No, not at all - I feel I understand you ... and if I say in my turn that I have longed for some great purpose in my life which would give it ... shape and meaning ... truly, you do not find such an aspiration ridiculous?

CASAUBON
Surprising, perhaps in one so young ... but not ridiculous. No, not ridiculous at all.

[Page] 1/22

CASAUBON
It is time for me to leave.

DOROTHEA
Oh.

[Page] 1/23

BROOKE
Well, well, he's not such a bad fellow after all ...

[Page] 1/24

1/13. INT. OLD INFIRMARY. OCTOBER 1829. DAY 2 (1520)

LYDGATE [to the NURSE]
No. No. No purpose. It's relieving to the spirit to be active but in these cases there's nothing to be done but observe the progress of the fever.

LYDGATE
I shall look in again tomorrow.

FAREBROTHER
Lydgate! How are you? I've been chatting with old Mrs. Hislop, she has some shocking tales, make you blush, I swear it.

LYDGATE
I doubt that very much.

[Page] 1/25

FAREBROTHER
Aye, medical men must see all sides of life. Ah, that reminds me - I ran into a friend of yours the other day - Trawley was the name, stopping the night at the White Hart on his way to Bath, he sent his best regards to you.

LYDGATE
Trawley. I knew Trawley in Paris! How long ago that seems. How is he? He was such a political idealist - wanted to found a utopian community in the forest - did he ever do it?

FAREBROTHER
I think not. Practised as a physician at a German spa, married his richest patient, and retired at thirty five. More of a realist than an idealist, I'd have said.

LYDGATE [shocked]
Trawley? [quite a pause]
What a damned shameful waste of a life.

FAREBROTHER
Some might not say so. Not everyone has your moral fibre, Lydgate. But I must make haste now, I'm late for a christening, shall I be forgiven, I doubt it. You must look in some night and see my new specimens ... promise now, I'll keep you to it ... Mr. Bulstrode, good day to you!

[Page] 1/26

BULSTRODE
Dr. Lydgate. Excellent. Would you do me the great favour of walking over to the Bank with me? The plans for the new hospital are ready for your inspection.

[No Sc.1/14a - no page 1/27]

[Page] 1/27a

LYDGATE
How soon will it be ready for use?

BULSTRODE
A matter of months.

LYDGATE
Excellent. Excellent.

BULSTRODE
And I believe I can assure you that it will be dedicated as a fever hospital. I have advised that it should.

HAWLEY
That's the new sawbones, is it?

STANDISH
Lydgate, yes. Very well spoken of. Clever man, good family too they say.

HAWLEY
Hasn't taken Bulstrode long to get his hooks into him.

[Page] 1/28

LYDGATE
This is an excellent design, Mr. Bulstrode. The architect has vision, and has been well instructed. [he looks inspired]
You know in a few years we could have a first class medical school here in Middlemarch - why should London and Paris and Edinburgh have it all? I am convinced that the causes and treatment of typhoid and cholera will very soon yield to rigorous scientific investigation - and why should they not yield to it here, in Middlemarch? Now where are the kitchens? Ah yes. I see. Good. Good.

BULSTRODE
You will continue to give your services without payment?

LYDGATE [preoccupied with the plans]
Yes of course. [he straightens up]
I have my general practice, Mr. Bulstrode, and my wants are modest. I know I can do good here. My aim is to do good small work for Middlemarch, and great work for the world. You see I am ambitious.

[Page] 1/29

BULSTRODE
You must prepare yourself for a certain amount of jealousy and dislike from your professional brethren by presenting yourself as a reformer. Standards of knowledge and skill are low in this part of the country. You will surely be resented by less able men.

LYDGATE
Well, I won't profess bravery, but I'll acknowledge a good deal of pleasure in fighting. And I should not care for my profession if I did not believe that better methods were to be found and enforced there as well as everywhere else.

BULSTRODE
I am glad to hear it, sir. I mean to confide to you the super-intendence of my new hospital. But you recognise, too, the existence of spiritual interests in your patients?

LYDGATE
Yes, of course; what of it? - This wing here would make an excellent isolation ward, don't you think?

BULSTRODE
I refer to the chaplaincy. I am proposing to the committee that the Reverend Mr. Farebrother be replaced by the Reverend Mr. Tyke - and that no other spiritual aid should be called in.

LYDGATE
Really? What's wrong with Farebrother?

BULSTRODE
He is a man deeply painful to contemplate. I suppose there is not a clergyman in this country who has greater talents.

LYDGATE
Really. I haven't yet been pained by finding any excessive talent in Middlemarch.

[Page] 1/30

BULSTRODE
I mean that Mr. Farebrother has great talents but he dissipates them shamefully. He lacks spirituality. He brings his calling into disrepute.

LYDGATE
Does he indeed. Well, I've no knowledge in these matters - I thought this room here would do well as a laboratory.

BULSTRODE [more softly but insistently]
Dr. Lydgate, the matter of the chaplaincy will be referred to the medical board. It will be voted on. You will be required to vote. It may be of little moment to you, but the issue is of vital importance to me. I trust that I may ask of you this at least - in virtue of the cooperation between us that I now look forward to - that you will not be influenced by my opponents in this matter.

BULSTRODE
Let me boldly confess to you, Dr. Lydgate, that the affairs of this temporal world are as nothing to me when they are in conflict with my spiritual duty. I hope I make myself clear?

[Page] 1/31

1/16. EXT. MIDDLEMARCH. STREET NEAR GREEN DRAGON. OCTOBER 1829. NIGHT 2 (1912).

[Page] 1/32

1/17. INT. GREEN DRAGON. OCTOBER 1829. NIGHT 2 (1916)

BAMBRIDGE
Lovely little player, though - could have made a living at it. Does make a living at it near enough, pays for his butter if not his bread, eh my lads? Well that vicaring's not a paying game, I don't blame him - very good Mr Farebrother!

HIRAM FORD
Hundred up!

FAREBROTHER
Bad luck, Fred.

BAMBRIDGE
Master Vincy! Over here!

FRED
I'm afraid I can't pay you just yet, Mr Bambridge.

[Page] 1/33

BAMBRIDGE
No? I'm not surprised. I hope I shan't be forced to speak to your father about it. Evening, Mr Farebrother!

FAREBROTHER
Good evening! Good evening!

[Page] 1/34

FAREBROTHER
Lydgate! Excellent! Well met! Are you busy this evening? Where are you off to?

LYDGATE
Just a solitary supper in my lodgings with a book for company - and there is an experiment I want to think about.

FAREBROTHER
Postpone it, for my sake. Come home and take your supper with me. No, I insist. Then you shall be able to inspect my collection at last! What do you say to that?

LYDGATE
Thank you. I should be very glad to.

[Page] 1/35

LYDGATE
Formidable. You're a scientist.

FAREBROTHER [[shrugs]]
I keep my mind alive. You have no hobbies yourself?

LYDGATE
So much I want to achieve in my profession. Both practically and in theory. I have the ocean to swim in here.

FAREBROTHER
The ocean. Many men would call Middlemarch a backwater. You won't find much intellectual stimulus or competition here.

LYDGATE
That's immaterial. A town like Middlemarch is just the kind of place to work on the prevention and treatment of fever - I think I'll be able to show dramatic results here, that would never show up in a big city like London. D'you see? And by example I want to bring about a general reform in practice. We shouldn't still be bleeding our patients, either literally, or by charging them through the nose for medicines of dubious value.

[Page] 1/36

FAREBROTHER
I believe you'd like to make Middlemarch a model for all England to follow.

LYDGATE
That's exactly what I want to do. There's so much to do, Farebrother! And all of it possible here in Middlemarch!

LYDGATE [[continued]]
It's late. And I have to rise early.

FAREBROTHER
I'll walk you home.

[Page] 1/37

FAREBROTHER
You want for nothing, then. You're a happy man.

LYDGATE
I believe I am.

FAREBROTHER
Lydgate ... I think I should warn you. You're new to Middlemarch. It's not the simple place it seems. If you vote for me as chaplain to the hospital, you'll make make an enemy of Bulstrode. And that is something no one should do lightly.

LYDGATE
What is there against Bulstrode? I don't warm to the man, but no one can deny he does good. After all, he spends his money on public works for the good of all.

FAREBROTHER
True: he could be of much greater use to you than I could ever be. But his religion makes me shudder: I don't like the narrow, ignorant set he belongs to. They do more to make their neighbours uncomfortable than to make them better.

[Page] 1/38

FAREBROTHER [cont - he smiles]
But then I'm prejudiced. All I meant to say was: beware of offending Bulstrode. He can do you harm.

LYDGATE
I hope I act on my beliefs, not out of petty expediency. Life's too short for that sort of ... provincial moral shabbiness. But what does Bulstrode have against you anyway?

FAREBROTHER
That I don't teach his opinions, which he calls spiritual religion: and that I have not enough time to spare for both jobs. Both statements are true. But I could make time, and I should be glad of the forty pounds. I should be happier to earn it in the exercise of my vocation rather than ... in the billiard room or at the card table.

FAREBROTHER
But let's dismiss all that. Just remember ­ if you vote with Bulstrode, you're not to cut me in consequence. Idealists and intelligent men are thin on the ground in Middlemarch. I simply can't afford to do without you, Lydgate.

[Page] 1/39

1/21. INT. VINCY HOUSE. BREAKFAST ROOM. OCTOBER 1829. DAY 3 (1030)

MRS. VINCY
Knock at Fred's door again, Pritchard, and tell him it is gone half past ten.

ROSAMOND
Mamma when Fred comes down I wish you would not let him have red herrings. I cannot bear the smell of them all over the house.

MRS. VINCY
Now, Rosamond my love. A red herring's not much is it. We women have to put up with little things, and if it's only the smell of a red herring you can count yourself lucky. You'll be married some day.

ROSAMOND
Not to anyone like Fred. [Mrs Vincy is on her way out.]
Or anyone else who likes to eat red herrings for breakfast.
[more to herself]
Or anyone at all from Middlemarch.

[Page] 1/40

MRS. VINCY
So it seems my love, for you have as good as refused the pick of them!

ROSAMOND
Mamma!

MRS. VINCY
What is it, Rosy?

ROSAMOND
I wish you wouldn't say 'the pick of them'. It is a rather vulgar expression.

MRS. VINCY [a bit long suffering]
Yes, very likely, my dear. What should I say, then?

ROSAMOND
The 'best' of them.

MRS. VINCY
Well I never. D'you know that sounds just as plain and common to me. But with your education you must know, dear.

FRED
Good morning, Rosie!

ROSAMOND
Rosamond.

FRED [surveying the well-stocked table]
Ham, toast, potted beef ... is there nothing for breakfast, Pritchard?

[Page] 1/41

PRITCHARD
Should you like eggs, sir?

FRED
Eggs ... no! Bring me a grilled bone!

PRITCHARD
Yes, sir.

ROSAMOND
Really, Fred. What would you think of me if I came down at half past ten and ordered grilled bone?

FRED [grinning: he's already tucking in to what's there]
I should think you were an uncommonly fast young lady.

ROSAMOND
I don't see why brothers are to make themselves disagreeable.

FRED [rather brilliantly]
I don't make myself disagreeable, Rosy: it is you who find me so. Disagreeable is a word that describes your feelings, not my actions.

ROSAMOND
I think it describes the smell of grilled bone.

FRED
Not at all. It describes a sensation in your little nose associated with certain finicking notions acquired at Mrs. Lemon's finishing school. [going on fast to forestall her reply]
Mother! I shall ride over to Stone Court this morning.

[Page] 1/42

ROSAMOND
To see Mary Garth, I suppose.

MRS. VINCY [coming in again]
It's a pity you haven't the patience to go and see your Uncle more often, Rosamond, so proud of you as he is, and wanted you to go and live with him, and now Mary Garth has got in there ...

ROSAMOND
Mary Garth can bear Stone Court because it was that or being a governess. I would rather not have anything left to me if I must earn it by enduring my uncle's cough and his ugly relations.

MRS. VINCY
Rosy, neither you nor Fred can afford to be so proud. Uncle Featherstone is fond of you, but he'll leave you nothing unless you show yourselves agreeable. Those horrid cousins of his are camped in his parlour night and day like carrion crows - the least you could do is go and sit with him an hour, Rosy.

ROSAMOND
Very well. To please you, Mamma, I shall go with Fred this morning. I shall even sing Ye Banks and Braes for the hundred and twenty seven thousandth time, if Uncle Featherstone desires me to. There.

MRS. VINCY
There now, you're a good kind girl, Rosie. Isn't she Fred?

ROSAMOND
Rosamond

[No Sc.1/22 : no page 1/43]

[Page] 1/44

ROSAMOND
Mamma said that a new doctor is attending Uncle Featherstone.

FRED
Yes, Lydgate: clever fellow too .... aha! I see!

ROSAMOND
What do you mean by that?

FRED
Now I know why we're going to Stone Court.

ROSAMOND
Fred.

FRED [as he sees the other guys on their flash mounts]
Damn it, I wish I had a halfway decent horse. . .
[patting his]
There, never mind, Sugar, it's not your fault ... Come on then, giddup.

[Page] 1/45

1/24. EXT. STONE COURT. OCTOBER 1829. DAY 3 (1227)

ROSAMOND [OOV]
How can ye chant, ye little birds that warble on the flowery thorn?

[Page] 1/46

ROSAMOND
Ye mind me of departed joys Departed never to return.

FEATHERSTONE
Ah! Aha! Very good, missy! Just like a little blackbird! And what would she know of departed joys? Not much I hope! Haha! hahaha ha!

[Page] 1/47

FEATHERSTONE [grins]
Not finished yet! Fred Vincy. Come here. You two missies can take yourselves off, I've got a bone to pick with this boy here.

FEATHERSTONE
That's it, sit close, good boy. Now. A little bird has told me that you have got into debt with your constant playing at billiards for high stakes, and the same little bird tells me you've been borrowing on your expectations. You've been telling folks old Featherstone is leaving you his land and raising ready cash on the strength of it, haven't you, sir?

FRED
Indeed I have not, sir.

FEATHERSTONE
I hear Bulstrode the banker tells a different tale.

FRED
Then he's mistaken, sir, or he's lying, or your little bird is. Truly, sir.

FEATHERSTONE
I can alter my will yet, you know. And I shall, mark my words, if you don't contradict the story, Fred.

FRED
I have contradicted it, Uncle Featherstone.

FEATHERSTONE
Ah, but I want dockimentation. From Bulstrode the banker. Saying in black and white he knows nothing against you in this respect.

[Page] 1/48

FRED
I couldn't go and beg Bulstrode for that. It's not a thing a gentleman should ask.

FEATHERSTONE
Ho, suit yourself then, young squire. There's plenty of others I can leave my money to. Ay, ay. Money's a good egg, and if you've money to leave behind you, lay it in a warm nest, I say. Eh? Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha.

That sets him off coughing again, and MARY and ROSAMOND come back, MARY with the syrup.

FEATHERSTONE [when he's over his bout]
Ah, you're a good girl, Mary. You've got a plain face and a sharp tongue and I daresay you'll never get a husband but you're a good girl for all that.

FRED [warmly]
She's the best girl I know.

FEATHERSTONE
Oh! Oho! Is she now?

FRED
I brought you those books I promised Mary.

MARY
Thank you.

[Page] 1/49-1/50

These two pages are missing in the Shooting Script. They contained the last two pages of Scene 1/25.

[Page] 1/51

[Page] 1/52

This page is missing in the Shooting Script. It contained the first page of Scene 1/27.

[Page] 1/53

ROSAMOND
Middlemarch has not a very high standard, Uncle. I'm afraid we must be going now ... I promised Mamma - where is my whip - oh, there it is! ­

ROSAMOND [softly]
Thank you.

[Page] 1/54

ROSAMOND
They say his uncle is a baronet with a great estate in Yorkshire.

FRED
Yes, there was a Lydgate up at Oxford spent no end of money ... but rich men may have paupers for cousins, Rosie. Did Mary say anything about me?

ROSAMOND [not without some pleasure]
Yes, she said she was afraid you were very unsteady, and that if you asked her to marry you she'd refuse you.

FRED
Oh. She might have waited till I did ask her. But she's right. I am unsteady. But I do love her, Rosie.

ROSAMOND
I don't know what you see in her Fred. I should never have thought she was a girl to fall in love with.

FRED
How would you know what men fall in love with? Girls never know.
[pause]
Did she really say that?

ROSAMOND
I always tell the truth, Fred.

[Page] 1/55

FRED
She's right. I am unsteady. But I do love her, Rosie.

FRED [continued]
Oh, Lord, now I shall have to talk to Father and get him to butter up Uncle Bulstrode.

[Page] 1/56

DOROTHEA
Monk! Monk, come here sir, at once!

DOROTHEA
What are you thinking of! I'm surprised at you! Wait here. Lie down.
[smiling at the kids]
Good afternoon. I've brought you some presents.

MRS. BARNACLE [curtseying]
Afternoon, Miss Brooke.

DOROTHEA
Good afternoon, Mrs. Barnacle ... how is your husband?

MRS. BARNACLE
Still bad, Miss Brooke.

DOROTHEA
May I come in?

[Page] 1/57

MRS. BARNACLE
Very honoured, Miss.

[Page] 1/58

DOROTHEA [softly]
Mr. Barnacle?

[Page] 1/59

DOROTHEA
Try to get him to take a little of that jelly. That room smells very damp - I have spoken to Mr. Brooke about the roof, and I shall remind him again. And I shall send for our doctor as soon as I am home.

MRS. BARNACLE
Thank you, Miss Brooke, it's very good of you.

DOROTHEA
I am so sorry.

[Page] 1/60

CHETTHAM
Miss Brooke! I was on my way to see you! I have a little petitioner for you, if you'll accept him.

DOROTHEA
What is it?

CHETTHAM
A little Maltese gentleman.

DOROTHEA
Oh no - pardon me, but I cannot bear toy breeds - I should be terrified of treading on it - you know I'm very shortsighted.

CHETTHAM
Well, well, no matter - here, John.

CHETTHAM
Can't bear the things myself, but they tell me ladies like 'em ... may I walk with you?

DOROTHEA
Yes, of course.

[Page] 1/61

DOROTHEA
It is so mortifying to me that we live in ease while we let our tenants rot in pigsties. We deserve to be beaten out of our beautiful houses with a scourge of small cords!

CHETTHAM [a bit alarmed]
You think that? Well, I'm ... very much of your opinion! Er, Lovegood was telling me you have made a plan for new cottages, he was full of praise for your ideas.

DOROTHEA
I'm afraid they will come to nothing. My uncle won't consent to anything on the estate that costs him money. It is shaming.

CHETTHAM
Miss Brooke, I would like to consult your plans if I may. You see I am determined to build new cottages at Freshitt ...

DOROTHEA
Oh, yes! How very good of you! Nothing would make me happier, Sir James!

[Page] 1/62

1/33. TIPTON.BREAKFAST ROOM. OCTOBER 1829. DAY 4 (1013)

BROOKE
Sir James Chettam is setting a thoroughly bad example to his neighbours in my view. These cottages he proposes to build ... folly and madness.

BROOKE
course he's a rich man, and I daresay he can afford his follies, but he should consider the consequences to others, you know ... no man is an island, and so forth, and I daresay we shall all be out of pocket in the end. Well, so be it. I shall be going to Lowick today. I thought I might ask Casaubon to dine with us again ... would that be agreeable?

BROOKE
Well, hm, perhaps not. Yes, yes, carry on ...

DOROTHEA
Uncle, I hope you will invite Mr. Casaubon as often as he is willing to come.

[Page] 1/63

CELIA
Oh, Dodo ...

DOROTHEA
At least with Mr. Casaubon one can be sure of an intelligent conversation.

CELIA
You don't like Sir James? He seems determined to do anything you wish.

Teeny weeny touch of jealousy here.

DOROTHEA
Sir James is a good creature, and more sensible than anyone would imagine.

CELIA
I suppose you know he's in love with you.

DOROTHEA
Celia! He comes here to see you, not me.

CELIA [calmly]
Anyone with eyes can see that Sir James is very much in love with you, and that he thinks you return his affection.

DOROTHEA [horrified]
How could he think that? I have never agreed with him about anything but the cottages ... oh, how could he think that?

CELIA
Well I thought it right to tell you, because you went on as you always do, never looking about you, never seeing what is quite plain to everybody else.

[Page] 1/64

DOROTHEA
It is very painful. I must have no more to do with the cottages. Oh, Celia!

CELIA
Poor Dodo. It is hard ... I know it's your favourite fad to draw plans.

DOROTHEA
Favourite fad? Celia! D'you think I care about my fellow creatures' houses in that childish way? Oh, how can one do anything nobly Christian, living among people with such petty thoughts?

[No Sc's 1/34 and 1/35 therefore no pages 1/165-66]

[Page] 1/67

1/36. EXT. TIPTON. OCTOBER 1829. DAY 4 LATE AFTERNOON (1657)

DOROTHEA
What news have you brought, Uncle?

BROOKE
News? News about what?

DOROTHEA
Why, about the sheep stealer. Were you not at the Assizes?

BROOKE
Ah, yes. Poor Bunch. Well, it seems we can't get him off. He is to be hanged.

BROOKE [continued]
Nothing to be done about it. Let's go in. There's a sharp air, driving. I feel it, you know. A very sharp air.

[Page] 1/68

BROOKE
I came back by Lowick, you know. I talked with Casaubon and saw his library, and that kind of thing. Won't you sit down, my dear?

DOROTHEA [smiling]
I am quite happy to stand, Uncle.

BROOKE
Yes, well, of course. If you wish. Good. Ah ... Casaubon, now. I've been talking with Casaubon about this and that, you know. He seems to have greatly enjoyed his visits to the Grange these last few weeks. Yes. Yes.

DOROTHEA
Yes, Uncle?

BROOKE
And well, he seems to have a high opinion of you my dear. A very high opinion. The fact is ...

BROOKE
The fact is, he has asked my permission to pay his addresses to you ... I told him you are very young, and so on ... I felt bound to tell him there was not much chance, you know. But there we are, I had to promise the poor fellow I would speak with you, so ah, there you have it.

[Page] 1/69

DOROTHEA
Thank you, Uncle. I am very grateful to Mr. Casaubon. If he makes me an offer, I shall accept him.

BROOKE
Ah! Well!

BROOKE
Well, yes. He is a good match in some respects. But Chettam, now, have you not thought of him? He is a very good match. Our land lies together, and
[in almost a confidential manner]
I believe my dear that Chettam too wishes to marry you. I mention it, you know. There!

DOROTHEA
It is impossible that I should ever marry Sir James Chettam. If he thinks of marrying me, he has made a great mistake.

BROOKE [gobsmacked]
Well, there you are. One never knows. I should have thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like, now.

DOROTHEA
There is nothing that I like in him!

[Page] 1/70

BROOKE [baffled]
Oh. Well. But Casaubon, now. He's a good match in some ways ... a clever man, a scholar. I never got anything out of him - any ideas, you know. However he is a tip-top man and may be bishop. But you know he's over five and forty, and his health's not strong. Marriage can be a noose, my dear. And you are fond of your opinions, but a husband likes to be master, you know. I only mention these things to you, I mention them, you know.

DOROTHEA
Uncle, I don't want a husband very near my own age. He should be above me in judgment and experience, and knowledge ... and I know I must expect trials. I never thought of marriage as mere personal ease. Uncle, I admire and honour Mr. Casaubon more than any man I ever saw.

BROOKE [she's convinced him]
Well, my dear, um, that being so, the fact is, I have a letter for you from Casaubon in my pocket here. Yes, here we are ...

[Page] 1/71

1/38. INT. TIPTON. DOROTHEA'S BEDROOM. OCTOBER 1829. NIGHT 4 (2218)

CASAUBON [VO]
My dear Miss Brooke ...

CASAUBON [VO cont]
I have your guardian's permission to address you on a subject than which I have none more at heart ... From the first hours of our acquaintance I discerned in you a rare combination of elements uniquely compatible with my own needs: elevation of thought and capability of devotion allied to graces of sex beyond all my hopes.

[Page] 1/72

CASAUBON [VO]
Had I not made your acquaintance I might well have gone on to the last without any attempt to lighten my solitariness by a matrimonial union.

CASAUBON [VO]
To be accepted by you as your husband my dear Miss Brooke I should regard as the highest of providential gifts. In return I can, at least, offer you an affection hitherto unwasted.

CASAUBON [VO]
I remain, yours with sincere devotion, Edward Casaubon.

[NB: There are no script days 5 and 6]

[Page] 1/73

CELIA
Uncle tells me Mr. Casaubon has been asked to dine again. I hope there is someone else there; then I shan't hear him eating his soup.

DOROTHEA
Celia, pray don't make any more observations of that kind.

CELIA
Why not? They are quite true.

DOROTHEA
Many things are true which only the commonest minds observe.

CELIA
Then I think the commonest minds must be rather useful. I wish Mr. Casaubon's mother had a commoner mind, she might have taught him better.

DOROTHEA
Celia! Please!

DOROTHEA [quieter]
It is right to tell you, Celia, that I am engaged to marry Mr. Casaubon.

[Page] 1/75

CELIA [on a suppressed sob]
Oh, Dodo, I hope you will be happy!

CELIA [muffled]
I beg your pardon if I said anything to hurt you.

DOROTHEA
Never mind, Kitty, don't grieve - we should never admire the same people.

[No Sc.1/41 : no page 1/75]

[Page] 1/76

[Page] 1/77

CELIA
He is here.

[Page] 1/78

[Page] 1/79

CASAUBON
My dear young lady - Miss Brooke ­ Dorothea! Now, at last, my life - my experience of life as a man - is to become complete.

DOROTHEA [it's a whisper]
I hope I shall make you happy, sir.

CASAUBON
In some respects I am as young in experience as you are yourself, my dear. Hitherto I have known few pleasures save of the severer kind. I have been little disposed to gather flowers that would wither in my hand, but now I shall pluck them with eagerness, to place them in your bosom.

DOROTHEA
Oh Edward, I have so many thoughts, and dreams, and questions - and now I shall be able to tell them all to you, and ask you all about them! But only when you're inclined to listen to me, I promise, when you are weary with the pursuit of subjects in your own track.

CASAUBON
How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your dear companionship?

DOROTHEA
Oh, Edward.

[Page] 1/80

CASAUBON
Dorothea.

DOROTHEA
You have changed my life.

[Page] 1/81

[Page] 1/82-1/83

These two pages are missing in the Shooting Script. They contained the whole of Scene 1/47.

[Page] 1/84

1/48. EXT. OLD INFIRMARY. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 8 (1227)

[Page] 1/85

PATIENT
The shuttle's broke, we can't hold her. I can't be expected. There. Gone again. Mr. Vincy must be told. I can't be expected. Ah, there, see. Do you see? It's broke again.

LYDGATE
About as I thought. Let him have iced water, as much as he likes, and nothing else. [to the WIFE]
He's holding his own.

WIFE
Is it the cholera, sir?

LYDGATE
No, it's an acute fever, but it isn't cholera, I can assure you of that. Boil your drinking water at home as a precaution though - your children are all well?

WIFE
Yes, sir. Thank you sir.

LYDGATE
Wish we could make him more comfortable - the new hospital will be open soon, and then we'll be able to treat fevers of all kinds better than anywhere else in the country.

[Page] 1/86

LYDGATE
But your man will be himself again long before then. That's my opinion.

WIFE
Thank you, sir.

[Page] 1/87

VINCY
Well the long and short of it is, someone's told old Featherstone that Fred has been borrowing on the prospect of his inheritance, and Featherstone will have it that you must write him a letter saying it's not so, or he'll cut Fred out altogether. I don't like to ask favours of you, but I know you won't begrudge me this one.

BULSTRODE
You must understand, Vincy, that I stretch my tolerance towards you and your family because you are my wife's brother. As to your son Frederick, it was entirely from worldly vanity that you destined him for the Church and sent him to the University. Now you are reaping the consequences of your own folly and his.

VINCY
Well, as to that, there's no going back. It's good British feeling to try and raise your family a little. And it's a father's duty to give his son a chance in life. But if you want us to come down in the world, say so.

BULSTRODE
I am not at all sure that I should be befriending your son by smoothing his way to the acquisition of Featherstone's property.

[Page] 1/88

VINCY [angry now]
Well if you mean to hinder anyone from having money but saints and evangelists, you'll have to give up some profitable partnerships, that's all I can say! It's this sort of thing, wanting to play bishop and banker everywhere - that makes a man's name stink.

BULSTRODE
I must remind you, Vincy, that it is not your own prudence or judgment that has enabled you to keep your place in the trade.

VINCY
Well, you like to be master, there's no denying that. You must be first chop in heaven. But you're my sister's husband, and we ought to stick together. If you won't put a stop to this rumour about Fred you might as well slander him yourself. You know as well as I do that he hasn't been raising money on his expectations from Featherstone or anyone else. I consider it unhandsome of you to refuse to write a letter, Brother Bulstrode. I consider it very unhandsome. Good day to you.

[Page] 1/89

FEATHERSTONE [reading]
"I distinctly affirm that I have no information that your son borrowed any money on any property that might accrue to him on Mr. Featherstone's demise" - bless my heart! Property? Accrue? Demise? Fine words for a speckilating man! Come from nowhere, that one, too - and he may come down any day when the Devil leaves off backing him, for all his religious cant. If God A'mighty wants to make a chap rich, he does it with corn and cattle, not with speckilation and usury, you tell your friend Bulstrode that next time you see him.

FRED
He's not my friend, Uncle.

FEATHERSTONE
I'm glad to hear it. Mind you I hear he owns your father lock stock and barrel, or his bank does. So. What d'ye expect now? A little fortune, eh? Reach that tin box from over there, boy.

FEATHERSTONE
That's it.

[Page] 1/90

FEATHERSTONE
There now. And there ... and there ... and there ... and that's all. Well come on, show a bit of gratitude.

FRED
Thank you, sir. I am very much obliged to you.

[No Sc.1/52 : no page 1/91]

[Page] 1/92

FRED
Mary.

MARY [half rising]
Am I wanted inside?

FRED
No, I came to see you, Mary.

MARY
What's the matter?

FRED
Oh, Mary, you'll think I'm a despicable fellow. Uncle Featherstone has just made me a present of a hundred pounds.

MARY
A hundred pounds?

FRED
Yes, it's very generous of him, and I should be grateful - I am grateful - but you see I was hoping it might be more, because I am in debt for a hundred and sixty pounds, and a friend - a very good friend, the best fellow I know - has signed a bill of security for me making himself responsible for the whole sum. I was hoping Uncle's gift would clear it, and then I could start afresh with a clean slate. You see I confess everything to you.

[Page] 1/93

MARY
And that makes everything better?

FRED
No, no. No. I'm a selfish dog to talk of my troubles to you. I thought you looked so sad when I came in just now. It's a shame you should stay here and be bullied.

MARY
Oh, I have an easy life in comparison to some. I've tried being a teacher, but I wasn't fit for that - my mind's too fond of wandering on its own way.

FRED
Well, I couldn't be a good clergyman, any more than you could be a good governess.

MARY
I never said you ought to be a clergyman. There are other sorts of work, aren't there? Oh Fred, why can't you just resolve on something sensible, and stick to it?

FRED
I'll never be good for anything, Mary, unless I know you love me.

MARY [after a pause]
My father says an idle man ought not to exist, much less be married.

FRED
Then what am I to do? Blow my brains out?

MARY [exasperated]
No [pause, then with some humour]
On the whole, I think you'd do better to pass your examination [pause, then as a sideflick]
Mr. Farebrother says it's disgracefully easy.

[Page] 1/94

FRED
Oh, everything's easy to him!
[pause]
But it's not cleverness really. I could pass. I'm ten times as clever as some of the men that pass.

MARY
Oh, are you? Then you must be ten times as idle as they are.

FRED
But if I did pass, you wouldn't want me to go into the church, would you?

MARY
Fred it shouldn't be the question, what I want you to do. You have a conscience of your own, what do you think you should do?

FRED
Mary, I do know this: if you won't give me any encouragement, I shall just get worse.

MARY [angry]
I won't give you any encouragement! It would be a disgrace if I accepted a man who got into debt and wouldn't work!

MARY
Fred, you've always been so good to me. I don't want to hurt you. But please don't speak to me in that way again.

[No Sc.1/54-55 : no pages 1/95-6]

[Page] 1/97

1/56. EXT. LOWICK. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 10 (1035).

CELIA
Oh, dear.

CASAUBON
Welcome to my humble home.

[Page] 1/98

1/57. INT. LOWICK. HALL. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 10 (1046).

BROOKE
It's a good old house, you know, decent proportions, I went into all that at one time, Palladio and so forth ... all a bit dark and bare at present. It's a bachelor's house, of course, a bachelor's house.

CASAUBON
This is my library. As you may well imagine, a great deal of my time is spent in here.

[Page] 1/99

1/58. INT. LOWICK. LIBRARY. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 10 (1048).

CASAUBON
These are my notebooks. For my own work. The Key to All Mythologies.

DOROTHEA
May I?

DOROTHEA
I have been thinking - couldn't I be preparing myself now to be more useful to you? Couldn't I learn to read Latin and Greek aloud to you, as Milton's daughters did to their father?

CASAUBON [smiling]
If I remember rightly, the young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet.

[Page] 1/100

DOROTHEA
Yes, but they must have been very wayward girls, or they would have been proud to minister to such a father. I should have been proud to have rendered such a service.

DOROTHEA
I hope you don't expect me to be wayward and stupid, Edward?

CASAUBON
I expect you to be all that an exquisite young lady can be in every possible relation of life. Latin and Greek. Yes, certainly it might be a great advantage if you were able to copy out the Greek characters, and to that end, yes, it would be very well to begin with a little reading.

[Page] 1/101

This page is missing in the Shooting Script. It contained the whole of Scene 1/59.

[Page] 1/102

CASAUBON
This was my mother's room.

DOROTHEA
Oh, yes! And this is your mother, is it not? And this one opposite, Edward, who is this?

CASAUBON
Her elder sister.

CELIA
The sister is pretty.

DOROTHEA
It is a peculiar face. You never mentioned her to me, Edward.

CASAUBON [forbiddingly]
No. My aunt made ... an unfortunate marriage. I never saw her.

[Page] 1/103

BROOKE
Who's that youngster, Casaubon?

CASAUBON
He's a young relative of mine - the grandson, in fact, of the lady in the portrait, my Aunt Julia.

CASAUBON
Dorothea, let me introduce to you my cousin Mr. Ladislaw. Will, this is Miss Brooke.

DOROTHEA
How do you do, Mr. Ladislaw?

LADISLAW [there's something almost mocking there]
How do you do, Miss Brooke.

BROOKE
You are an artist, I see.

[Page] 1/104

LADISLAW
No, I only sketch a little. There is nothing fit to be seen there.

BROOKE
Oh, come, look, this is a nice bit, is it not?

BROOKE
I did a little in this way myself at one time, you know.

BROOKE [to DOROTHEA]
Look here, now: this is what I call a nice little thing, done with what we used to call brio, eh?

DOROTHEA
I am no judge of these things, Uncle. I am never able to see the beauty of pictures that are much praised. They're a language I don't understand.

BROOKE
Well, now, there we are. [handing it back to LADISLAW]
You will come to my house, one day, I hope, and I'll show you what I've done in this line.

LADISLAW [bit of an ironic smile]
Thank you.

CASAUBON [after a pause]
Well, shall we walk on?

[Page] 1/105

BROOKE
What's that young man going to do with himself, Casaubon? Will he be a painter? A poet? He has the look of a poet. Shelley had that look, you know, about the eyes.

CASAUBON
The answer to your question, sir, is painfully doubtful. I fear my young cousin is many things, but nothing in particular. To put it most generously, he has not yet found his vocation. His present purpose is to travel in Italy - to what end I do not know. Culture, he says. Well, I have agreed to support him for a year there: he asks no more. I shall let him be tried by the test of freedom.

DOROTHEA [delighted with her lover]
That is very kind - that is noble of you Edward. For he may really have a vocation which is not plain to him yet, may he not? People often seem idle and weak because they are growing. We should be very patient with each other, I think.

[Page] 1/106

[Page] 1/107

This page is missing in the Shooting Script. It contained the first page of Scene 1/64.

[Page] 1/108

CHETTHAM
It'll be some whim of Brooke's, he means well enough.

MRS. CADWALLADER
I'll tell you what he means, he means to go into politics and stand for Parliament! And as a Liberal as like as not. That's what all this is got up in aid of, toadying to the hoi polloi!

STANDISH
A fine woman, Miss Brooke! An uncommonly fine woman, by God! What d'ye say, Bulstrode?

CHICHELY
Very fine, but not my style, Mr. Standish. I like 'em blonde, with a certain gait, y'know, and a swan neck. Yes. Between ourselves, the mayor's daughter, young Rosamond Vincy is more to my taste than Miss Brooke or her sister. And that's Lydgate, is it, that we hear so much about?

[Page] 1/109

BULSTRODE
I, for my part, hail the advent of Mr. Lydgate. I think we shall do well to confide the new hospital to his management.

STANDISH
That's all very well if you like to try experiments on your patients, and kill a few people for charity. I like treatment that's been tested a little.

STANDISH
A fair sized room for a party, what d'you say, Vincy? And Brooke keeps a very good table, you know.

VINCY
So he may, Mr. Standish, but I dare say we are just as well at home.

MRS. CADWALLADER
Now there's a couple would have made a handsome match, wouldn't you say?

LADY CHETTHAM
And here is one that may, God willing.

[Page] 1/110

BROOKE
Friends! A few brief words on this happy occasion. We meet to celebrate the betrothal of my dear niece Dorothea and to my good and learned friend the Reverend Edward Casaubon, and to share in their happiness. Marriage, you know, is a joining, a union, a sort of closing up, you see, but in another sense it is a reaching out, a kind of exploration, if you like, just as friendship you know, that's another, David and Jonathan and so forth. Progress, now. That is going to happen whether we like it or not and that is why I am for it. Reform. In a general sense of course and all in moderation. That's why I'm happy to welcome progressive men here, men who have the well-being of their fellow-men at heart, and women, too, of course. Mr. Bulstrode here, of the bank, a pleasure to welcome you to my table, sir, and Mayor Vincy, excellent. Yes. - And Doctor Lydgate, studied in Paris and so forth, all the new ideas for the new hospital as is only right and proper, you are very welcome here, sir. Progress, you see, progress and reform. Let it never be said that Brooke was not for progress and reform - in a spirit of temperance and moderation of course. Yes.

[Page] 1/111

BROOKE
I quite forgot. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the happy couple!

EVERYBODY
The happy couple!

[Page] 1/112

CASAUBON
My thanks again, sir, for your most generous hospitality. A most delightful occasion in every way.

BROOKE
Well, you know, Casaubon, I'm very fond of my nieces - fonder than I can say - I've done what I can for the girls since their poor parents died, as much as a bachelor can, you know, not easy. D'you know, I don't think anything means more to me than that they should be happy.

BROOKE
Well, well, there we are.

BROOKE
And now you shall have that happy task, Casaubon, so far as Dorothea is concerned.

[Page] 1/113

DOROTHEA smiles radiantly. We might possibly just see a trace of anxiety in CASAUBON's eyes. He's mostly thought of the relationship the other way around.

BROOKE
And I hear that you propose to extend your wedding journey next month as far as Rome.

CASAUBON
I think the weather will be mild enough. There are some manuscripts in the Vatican that will be particularly valuable for my research ... unless my bride should find so long a journey tiring or tedious.

DOROTHEA
I should find nothing tiring or tedious that gave you pleasure, Edward. And I have longed to see the famous paintings and sculptures in Rome.

CELIA
And "Edward" will be able to tell you about every single one, I'm sure.

Would she call him Edward? She's not being horrible, she's amusing herself, as she often does.

CELIA
This is a chilly wind.

CASAUBON
I shall not detain you longer. We shall meet again very soon.

CASAUBON
I still regret that your sister is not to accompany us. You will have many lonely hours, Dorothea - I shall feel constrained to make the utmost use of my time during our stay in Rome, and I should feel more at liberty if you had a companion.

[Page] 1/114

DOROTHEA
More at liberty?

CASAUBON [not noticing]
Yes: if you had a lady as your companion, I could put you both under the care of a cicerone...

[Rather nice if he pronounced it laboriously in a poor Italian accent - though I expect people anglicised words like that. Concise Oxford gives both as correct now).]

CASAUBON
... and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time.

DOROTHEA
You must have misunderstood me very much Edward if you think I should not value your time! I beg you will not referto this again.

DOROTHEA
Please don't be anxious about me.

[Page] 1/115

CASAUBON [settled now]
Well, my dear. If you say so. Drive on, coachman.

[No Sc.1/67 : no page 1/116]

[Page] 1/117

1/68. INT. BULSTRODE'S BANK. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 12 (1120).

BULSTRODE
Good morning, Mr. Lydgate.

LYDGATE
You asked to see me.

BULSTRODE
Ah. Yes. Yes, I did. I was wondering whether you had come to a conclusion as to the chaplaincy in the new hospital.

LYDGATE
Is that all?

BULSTRODE
Mr. Lydgate. I consider it a matter of supreme importance that the spiritual cure of the patients should be entrusted to a man worthy of the charge. Do you intend to support me and vote for Mr. Tyke?

LYDGATE
I don't know Mr. Tyke. I'm sure he's a very worthy man if you say so. But so is Farebrother, and he's done his duties unpaid for long enough. I'm a medical man. I have no opinion about these things.

BULSTRODE
Then I earnestly advise you to form one, Mr. Lydgate. A great deal may depend on it.

[Page] 1/118

CHICHELY
Tyke? Tyke? Oh, not for me, sir. His sermons are nothing but doctrine. You get none of that cant with Farebrother. He'll sit down to a game of whist with anyone.

STANDISH
And take all your money if you're not quick-sharp.

CHICHELY
Which way will you vote, Mr. Vincy?

VINCY
Not on the board any more, Chichely, and glad of it, whichever way I cast my vote I'd be offending someone - I think these medical gentlemen must consult which sort of black draught they'll prescribe, eh, Lydgate?

[Page] 1/119

LYDGATE
I know very little of the case. But I don't think these appointments should be on the basis of personal liking. If you want to get a real reform, sometimes the only way is to pension off all those good fellows everybody's fond of.

CHICHELY
Hang your reforms! There's no greater hambug in the world. You never hear of a reform, but it means some trick to put in new men. What's wrong with good fellows? Not enough of them about, I'd say.

LYDGATE [smiling]
Well, there we can agree.

FAREBROTHER
Lydgate! I'd thought you might be avoiding me - having decided to vote against me.

LYDGATE
I've not yet decided on my vote, and in any case I should never cut you. I sometimes feel I shall starve in this town for want of intelligent conversation.

FAREBROTHER [smiling]
Still, first things first. Here is the serious business of the evening - come and sit down to a game of whist, man.

LYDGATE [smiling]
Thank you, no.

FAREBROTHER
Not play? Ah, you see, you are not the serious man I took you for, you are too young and light for this sort of thing. Now. What's trumps?

[Page] 1/120

LYDGATE
Miss Vincy.

ROSAMOND
Dr. Lydgate. I fear you must find us very dull in Middlemarch. When I imagine how we must seem, looked at through your eyes, I think we must seem very stupid. You have lived in Paris: I have only once been even to London. Just a raw country girl, you see.

LYDGATE
Do you call yourself a raw country girl?

ROSAMOND
Oh, I pass at Middlemarch. But I am really afraid of you.

LYDGATE
Well, I've made up my mind to take Middlemarch as it comes; you have nothing to fear. I have certainly found some charms in Middlemarch which are much greater than I had expected to find.

ROSAMOND
You mean the rides towards Tipton and Lowick: everyone is pleased with those.

LYDGATE
No: I mean something much nearer to me, Miss Vincy.

[Page] 1/120a

CHICHELY
Will you look at that, Farebrother's won again!

[No Sc.1/70 : no page 1/121]

[Page] 1/122

[Page] 1/123

[Page] 1/124

1/73. EXT. OLD INFIRMARY. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 13 (1150).

[Page] 1/125

1/74. INT. HOSPITAL BOARDROOM. NOVEMBER 1829. DAY 13 (1157).

MR HAWLEY
Well, I go for Farebrother. Put forty pounds in his pocket and you'll do no harm. He's a good fellow, without too much of the parson about him!

MR. POWDERELL
Ho, indeed, Mr. Hawley, for he spends half his days in the Green Dragon Inn playing billiards for money. Mr. Tyke, now, is a real gospel preacher, and I should vote against my conscience if I voted against Mr. Tyke.

HAWLEY
Vote against Bulstrode, I suppose you mean sir, it's all the same to you I dare say.

MR. POWDERELL [offended]
I beg your pardon, sir!

BROOKE
A very good afternoon, gentlemen! Am I the last?

WRENCH
No, no, Mr. Brooke, our chairman Mr. Bulstrode is not here yet.

[Page] 1/126

MINCHIN [snide]
Nor his protege the uniquely talented Dr. Lydgate.

HAWLEY
I say it's damnable that one man should have the town in his pocket, just because half the town owes him money!

BULSTRODE [softly]
Gentlemen, as the Board of Directors of the hospital we meet today to appoint a chaplain. The issue is between Mr. Farebrother and Mr. Tyke. I believe the qualities of each candidate are well known to us all by now, but if any of you wishes to speak ... ?

BROOKE
Well, Farebrother and Tyke, now, you know, both excellent men in their way, and a chaplain with a salary, well, I am convinced by my friends that Mr. Tyke is everything he should be, apostolic and so on, you know, so I am sure we are all very happy to come here and vote for him.

HAWLEY
Seems to me you've been crammed, Mr. Brooke, sir! What about Farebrother? He has been doing the work without pay, and if pay is given it should be given to him. I call it a confounded job to take the thing away from him.

BROOKE
Well, Farebrother, now, er ...

BULSTRODE
Excuse me, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Brooke has been fully informed of Mr. Farebrother's character.

[Page] 1/127

HAWLEY
Yes, by his enemies!

POWDERELL
I trust there is no personal hostility concerned here!

HAWLEY
I'll swear there damn well is, though!

BULSTRODE [softly]
Gentlemen. Perhaps we should put the matter to the vote now.

HAWLEY [angrily]
Aye, why not?

BULSTRODE
If you would write the name of your chosen candidate on the slip provided, gentlemen?

BULSTRODE
I perceive that the votes are equally divided at present. Dr. Lydgate: would you be good enough to write down your vote?

HAWLEY [rising]
Well, that's settled it. Damned scandalous business.

LYDGATE
You seem to speak with some peculiar meaning, sir.

[Page] 1/128

HAWLEY
I expect you to vote with Mr. Bulstrode, that's all, sir. Do you regard that as offensive, sir?

LYDGATE
It may be offensive to others, sir. But I shall not desist from voting with him on that account.

BULSTRODE [softly]
Gentlemen: Mr. Tyke is hereby elected to the post of chaplain. Thank you all very much.

[Page] 1/129

1/75. EXT. ROME. ROOFTOPS OVER FORUM. JANUARY 1830. DAY 14 (1158).

[Page] 1/130

1/76. EXT. ROME. APARTMENT AND SQUARE. JANUARY 1830. DAY 14 (1200).

[Page] 1/131

DIRTY LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS
Hai. Hai. Signorina. Bella ragazza bella gamba. Sss. Sss.

DIRTY LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS
Signor, per favore, Signorina, per favore ...

DOROTHEA
No, no, basta, per favore ...

[Page] 1/132

WOMAN
[a stream of Roman dialect)

The KIDS desist and draw back to gawp shyly.

DOROTHEA [heartfelt]
Molta grazie, Signora.

WOMAN
Prego, Signorina.

[Page] 1/133

1/78. EXT. ROME. RUINS NEAR FORUM. JANUARY 1830. DAY 14 (1225).

DOROTHEA
Oh, Edward, it's wonderful!

[Page] 1/134

DOROTHEA [inspired]
It's not as I would have - but I think I liked it, it was so very ... calm. And
[smiling]
the Christ-child was so very like a real baby!

DOROTHEA [rather timidly]
Do you like it, Edward?

CASAUBON
It is not held to be amongst the artist's finest work.

He offers his arm.

DOROTHEA
Edward, you are tired. Shall we go back now?

CASAUBON
My dear, I have set this afternoon aside for your diversion. My fatigue is neither here nor there. I thought you might wish to see the Campidoglio.

[Page] 1/135

DOROTHEA
Yes, oh yes, but only if you care about it. Do you want to see it, Edward?

CASAUBON
It is highly esteemed, I believe, by the cognoscenti.

[Page] 1/136

[Page] 1/137

DOROTHEA
It looks very old. Do you know the history of this museum, Edward?

CASAUBON
The Campidoglio is believed to be the oldest museum in the world.

[Page] 1/138

1/82. INT. ROME. ENTRANCE TO MUSEUM. JANUARY 1830. DAY 14 (1450).

[Page] 1/139

CASAUBON
It is a highly esteemed piece of art.

DOROTHEA
But do you care about it Edward?

CASAUBON
It represents the fable of Cupid and Psyche, which is probably the romantic invention of a literary period, and cannot be reckoned as a genuine mythical product.

[Page] 1/140

DOROTHEA
Perhaps we have seen enough for one day. Shall we go?

CASAUBON
It occurs to me that we are very near the Capitoline Library. Perhaps you would allow me a half hour to consult the documents there?

DOROTHEA
Yes, do, do, why did you not say so before?

CASAUBON
Thank you, my dear.

NAUMANN
What about that one? Beautiful! God, I would like to paint her as a nun!

[Page] 1/141

LADISLAW
Good God.

NAUMANN
You know her?

LADISLAW
She's my cousin. By marriage.

NAUMANN
She's married? But I saw her with some old Geistlicher. Who was that? Her father? Her uncle?

LADISLAW
That's the husband.

NAUMANN
Death and the Maiden! What a picture.

NAUMANN
Get her for me, Ladislaw. I must paint her.

LADISLAW [still looking at DOROTHEA]
Certainly not. I'll do nothing of the kind.

[Page] 1/142

1/85. INT. ROME. CASAUBON APARTMENT. JANUARY 1830. NIGHT 14 (2215).

DOROTHEA
Edward?

CASAUBON
I am very tired.

DOROTHEA [softly]
What is it, my love? You know I would do anything to make you happy.

[Page] 1/143

CASAUBON [he's so tight and stressed]
I am perfectly happy, my dear. I am simply very tired. That is all.

DOROTHEA [miserably]
Yes. Yes. Yes, of course.

[Page] 1/144

1/86. INT. ROME. CASAUBON BEDROOM. JANUARY 1830. NIGHT 14 (1150). LATER.

[Page] 1/145

DOROTHEA
Shall you go to the Vatican Library again today, Edward?

CASAUBON
What? Yes, yes ...

DOROTHEA [hesitant]
I hope you're thoroughly satisfied with our stay - I mean, so far as your studies are concerned.

CASAUBON [still not looking up]
Yes ...

[Page] 1/146

CASAUBON
I have been led farther than I had foreseen, and ... various subjects for annotation have presented themselves ... which I found that I ... could not pretermit ... although I have no direct need of them ...

DOROTHEA
Edward?

CASAUBON
The task has been a somewhat laborious one, but your society has happily prevented me from that too continuous mental labour which has been the snare of my solitary life.

DOROTHEA
I am very glad that my presence has made any difference to you. I hope when we get back to Lowick I shall be more useful.

CASAUBON [absently]
Doubtless, my dear.

CASAUBON
Carp is wilfully, irresponsibly mistaken on the Etruscan fish deities and the world shall know it ...

[Page] 1/147

DOROTHEA
Shall the world know it soon, Edward?

CASAUBON
What?

DOROTHEA
All your notes - all these rows of volumes ­ surely it's time now to do what you used to speak of: to write your book and make your great knowledge useful to the world! I will do anything - write to your dictation, or copy and extract what you tell me - but surely, Edward it is time now to expose your great theory to the judgment of your fellow scholars! How eagerly they must be awaiting it! And I am eager, too, to help you, and to share in your labours ... Edward?

CASAUBON
My love: you may rely upon me to know the times and the seasons adapted to the different stages of a work which is not to be measured by the ... facile conjectures of ignorant onlookers.

[Page] 1/148

DOROTHEA
My judgment was a superficial one, but what else could it be?

CASAUBON
What else indeed? It is ever the trial of the scrupulous explorer to be saluted with the impatient scorn of chatterers.

DOROTHEA
How can you think that of me? How have I offended you? You have shown me these rows of notebooks. You have often spoken of them. You have often said that they wanted digesting. But I have never heard you speak of the writing that is to be published. Those are very simple facts. My judgment went no further. I only begged you to let me be some good to you!

[END OF EPISODE ONE]

[Page] [i]

THE SENDING OF THIS SCRIPT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY PART IN IT.

REVISED ISSUE 3 - 16.02.93

MIDDLEMARCH

by GEORGE ELIOT

Screenplay for television in six parts

by ANDREW DAVIES

EPISODE 2

PRODUCER ··· LOUIS MARKS
Associate Producer ... ALISON GEE
Script Editor ··· SUSIE CHAPMAN
Producer's Secretary ··· LUCY HOARE

DIRECTOR ... ANTHONY PAGE
First Assistant Director ... ROB EVANS
Production Manager ... JULIE EDWARDS
Location Manager ··· SAM BRECKMAN
Location Manager ... JEFF GOLDING
Continuity ··· JANE GRIFFITHS
P.A. ··· UNA SAPLAMIDES
Finance Assistant ··· IAN BOALER
Second Assistant Director ... KATY BRIERS
Second Assistant Director ... TANIA NORMAND
Third Assistant Director ··· ANNE-MARIE CRAWFORD

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN ... BRIAN TUFANO
Camera Assistant ··· IAN JACKSON
Clapper Loader ... JULIAN BUCKNALL
SOUND RECORDIST ... DICK BOULTER
Sound Assistant ··· TIM BOISSAUD-COOKE
Grip ... ROY RUSSELL
LIGHTING GAFFER ... ALAN MUHLEY
Best Boy ... TERRY MONTAGUE
FILM EDITOR ... JERRY LEON
FILM EDITOR ... PAUL TOTHILL

DESIGNER ... GERRY SCOTT
Art Director ... JOHN COLLINS
Art Director ... MARK KEBBY
Buyer ... SARA RICHARDSON
Set Dresser ··· MARJ PRATT
Construction Manager ... BARRY MOLL
Design Op. Supervisor ... VIC YOUNG
Prop Master ··· BOB ELTON
Prod. Op. ... MARK BEVAN
Prod. Op. ··· DANNY EUSTON
Prod. Op· ··· JOE MALONE

CONTINUED

[Page] [ii]

COSTUME DESIGNER ... ANUSHIA NIERADZIK
Costume Assistant ... THERESA HUGHES
Costume Assistant ... SALLY PLUMB
Dresser ... SUE BURROWS
Dresser ... RUSSELL BARNETT
MAKE-UP DESIGNER ... DEANNE TURNER
Make-Up Assistant ... JUDITH GILL-DOUGHERTY
Make-Up Assistant ... JANE BURSTOW
Make-Up Assistant ... PHILLIPPA HALL
VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGNER ... STUART BRISDON

CASTING DIRECTOR ... GAIL STEVENS
Assistant ... ANDY PRYOR

Artists Booker ... MAGGIE ANSON

Researcher ... JUNE AVERIL

[Page] 2/1

VINCY
My Lord; Lady Medlicote; fellow citizens; as mayor of Middlemarch I am pleased and honoured to welcome you here to the dedication of the new fever hospital built entirely by public and private subscription ­ and here I might mention the singular generosity of Mr. Nicholas Bulstrode ....

VINCY
The medical supervision of the new hospital is entrusted to the care of Mr. Lydgate, who has volunteered his gratis in the furtherance of public health and the advance of medical science ...

BROOKE
Hear, hear, excellent, good, yes ...

VINCY
The spiritual welfare of the patients is in the capable hands of the Reverend Mr. Tyke.

[Page] 2/2

HAWLEY
Should have been Farebrother, it's a damn disgrace.

VINCY
These are stirring times my friends, change is in the air, and I for one am proud to see our town so far advanced in reforms that will make life better for us all. And now ...

BROOKE
Yes, well said, Vincy, progress and reform, excellent, advance of science and so on, in moderation though you know, in moderation, oh, I beg your pardon ...

BROOKE
Lady Medlicote?

BROOKE [LYDGATE]
Excellent, excellent, a fine thing for the town and for the county too.

LYDGATE
I think so.

[Page] 2/3

BROOKE
Now this is just the sort of thing my niece Dorothea - Mrs. Casaubon you know - just the sort of thing she wants to see everywhere - yes! She's in Rome at present - wedding journey - well, well ...

BULSTRODE
Mr. Lydgate, would you step this way a moment?

BROOKE
Still, I daresay it'll all turn out for the best.

[Page] 2/4

2/2. EXT. ROME. SQUARE. JANUARY 1830. DAY 15 (1120).

[Page] 2/5

2/3. INT. ROME. CASAUBON'S BEDROOM. JANUARY 1830. DAY 15 (1125).

DOROTHEA
Yes, Tantripp?

TANTRIPP [giving her the card]
If you please, ma'am, there's a gentleman waiting in the lobby.

[Page] 2/6

2/4. INT. ROME. CASAUBON'S SITTING ROOM. JANUARY 1830. DAY 15 (1134).

LADISLAW
Forgive me - perhaps I should not stay ­ but I was anxious to pay my respects as soon as possible. How long have you been in Italy?

DOROTHEA
Nearly six weeks. Mr. Casaubon will be so pleased. If you had called a little earlier you would have seen him. He goes to the Vatican library nearly every day.

LADISLAW
And stays there all day?

DOROTHEA
Yes, usually.

LADISLAW
He is a very ... dedicated scholar.

DOROTHEA [quite straight]
Yes, he is.

DOROTHEA
Something amuses you?

[Page] 2/7

LADISLAW
Ah ... yes. I was thinking of when we first met, at Lowick. The figure I cut, when you annihilated my poor sketch with your criticism.

DOROTHEA
Your sketch? No, surely not. I know nothing of painting, truly.

LADISLAW
Really? I suspected you of knowing so much that you knew how to say just what was most cutting.

DOROTHEA
Oh, no! That was really my ignorance!

DOROTHEA
And you have been sketching here, in Rome?

LADISLAW
Yes.

DOROTHEA
Then you do mean to make painting your profession? Mr. Casaubon will like to hear that you have chosen a profession.

LADISLAW
On the contrary. I've quite made up my mind against it. I have no genius for painting, and I should never succeed in anything by dint of drudgery. If things don't come easily to me I never get them.

[Page] 2/8

DOROTHEA [gently: she's not trying to be nasty]
I have heard Mr. Casaubon speak of your want of patience.

LADISLAW
Yes. I know Mr. Casaubon's opinion. He and I differ.

DOROTHEA [slightly miffed]
Certainly you differ. I didn't think of comparing you. I know my husband has quite exceptional powers of perseverance in his studies.

LADISLAW
Quite. And such a pity they should be thrown away, as so much English scholarship is, for want of knowing what's being done by the rest of the world.

DOROTHEA [startled and anxious]
What? What do you mean?

LADISLAW
I merely mean that the Germans have taken the lead in historical inquiries; they've solved most of the problems that have bedevilled English scholars for years. Streichmann, Unterbecker, Kott ... If Mr. Casaubon read German he could have saved himself a deal of trouble.

[Page] 2/9

DOROTHEA
Oh, no! Are you quite, quite sure?

LADISLAW [more "caringly"]
I regret it especially, of course, because of my feelings of gratitude and respect towards my cousin.

DOROTHEA
Oh, how I wish I had learnt German when I was at Lausanne! Then I could have been of use! Oh, poor, poor Edward!

[Page] 2/10

[Page] 2/11

[Page] 2/12

[Page] 2/13

CASAUBON
You received him in my absence?

DOROTHEA
For your sake, Edward ... he wanted to pay his respects and express his gratitude to you. Please don't be angry with me, Edward.

DOROTHEA
Mr. Ladislaw has offered to escort us to the studios of some of the religious painters here.

CASAUBON
And you wish to go, no doubt.

DOROTHEA
Only if you do - oh, Edward, I have been so unhappy. Please forgive me for speaking so hastily this morning. I fear I hurt you and made the day more burdensome.

CASAUBON
I am glad that you feel that, my dear.

DOROTHEA
But you do forgive me?

[Page] 2/14

CASAUBON
My dear Dorothea: who with repentance is not satisfied, is not of heaven nor earth.

CASAUBON
I think it is time for us to dress.

[Page] 2/15

2/9. INT. ROME. NAUMANN'S STUDIO. JANUARY 1810. DAY 16 (1050).

NAUMANN
Mr. Casaubon, you do me great honour. I have long admired your formidable scholastic powers. Indeed I think I may say that all Europe awaits your great work on mythology in fear and trembling. I am proud to welcome you - and Mrs. Casaubon, of course.

CASAUBON
You are very kind, sir.

NAUMANN
Oh, no, sir, it is you - my young friend Ladislaw thinks you will pardon me if I say that a sketch of your head would be invaluable to me for St. Thomas Aquinas in the canvas there? Perhaps it is too much to ask? - but we so seldom see just what we need - the idealistic in the actual, in this case.

[Page] 2/16

CASAUBON
You astonish me greatly, sir. If my poor physiognomy can be of any use to you, I should be honoured ... that is to say if the operation will not be a lengthy one - and if Mrs. Casaubon will not object to the delay?

DOROTHEA
St. Thomas Aquinas! Yes, what a happy thought! Do let Mr. Naumann sketch you, Edward. I shall be happy to wait - this studio seems such a calm serene haven in the noise and bustle of Rome!

NAUMANN
Excellent! Then we shall all be satisfied!

[Page] 2/17

NAUMANN
To paint the very soul, yes. To express it in line, and forn, and colour ... a man could lose his own soul in the pursuit of it ... but there are happy days like this one thanks to you, sir.

[Page] 2/18

LADISLAW
You don't really care very much about paintings, do you? How is that? I should have expected you to be very sensitive to the beautiful everywhere.

DOROTHEA
I am, in a way. I should like to make life beautiful. I mean everyone's life. It spoils my enjoyment ofanything to think that people should be shut out from it.

LADISLAW
But the best piety is to enjoy, when you can. Poetry, landscape, music ... and enjoyment radiates!

LADISLAW
It's no use to try and take care of all the world ... don't you see that we cannot care for the world unless we allow ourselves to feel delight in it! I'm beginning to suspect you have some false belief in the virtues of misery. and want to make your life a martyrdom.

DOROTHEA
Indeed, you mistake me. I am not melancholy by nature. I am never unhappy long together, truly.

[Page] 2/19

LADISLAW
But now you will go and be shut up in that stone prison at Lowick. You will be buried alive. It makes me savage to think about it! I am sorry. I speak too strongly for you.

DOROTHEA [she likes him, and puts the sweetest interpretation on his words]
No - it's good of you to be anxious about me. You were unhappy at Lowick, you wanted another kind of life. But Lowick is my chosen home.

LADISLAW
May I - may I come and visit you there? I have determined you see to leave Italy and forge my own career in England.

DOROTHEA
Why of course! We shall be very happy to see you!
[more "pause"]
I wanted to ask you again about something you said the other day ... I mean about the necessity of knowing German for the subjects Mr. Casaubon is engaged in. Surely, with his learning, be must have before him the same material as the German scholars, has he not?

LADISLAW
Not exactly - you see he's not an Orientalist.

DOROTHEA
But have there not been very valuable books about antiquities, written a long while ago, by scholars who knew nothing of these modern things? Why should my husband's not be valuable, like theirs?

[Page] 2/20

LADISLAW
Unfortunately, the subject be has chosen is changing as rapidly as chemistry. It's no use now to be crawling a little way after men of the last century, and correcting their mistakes. No one cares any more, the focus of interest bas moved on.

DOROTHEA
How can you bear to speak so lightly? If it were as you say, what could be sadder than such ardent labour all in vain?

LADISLAW
I have made you angry.

DOROTHEA
Oh, no! I like you very much. But promise me you won't speak on that subject to anyone again - I mean, about Mr. Casaubon's writings, and ... what you have just said. I know it was I who led to it.

LADISLAW
I promise.

[Page] 2/21

NAUMANN
Perfect.

[No Sc's. 2/13-2/l6 therefore no pages 2/22-2/27a]

[Page] 2/28

BAMBRIDGE
Quickly!

BAMBRIDGE
So that's Diamond. Well, I'm very disappointed. What d'ye say, Mr Horrock?

BAMBRIDGE [continues]
Wouldn't have him as a gift, I wouldn't touch him with a toasting fork.

FRED
He looks a nasty brute to me. Vicious.

JOHNSON
Not him sir. Only wants riding.

[Page] 2/28a

GIRL
Will you take a glass of barley water, sir'?

FRED
Thank you.

FRED [in Bambridge's ear]
Lord Medlicote's man was asking for a dapple grey.

BAMBRIDGE
Luck of the devil, young Vincy, luck of old Nick. Sell him on to Lord Medlicote, you're a made man.

BAMBRIDGE [to Johnson]
Sixty pound for a brute like that'?

BAMBRIDGE [quietly, for Fred]
Mind you I've seen worse horses go for eighty.

JOHNSON
This yours, sir?

FRED
That's right.

JOHNSON
And he's broken-winded.

[Page] 2/28b

JOHNSON [continued]
I'll take yours and forty pound for Diamond.

[No Sc.2/18a : no page 2/29]

[Page] 2/29a

FRED
Mary!

FRED
I didn't expect to see you! I am ... come to see your father.

MARY
He's in his bookroom. Goodbye.

FRED
Mary, wait. I need to speak to you too.

MARY
I can't wait for you. My time's not my own. It belongs to Mr. Featherstone.

MRS. GARTH
Come in, Fred.

[Page] 2/30

MRS. GARTH
Go on, you go out now.

ALFRED
I'II take them mother.

FRED
Thank you, Alfred.

MRS. GARTH
Sit down, Fred. Caleb will he in directly.

FRED
Are Letty and Ben your only pupils now, Mrs. Garth?

MRS. GARTH
I'm at a low ebb with pupils, but I've saved my little purse for Alfred's apprenticeship, all of ninety-two pounds. He can go to Mr. Hammer's now.

[Page] 2/31

FRED
Mrs. Garth ...

MRS. GARTH
Caleb wants the boy to have his chance, he thinks he may turn out a famous engineer.

FRED feels even worse. CALEB comes in.

CALEB
What, Fred, my boy? You look poorly - is anything the matter?

FRED
Yes, Mr. Garth. I'm afraid you'll have a very bad opinion of me. But I've come to tell you I can't keep my word. I can't meet Mr. Bambridge's bill after all. I owe a hundred and sixty and all I have are these fifty pounds.

MRS. GARTH
What d'you mean?

CALEB [deeply embarrassed]
Oh, I forgot to tell you, Susan. I put my name to guarantee a bill for Fred, for a hundred and sixty pounds. He made sure he could meet it himself.

MRS. GARTH [looking at FRED]
Did he.

CALEB
It's come at a bad time. A hundred and ten pounds, deuce take it. What shall we do?

MRS. GARTH [to FRED]
I suppose you've asked your father.

[Page] 2/32

FRED
It would be of no use.

MRS. GARTH
Clear enough what we shall do. I must give you the ninety-two pounds I put by for Alfred's premium. And I've no doubt Mary will have saved twenty pounds by now from what Mr. Featherstone gives her.

FRED
I shall certainly pay it all back, Mrs. Garth, ultimately.

MRS GARTH
Yes, you will, ultimately. But boys can't be apprenticed ultimately, they must be apprenticed at fifteen.

FRED
I have honestly tried everything, Mrs. Garth, I had bad luck with a horse I was selling that turned out wrong - I have no horse at all now, you see I am come on Rosie's old Welsh pony. I hate having brought this on you - there's no one else I care so much for. But you will always think me a rascal now.

FRED
I am so very sorry.

CALEB
Well Fred, you must ride over to Mary and ask the child for what money she has.

[Page] 2/33

CALEB
I was a fool, Susan.

MRS. GARTH
That you were. Well, you must teach the boy yourself now.

CALEB
Poor Mary!

[Page] 2/34

MARY [VO]
Seventeen ... eighteen ... nineteen ... twenty ...

[No Sc.2/21 : no page 2/35]

[Page] 2/36

MARY
Twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four. You may tell father I have enough to cover the rest of your debt, and six pounds over.

FRED
Mary, I can't bear this.

MARY
Yes, you can.

FRED
I am so very sorry.

MARY
I'm sure you are, now.

FRED
I didn't mean any of it - I had such terrible luck.

MARY
But when you have bad luck, other people suffer for it.

FRED
Mary.

MARY
What?

[Page] 2/36a

FRED
Do you hate me now?

MARY
I don't think well of you.

FRED
I don't think I could go on living if you hated me. If I lose my hope of you I have no hope at all.

MARY
I could never hate you, Fred. You were my best friend when I was a little girl, and you've always been good to me and happy to know me, even when the rest of your family put on such airs... But I cannot respect you - [e]very chance you get you waste - how could I respect you? - and how could I marry a man I can't respect? I wish you were a better man, Fred!

FEATHERSTONE [oov]
Mary! Mary Garth! Where are you, missy? I want my chamber pot! What the devil are you at girl?

MARY [piercingly, to Fred]
How could you be so stupidly selfish?

[No Sc.2/22 : no page 2/37]

[Page] 2/38

MRS. VINCY
Why, Fred, whatever is the matter?

ROSAMOND
He's drunk, of course, mamma. Fred, if you will behave like a beast I wish you would not make such an exhibition of yourself.

FRED
I feel deuced strange. Mother, I think you had better send for Wrench.

MRS. VINCY
Oh, my dear!

MRS. VINCY
Pritchard! Pritchard!

[Page] 2/39

WRENCH
Hmph.

MRS. VINCY
What is, Mr. Wrench?

WRENCH
A slight derangement, ma'am. I apprehend nothing serious. The system needs purging. I warrant a spoonful or two of Mr. Wrench's black draught will answer. You'll be riding to hounds again in no time, young man.

[Page] 2/40

[Page] 2/41

MRS. VINCY
Oh, Mr. Lydgate what a mercy Rosamond saw you in the street, for Wrench said he would not come again, for all he had made poor Fred worse instead of better. You should have seen him in the night, the poor boy didn't know his own mother. Is he very very ill?

LYDGATE
You were right to call me in - I believe your son is in the pink-skinned stage of typhoid fever. And unfortunately, he has taken just the wrong medicine.

MRS. VINCY
Oh, doctor! Oh, will he - is he - oh, Fred, Fred ...

LYDGATE
He has a powerful constitution, Mrs. Vincy, and I have every hope of his recovery. He must have a regular nurse, and a constant supply of iced water. I'll start him on opium and alcohol immediately to lose no time.

[Page] 2/42

MRS. VINCY
Oh, what a villain that Wrench is!

LYDGATE
You mustn't blame Mr. Wrench, Mrs. Vincy. The symptoms yesterday might have been disguising. Typhoid is difficult to diagnose in the very early stages. I shall write to Mr. Wrench and explain the circumstances: I trust he won't he offended.

[Page] 2/43

2/27. INT. HOSPITAL BOARDROOM. JANUARY 1830. DAY 20 (1215).

WRENCH
Of all the damned impudence! I've attended that family for twenty years and I am made to listen to some damned scoundrelly lecture on symptoms and prognoses and I don't know what. By God it comes to something when they'll steal your patients from under your very nose and give you a scolding into the bargain. This Lydgate's not better than a quack in my view with his flighty foreign notions and his cant about cures. How do we know what his bona fides are?

CHICHELY
D'you know what he told me - his Majesty's coroner these twenty years? ­ that a lawyer's no better than an old woman at a post-mortem examination! He thinks a doctor should conduct it!

WRENCH
Man's an imposter.

POWDERELL
He has degrees from Edinburgh and Paris I understand, Wrench. He's a clever fellow for all you don't care for him.

MINCHIN
A bit too clever in my opinion sir.

CHICHELY
Bulstrode's fond of him.

[Page] 2/44

HAWLEY
Aye, they're a pretty pair. One all pride and principles, the other all cant and holiness, and both of them elbow deep in each other's pockets.

BULSTRODE
Well, gentlemen: to business.

[Page] 2/45

2/28. EXT. LOWICK DRIVE. JANUARY 1830. DAY 20 (1515).

CELIA
Dodo!

DOROTHEA
Celia!

CELIA
We are come to welcome you back from Rome!

DOROTHEA
Oh, I have missed you, Celia!

[No page 2/46]

[Page] 2/47

BROOKE
Well, Casaubon! Back on the blessed plot, eh? This earth, this realm, this England, teeming womb, you know, and so forth!

CASAUBON
How do you do, sir?

BROOKE
How do I do? Very well indeed!

DOROTHEA [to Casaubon]
Perhaps you should rest now, dear.

CASAUBON
Yes; perhaps you are right, my dear. Miss Brooke, gentlemen: you are very welcome, I appreciate your kind intention; but you will excuse me now.

BROOKE
Yes, yes, of course, my dear man.

[Page] 2/48

CASAUBON
My wife, I am sure, will entertain you in a proper manner. Ah ... you will excuse me now. You will excuse me.

DOROTHEA
He is very tired: it was an arduous journey.

CELIA
Dodo, I can't wait to tell you any longer: Sir James and I are engaged to be married.

DOROTHEA
Oh, Celia. I am so very happy for you!

DOROTHEA
I am so very happy for you both.

DOROTHEA
I am so very happy.

[No Sc.2/30 : no page 2/49]

[Page] 2/50

BROOKE
Well, I need not ask you how you are, my dear - Rome has agreed with you, I see ­ happiness, frescoes, and so on. But Casaubon is a little pale, you know: too much studying I dare say. You can go to any length in that sort of inquiry, and nothing may come if it, you know, and I shall say so to Casaubon myself.

DOROTHEA
I beg you would not, uncle.

BROOKE
Well, well, you know best, I dare say. A wife always knows best.

CELIA
Do you think it is nice to go to Rome on a wedding journey, Dodo?

DOROTHEA
It would not suit everyone, Kitty ... I think perhaps it would not suit you.

[Page] 2/51

CELIA
Mrs. Cadwallader says it is nonsense going on a long wedding journey. She says people get tired to death of each other, and can't quarrel comfortably, as they would at home ...

CELIA
Were you amazed, Dodo, to hear our news?

DOROTHEA [smiling at both of them]
No, not amazed. It's just as I used to hope and believe.

CHETTAM
I have gone on with the cottages, Mrs. Casaubon.

DOROTHEA
I never doubted that you would. I look forward to inspecting how they progress.

CELIA
These cameos are very lovely, Dodo. Aren't they James?

CHETTAM
Er, yes, my love. Exquisite.

DOROTHEA
I was not sure about them - but Mr. Ladislaw advised me. Do you remember Mr. Casaubon's young cousin?

CELIA
Oh, yes! The artist! Was he in Rome?

[Page] 2/52

DOROTHEA
Yes. But he is no longer an artist nor is he intending to stay very much longer in Rome. He intends, I think, to return to this part of the country and earn a living with his pen.

BROOKE [turning away from the books]
Does he now? Excellent! That is just what we need, you see, young men with bold ideas, progress, reform! In moderation, you know, in moderation - it's possible to go too far in anything. But young men with bold ideas - yes, excellent! Quite!

[Page] 2/53

ROSAMOND
Early one morning, just as the sun was rising I heard a maid sing in the valley below Oh don't deceive me, oh never leave me How could you use a poor maiden so?

[Page] 2/54

FRED
Saddle Dobbin for me mother I must go to Middlemarch directly. That girl looks very ill. Am I to be apprenticed now?

MRS. VINCY
Oh Mr. Lydgate he's out of his wits ...

LYDGATE
The fever's approaching its crisis, Mrs. Vincy. Be of good heart. His pulse is strong enough. I have good hope.

MRS. VINCY
He has always been good to me. Mr. Lydgate, he never had a hard word for his mother.

FRED
Rosie must go to Stone Court now.

MRS. VINCY
Yes, yes, be still my darling.

MRS. VINCY
Oh, Mr. Lydgate, save my boy!

[Page] 2/55

LYDGATE
No, please. I didn't mean to interrupt you.

ROSAMOND
How did you find poor Fred today?

LYDGATE
He's still in a high fever, but he is coming through it well, I believe. I am almost more anxious about your mother.

ROSAMOND
Yes, poor Mamma, I shall go to her directly and make her take a little beef tea.

LYDGATE
No, stay a moment: will you not let me hear you play and sing a little first?

ROSAMOND
Oh, no, I dare not. You have heard the best singers in London and Paris ...

LYDGATE
I've heard nothing that charmed me more than the song I heard as I arrived this morning. Will you not sing it again for me?

[Page] 2/56

ROSAMOND
Early one morning, just as the sun was rising I heard a maid sing in the valley below Oh, don't deceive me, oh never leave me ...

ROSAMOND [rising]
I must go to Mamma now.

[No Sc.2/35-6 : no page 57-59]

[Page] 2/60

2/37. INT. STONE COURT. STAIRS/HALL. FEBRUARY 1830. DAY 21 (1242).

FEATHERSTONE [oov]
Tell Mr. Farebrother I've no need of preachers yet, not the canting kind nor the card-playing kind ....

MARY
He says he won't see you.

FAREBROTHER
Well then, I shall be able to spend more time with you, Mary, if you've any to spare for me.

MARY
You know I have ...

FAREBROTHER
I am just come from visiting your old playfellow.

MARY
Fred! Oh, tell me ... how did you find him?

FAREBROTHER
Very weak, and very sorry for himself ... but he is out of his delirium now, and Lydgate is confident he's turned the corner.

[Page] 2/61

MARY
So he'll soon be back to his billiards and his horses and his cards and his gambling, I suppose.

FAREBROTHER
Rather like me, Mary.

MARY [smiling]
Yes, you are two very bad characters. The only difference between you is that Fred always loses and you always win, at every game.

FAREBROTHER
Except one, perhaps.

[Page] 2/62

LYDGATE
Good. Good [to MRS. VINCY ]
Good.

MRS. VINCY
Truly?

LYDGATE
On the mend.

MRS. VINCY
If I can only see my boy strong again! [turning to look at FRED ]
- perhaps master of Stone Court! And he can marry anyone he likes then!

FRED
I feel so wretched, Lydgate. I'm no use to anyone.

MRS. VINCY
Oh, my dear, boy, how can you say that when you know everybody thinks the world of you!

FRED
Not everybody, mother. Some people have more sense than you.

[Page] 2/63

MRS. VINCY
Come, dear, try to take a little of this beef jelly.

[Page] 2/64

NED
I think the Honourable Mrs. Stephens is something like you.

ROSAMOND
Do you think so? Her back is very large, I should have thought.

NED
Ah! But I didn't say she was as beautiful as you are!

[Page] 2/65

ROSAMOND
My Plymdale! I suspect you of being an accomplished flatterer.

NED
No, indeed, Miss Vincy, in fact -

ROSAMOND
What a latecomer you are! I had almost given you up! How do you find Fred?

LYDGATE
Going on well, but slowly, you know. And you?

ROSAMOND
Oh, I never vary!

ROSAMOND [to NED]
We have looked to Mr. Lydgate as our guardian angel during Fred's illness.

LYDGATE
Good God.

ROSAMOND
And what are you laughing at so profanely?

LYDGATE
I don't know which is the sillier, this engraving here, or the writing that accompanies it - it's really splendidly idiotic!

[Page] 2/66

NED [very miffed]
There are a great many celebrated people writing in the "Keepsake", at all events, sir. This is the first time I have heard it called silly! Excuse me.

ROSAMOND
How rash you are! Don't you see that you have given offence?

LYDGATE
What? Is it Mr. Plymdale's book? I'm sorry. I didn't think about it.

ROSAMOND
You are like a bear - I don't think you know your own strength, or your power to hurt. Do you remember, when you first came here? - you said you were a bear, and you wanted teaching by the birds.

LYDGATE
There is one bird I'd very willingly be taught by.

ROSAMOND
And tamed?

[Page] 2/67

FAREBROTHER
Lydgate! How is your new hospital?

LYDGATE
Everything I hoped for, near enough. You must come and see for yourself.

FAREBROTHER
I wouldn't want to put Tyke's nose out of joint so soon after his appointment. But I'll take you up on it one day ...

FAREBROTHER
I thought of looking in on Vincy later: what about you?

LYDGATE
Not tonight. I think my patient can survive a night without me. I've been neglecting my studies lately.

[Page] 2/68

FAREBROTHER
What, are you going to get lashed to the mast, and stop up your ears? Well, if you don't mean to be won by the sirens you're right to take precautions this time.

LYDGATE [smiles]
Oh, I'm in no danger there. I assure you. Rosamond Vincy is an enchanting girl. Sweet, docile, and everything about her full of grace and fragrance. If I were thinking of marriage I believe I'd snap her up this instant! But I'm not. Not for a long while - I mean to establish myself properly before I look for a bride.

FAREBROTHER
Hmm. In my experience, when a man's seen a woman he likes as much as that, his remaining a bachelor will depend on her resolution rather than his.

LYDGATE
Ha! Very good! But not true in this case.

FAREBROTHER
No?

LYDGATE
Absolutely not! In five years time I might be looking for a wife - but you know my real passion.

LYDGATE
Medicine. Science, Knowledge! If I could reveal something of the primitive tissue that underlies all life: you, me, a songthrush, Rosamond Vincy - that's what excites me, Farebrother!

FAREBROTHER
And have you told her this?

[Page] 2/69

LYDGATE
No. of course not. She's a woman! You don't talk ahout primitive tissue when you're talking to a woman!

FAREBROTHER
Then I can't tempt you to a game of billiards?

LYDGATE
Not tonight. My first love's calling. Goodnight, Farebrother!

[No Sc.2/40b and 2/41 : therefore no pages 2/69a and 2/70]

[Page] 2/71

[No Sc.2/43 : no page 2/72]

[Page] 2/73

MRS. VINCY
Rosamond, my dear, your Aunt Bulstrode wishes to speak with you.

ROSAMOND
Yes, Aunt?

MRS. BULSTRODE
Mr. Bulstrode and I have heard something about you which has surprised us very much indeed: that you are secretly engaged to Dr. Lydgate.

ROSAMOND
I am not engaged, Aunt.

MRS. BULSTRODE
I am glad to hear it. You must realise that you are not in a position to marry a poor man. You have no fortune of your own, my dear.

[Page] 2/74

MRS. BULSTRODE
Now Mr. Plymdale is a nice young man, I have always thought, and an only son, and the heir to a great business. Surely you would not think of giving your heart to a man without a decided prospect?

ROSAMOND [bursting out]
I shall never give my heart to Ned Plymdale, at any rate! And Dr. Lydgate is not a poor man - he has very high connections!

MRS. BULSTRODE
Then it is really true? There is some understanding between you and Dr. Lydgate?

MRS. BULSTRODE
I see how it is, my dear. You have allowed your affections to be engaged without return.

ROSAMOND [nearly in tears]
No! Indeed, Aunt, I have not!

MRS. VINCY
Oh, Rosie, Rosie!

[Page] 2/75

2/45. EXT. NEW HOSPITAL. MARCH 1830. DAY 24 (1100).

BULSTRODE
Dr. Lydgate: I have a simple question to put to you. What are your intentions towards my niece, Miss Rosamond Vincy?

LYDGATE [surprised]
My intentions? I suppose that my intentions are to continue a very pleasant acquaintanceship.

BULSTRODE
And nothing more?

LYDGATE
And nothing more.

BULSTRODE
Then may I suggest to you, with the very greatest respect, that a man of your exceptional abilities should hesitate before engrossing the whole attention, and endangering the marriage prospects, of a vulnerable young girl, for the mere pleasure of the moment.

LYDGATE [really annoyed now]
I have not the slightest intention, sir, of engrossing Miss Vincy's whole attention or endangering her prospects of marriage!

[Page] 2/76

BULSTRODE [quiet as ever]
Then may I with the utmost humility suggest that you moderate your attendance upon Miss Vincy and allow her other admirers a little more opportunity of engaging her attention?

LYDGATE
Yes, sir, you may suggest that if you feel it's your place to do so.

BULSTRODE
I do, Dr. Lydgate - please do not take offence. You know I think highly of you, and wish you to prosper here. I think you will concede that I have already been of assistance to you?

LYDGATE
Yes. Yes, of course.

BULSTRODE
I wish only to help you avoid a painful misunderstanding.

LYDGATE
I shall do as you suggest. I am sure in my own mind that I've given Miss Vincy no reason to misinterpret my attention. No reason at all ... but I shall do as you suggest. There is plenty to engross me here, after all!

BULSTRODE
Thank you, Dr. Lydgate. I am grateful to you.

[Page] 2/77

[Page] 2/78

TANTRIPP
The rain's stopped, Ma'am. Why don't you take the air while you have the chance? A person could go mad, shut up here all day.

DOROTHEA
Thank you, Tantripp, but I have so much to do.
[managing a smile ]
I may go for a walk later.

[Page] 2/79

2/48. INT. LOWICK. LANDING, STAIRS, AND HALL. MARCH 1830. DAY 24 (1150).

[Page] 2/80

CASAUBON
Yes? What is it?

DOROTHEA
I have finished the copying you set me, Edward. I have come to ask how else I may help you today. Could I read to you, perhaps?

CASAUBON
No, thank you.

DOROTHEA
The weather is a little better. Would you not like to take a walk ... or we might drive towards Tipton. I am sure the air would do you good.

CASAUBON
You may have the time, Dorothea, but I have not. I have begun work on a new pamphlet.

DOROTHEA
Edward, do you not think that today we might begin to work together on the Key to All Mythologies?

CASAUBON
No.

[Page] 2/81

DOROTHEA
If I were first to copy selected passages from your notebooks?

CASAUBON
No. I have told you I am busy with this article.

DOROTHEA
Have you received any comments yet on the last one ... about the ... Etruscan mysteries?

CASAUBON
No.

CASAUBON
Oh, by the way Dorothea ...
[picking up a letter ]
Here is a letter for you - it was enclosed in one addressed to me.

DOROTHEA
Thank you. From Mr. Ladislaw! What can he have to say to me?

CASAUBON
You may read it, if you please.

[Page] 2/82

CASAUBON
But I may as well say at once that I shall decline the proposal it contains, to pay a visit here. [with mounting bitterness]
I trust I may be excused for desiring an interval of complete freedom from such distractions as have been hitherto inevitable, and especially from guests whose desultory vivacity makes their presence a fatigue!!

DOROTHEA
Why do you think I should wish for anything that would annoy you? When have I ever consulted my own pleasure before yours?

CASAUBON
Dorothea, you are hasty.

DOROTHEA [carried away]
No, it is you who are hasty in your false suppositions about my feelings!

CASAUBON
Let us say no more on the subject Dorothea. I have neither the leisure nor the energy for this kind of debate.

[Page] 2/83

[Page] 2/84

[Page] 2/85

DOROTHEA
Edward! What is it, my love?

DOROTHEA
Can you lean on me, dear?

DOROTHEA [softly]
Oh, Edward, I'm sorry.

[Page] 2/86

LYDGATE
You should not distress yourself unduly. He is breathing very comfortably now. He should sleep for some hours.

DOROTHEA
But, but will the illness return?

She's very agitated.

LYDGATE
Come.

LYDGATE
I'm afraid it's very difficult to say in these cases. It is essential now that he should not strain his nervous powers in any way. In particular, I would advise you not to tell him of the seriousness of his condition: increased anxiety can exacerbate disease of the heart.

DOROTHEA
I beseech you to speak plainly - I cannot bear to think there might be something I did not know which might make me act differently.

[Page] 2/87

LYDGATE
I shall speak absolutely plainly. He may have another attack within days, or weeks. On the other hand, he may live for five, ten, or even fifteen years.

DOROTHEA
You mean, if we are very careful.

DOROTHEA
He would be miserable if he had to give up his work. He has been labouring all his life and looking forward. He minds about nothing else. And I mind almost nothing else. Help me, pray. Tell me what I can do.

LYDGATE
What about foreign travel? You have been lately in Rome, I think.

DOROTHEA
Oh, no, no, that would be worse than anything.

LYDGATE
I wish I could have spared you this pain.

DOROTHEA
No, it was right of you to tell me. I thank you for telling me the truth.

[Page] 2/88

[No Sc.2.53 : no page 2/89]

[Page] 2/90

BROOKE
To be sure, my dear, of course! There's no question of your receiving young Ladislaw now - I shall be happy to write to him. An interesting young man ... perhaps I could help him myself ... I have heard that the Middlemarch "Pioneer" is in need of a new editor ...

DOROTHEA
Uncle, I am not sure that Mr. Ladislaw should come to Middlemarch at all.

BROOKE
Well, my dear, whatever you say ... but who are we to forbid him if he wants to come? Nevertheless, I shall write as you suggest - it seems a shame, though. Young men with new ideas, you know, I like them uncommonly well.

[Page] 2/91

2/55. INT. VINCY HOUSE. DRAWING ROOM. APRIL 1830. DAY 25 (1405).

ROSAMOND
You have become quite a stranger lately.

LYDGATE
Yes. Fred, as you see, is well on the mend, and there have been other calls upon my time.

ROSAMOND
Do you think Mrs. Casaubon very handsome?

LYDGATE
I suppose she is very handsome; but I have not thought about it.

ROSAMOND
No. I suppose that would be unprofessional.

ROSAMOND
How your practice is growing. First Lady Chettam, and now the Casaubons. No wonder you have no time for us.

[Page] 2/92

LYDGATE
You mistake me. I would rather attend to the poor at the hospital. There is more chance of doing good, and one has to listen to less nonsense.

LYDGATE
You must excuse me now. I am bidden to Stone Court, and then to the hospital. Goodbye, Fred!

FRED
Goodbye, Lydgate!

[No Sc.2/56 : no page 2/93]

[Page] 2/94

BROOKE
You should go fishing, Casaubon, or have a turning-room, make toys, tablelegs, and that kind of thing, you know!

[No Sc.2/58-9 : no pages 2/95-6]

[Page] 2/97

FEATHERSTONE [his voice is weaker!]
Where's the other Missy?

MARY
At home, I suppose. Do you want her?

FEATHERSTONE
She'd be a prettier sight than you to look at.

MARY
And what sort of sight d'you think you are to look at?

FEATHERSTONE
I don't have to be pretty. I'm old and I'm rich. I'm a rich old man. I can be as ugly as I like. Go on. Go down and tell them I'm not dead yet.

[Page] 2/98

[Page] 2/99

[Page] 2/100

NED PLYMDALE
Excellent! Um ... exquisite!

ROSAMOND [wearily]
Thank you.

NED PLYMDALE
As fine as anything to be heard in Paris or in London I'll be bound!

ROSAMOND
Thank you.

[Page] 2/101

[Page] 2/102

[Page] 2/103

LYDGATE
You did well to send for me, Mary. He's a good deal weaker.

MRS. VINCY
Oh, Dr. Lydgate! If he were to die now ­ without his loved ones at his side! Mr. Vincy must come to him, but how can he be fetched? Oh, what are we to do?

LYDGATE
Nothing easier, Mrs. Vincy. I'm returning directly to Middlemarch. I can take word to Mr. Vincy.

MRS. VINCY
Oh, Mr. Lydgate, that is good of you!

[No Sc.2/67 : no page 104]

[Page] 2/105

[Page] 2/106

[Page] 2/107

[Page] 2/108

2/71. INT. VINCY HOUSE. DRAWING ROOM. APRIL 1830. DAY 27 (1535).

LYDGATE
I am come - I am come with a message for Mr. Vincy.

ROSAMOND
But Papa is at the warehouse.

LYDGATE
Yes, of course! What a fool I am! I shall go there directly.

LYDGATE
What is the matter? You are distressed. Please tell me.

ROSAMOND [not very clearly]
I am so unhappy, I tried not to be but I cannot help it. If I am never to see you, if you do not care for me at all, there is nothing in my life that makes it worth living, and you don't, you don't care about me at all, and I ... I ...

[Page] 2/109

LYDGATE
Miss Vincy, Rosamond. Don't cry. I ... Don't cry. Let me ...

LYDGATE [between kisses!]
There ... there ... my dearest Rosamond. There ... there ...

ROSAMOND [between kisses!]
Then you do care for me. You do care for me after all.

LYDGATE
More than anyone. And I want you to be my wife.

ROSAMOND
Oh ... Mr. Lydgate ... Tertius. I am so happy. I am so very, very happy.

[Page] 2/110

BROOKE [VO]
I very much regret these circumstances. Mr. Ladislaw, as I was looking forward myself to making your closer acquantance. I have been thinking of taking a more active part in the political life of the county, and to that end acquiring one of the local newspapers ... I should have welcomed the opportunity of consulting you in this matter. Unfortunately, however ...

[Page] 2/111

BROOKE
But if you are anywhere near the county I would he most happy to welcome you as my guest - when we might discuss matters very much to our mutual advantage!

BROOKE
Yes! Yes, yes, yes!

[END OF EPISODE TWO.]

[Page] 3/[i]

THE SENDING OF THIS SCRIPT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFFER OF ANY PART IN IT.

REVISED ISSUE 3 - 16.02.93

MIDDLEMARCH

by GEORGE ELIOT

Screenplay for television in six parts

by ANDREW DAVIES

EPISODE 3

PRODUCER ··· LOUIS MARKS
Associate Producer ... ALISON GEE
Script Editor ··· SUSIE CHAPMAN
Producer's Secretary ··· LUCY HOARE

DIRECTOR ... ANTHONY PAGE
First Assistant Director ... ROB EVANS
Production Manager ... JULIE EDWARDS
Location Manager ··· SAM BRECKMAN
Location Manager ... JEFF GOLDING
Continuity ··· JANE GRIFFITHS
P.A. ··· UNA SAPLAMIDES
Finance Assistant ··· IAN BOALER
Second Assistant Director ... KATY BRIERS
Second Assistant Director ... TANIA NORMAND
Third Assistant Director ··· ANNE-MARIE CRAWFORD

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN ... BRIAN TUFANO
Camera Assistant ··· IAN JACKSON
Clapper Loader ... JULIAN BUCKNALL
SOUND RECORDIST ... DICK BOULTER
Sound Assistant ··· TIM BOISSAUD-COOKE
Grip ... ROY RUSSELL
LIGHTING GAFFER ... ALAN MUHLEY
Best Boy ... TERRY MONTAGUE
FILM EDITOR ... JERRY LEON
FILM EDITOR ... PAUL TOTHILL

DESIGNER ... GERRY SCOTT
Art Director ... JOHN COLLINS
Art Director ... MARK KEBBY
Buyer ... SARA RICHARDSON
Set Dresser ··· MARJ PRATT
Construction Manager ... BARRY MOLL
Design Op. Supervisor ... VIC YOUNG
Prop Master ··· BOB ELTON
Prod. Op. ... MARK BEVAN
Prod. Op. ··· DANNY EUSTON
Prod. Op· ··· JOE MALONE

CONTINUED

[Page] [ii]

COSTUME DESIGNER ... ANUSHIA NIERADZIK
Costume Assistant ... THERESA HUGHES
Costume Assistant ... SALLY PLUMB
Dresser ... SUE BURROWS
Dresser ... RUSSELL BARNETT
MAKE-UP DESIGNER ... DEANNE TURNER
Make-Up Assistant ... JUDITH GILL-DOUGHERTY
Make-Up Assistant ... JANE BURSTOW
Make-Up Assistant ... PHILLIPPA HALL
VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGNER ... STUART BRISDON

CASTING DIRECTOR ... GAIL STEVENS
Assistant ... ANDY PRYOR

Artists Booker ... MAGGIE ANSON

Researcher ... JUNE AVERIL

[Page] 3/6

[No Scenes 3/1 - 3/4 [cut] therefore no pages 3/1 - 3/5]

3/5. EXT. STONE COURT. DAY 28. [MAY 1830] 1615

[Page] 3/7

FEATHERSTONE [OOV]
Back, Jane! Back Solomon. Back, the pair of you, out, out, out!

[Page] 3/8

SOLOMON FEATHERSTONE
There's things you might repent of, brother, for not speaking to me, the Almighty knows what things.

FEATHERSTONE
Then he knows more than I do, out you go, out you go!

MRS WAULE
Well brother when you lie speechless you may be tired of having strangers about you, and you may think of me and my children ...

FEATHERSTONE
No I shan't! I've made my will, I shan't think of any of you!

MRS WAULE [with some malice]
Some people would be ashamed to fill up a place belonging by rights to others.

[Page] 3/9

SOLOMON FEATHERSTONE
Oh, no, sister, we must he humble and let smart folk push themselves before us.

FRED [to Featherstone]
Should my mother and I leave, sir?

FEATHERSTONE
No! Sit down and stop where you are! [he points to Solomon and Mrs Waule]
You .... out! And don't come again. Goodbye, goodbye!

MARY
I think it would be best when he's like this ...

FEATHERSTONE
Goodbye, goodbye, down the stairs with you, out with you, out with you, don't come back!

[Page] 3/10

SOLOMON FEATHERSTONE
I shall be downstairs, brother, whether or not, remember I'm the eldest after you ....

MRS WAULE
It's an affront to the Almightly leaving property out of families.

FEATHERSTONE [OOV]
Goodbye! Good day to you! Out you go!

MRS VINCY [Confidentially to Mary]
We'll look out some more of the stuffed veal and some good cheese - oh, my dear, you must do things handsomely where there's last illness and a property ....

[No Sc.3/9 : no pages 3/11-13]

[Page] 3/14

3/10. INT. STONE COURT. FEATHERSTONE'S BEDROOM. NIGHT 28/29. [MAY 1830] 0300

FEATHERSTONE
Missy! Missy, come here!

She starts awake, and goes to him. He has his tin box with papers in it, and coins open on the bed.

FEATHERSTONE
Hearken, Missy. It's three in the morning, and I've got all my faculties. Do you hear?

MARY
Yes, sir.

FEATHERSTONE
I've made two wills, and I want you to burn one of them. It's in the iron chest in the closet. "Last Will and Testament". Big printed. I want you to take it out and burn it.

MARY
No, sir. I cannot do that.

FEATHERSTONE
Not do it, Missy? I tell you you must!

MARY
No. I can't. It would lay me open to suspicion. Wait till morning, sir, till your brother and sister come again.

[Page] 3/15

FEATHERSTONE
No! Now! Look here, Missy! Take this money, all of it, the notes and the gold! You shall have it all, only do as I say!

MARY
No, I won't sir, I won't touch the will or the money, please don't ask me again!

FEATHERSTONE
Shall I not do as I like with my own money? Look here, Missy. You'll never have the chance again. Look. It's pretty nigh two hundred, and there's more in the box, and nobody knows how much there was. Take it, and do as I tell you.

MARY
Put up your money, sir - I won't touch it. I will do anything else you ask me.

FEATHERSTONE
Anything else? Anything else? I want nothing else.

MARY
Let me give you some cordial.

FEATHERSTONE
No! Damn you, Missy!

[Page] 3/16

[Page] 3/17

MRS. CADWALLADER [VO]
Dear me, what a wonderfully mixed set of people! Who can they all be? Mr. Lydgate as doctor, I suppose ... but that is really a good looking woman, and the fair young man must be her son ...

[Page] 3/18

MRS. CADWALLADER
who are they, Sir James, do you know?

CHETTAM
I see Vincy, the mayor of Middlemarch. They're probably his wife and son.

BROOKE
Yes, a very decent family - you've seen Vincy at my house, a very good fellow!

MRS. CADWALLADER
One of your secret political committee I hear - and one of those who sucks the life out of the wretched handloom weavers in Tipton and Freshitt. That's how his family look so fair and sleek.

BROOKE
Well, well, he's a sound man, Vincy.

CELIA
Oh, look at that funny little man, he's just like a frog!

[Page] 3/19

[Page] 3/20

MRS. CADWALLADER
He looks happy enough. Well, it was time the old man died, and none of these people are sorry.

DOROTHEA
How piteous. I cannot bear to think that anyone should die and leave no love behind.

[Page] 3/21

[Page] 3/22

CELIA [turning]
Why, Dodo, you never told me Mr. Ladislaw has come again!

BROOKE
Ah yes! He came with me, you know! He's my guest! Puts up at the Grange! An excellent young man: writes well, talks well - he's going to edit the "Pioneer", you know! Didn't I mention it before Casaubon? I asked him some time ago, when you were ill! Dorothea said you couldn't have anybody in the house, you know, and she asked me to write.

DOROTHEA
Uncle ...

BROOKE [carrying on, jolly, oblivious]
And we have brought the picture on top of the carriage - yourself in the semblance of Thomas Aquinas! I knew you'd be pleased with the surprise!

[Page] 3/23

BROOKE
There! There! Here he comes! He wouldn't come in, you know, till I'd announced him! Excellent, excellent, here he comes!

[Page] 3/24

BROOKE
There you are, you see, to the life: a deep, subtle sort of thinker, forefinger on the page, it's all symbolical you know, the higher style of art. I like that, up to a point, but not too far - it's rather straining to keep up with. But the flesh is good. The flesh is good. What do you think, then, Casaubon?

[Page] 3/25

WAULES
That's the one ... the by-blow ... love­ child ...

STANDISH
The will I hold here in my hand was drawn up by myself on the ninth of August 1825. But I find there is a subsequent will, hitherto unknown to me, executed in July 1826, with a codicil dated March 1828.

MRS. WAULE
Dear, dear!

STANDISH
I shall begin by reading the essential elements of the earlier will, since such appears to be the intention of the deceased.

[Page] 3/26

STANDISH
To each of my brothers and sisters who shall survive me, I give and bequeath the sum of two hundred pounds; to each of my nephews and nieces, the sum of one hundred pounds.

STANDISH
To Mr. Borthrop Trumbull, fifty pounds and my gold-headed cane.

STANDISH
To Frederick Vincy, the sum of ten thousand pounds ...

STANDISH
And the whole of the residue of the property, including the house known as Stone Court and all lands and buildings appertaining, to Mr. Joshua Rigg, who will take henceforth the name of Featherstone.

TRUMBULL
A most singular testamentary disposition! But there is a second will - there is a further document. We have not heard the final wishes of the deceased.

[Page] 3/27

STANDISH
The most recent document, dated 1828, revokes all the bequests of the previous will. It leaves Stone Court and all the land in the parish of Lowick to Joshua Rigg, under the same conditions. The remainder of the estate is to be devoted to the erection and endowment of almshouses for old men, to be called Featherstone's Almshouses. There are no other bequests whatsoever, except that Mr. Borthrop Trumbull is to have the gold-headed cane.

VINCY
The most unaccountable will I ever heard!

TRUMBULL
I must confess I call this will eccentric. A gold-headed cane! - but happily I am above mercenary considerations.

GARTH
There's nothing so very surprising in the matter that I can see. For my part I wish there was no such thing as a will.

[Page] 3/28

VINCY
Come, Lucy.

SOLOMON
If I'd known, a wagon and six wouldn't have drawn me from Brassing!

MRS. WAULE
Well it'll do him no good where he's gone. He was a bad man, and almshouses won't cover it!

MRS. VINCY
That vile hypocritical old man!

VINCY
Don't give way, Lucy, don't make a fool of yourself, my dear, before these people. Fred! Fred!

[Page] 3/29

MARY
Be brave, Fred. I do believe you're better without the money. What was the good of it to Mr. Featherstone?

FRED
That's all very well, but what's a fellow to do? I thought I'd be able to pay back your father at once and make everything right. And he's left you nothing too - what shall you do now?

MARY
Find another situation. I'm sorry, Fred. Goodbye.

VINCY [from the carriage]
Fred! Fred! This has been a damned bad day's work. Fred!

[Page] 3/30

VINCY
Well, sir, I hope you've made your mind up now to go up next term and pass that examination. You built too much on your expectations and now you must face the consequences!

MRS VINCY
Don't be too hard on the poor boy, it wasn't his fault that that wicked old man deceived him.

VINCY
Ha!

[Page] 3/31

MRS VINCY
Fred will turn out well yet, I know and where is there a girl like Rosamond? Dr Lydgate, who could have had the highest in the land, fell in love with her at once!

VINCY
The sooner that engagement's off, the better!

MRS VINCY [on a wail]
Vincy!

VINCY
I don't care! I shall have enough to do with this idle scamp, without paying for wedding clothes! The times are bad as can be, machine breaking and I know not what, election coming and revolution for all I know, everybody's ruined, and I don't believe young Lydgate's got a farthing to his name, for all his grand connections! If he wants my daughter he can damn well make his own way first.

MRS VINCY [near tears again]
Oh, Vincy!

[Page] 3/32

LYDGATE
Good morning, good morning! [to MINCHIN and BULSTRODE]
Good day to you, gentlemen. [to CRABSTONE, the house surgeon]
What's this, Crabstone?

CRABSTONE
Abdominal tumour, Dr. Lydgate. Her name's Nancy Nash. Patient of Dr. Minchin's.

LYDGATE [lovely bedside manner]
Good morning, Nancy, how do you feel?

NANCY
Bad, sir.

CRABSTONE
She's in severe pain ... [undertone]
Dr. Minchin suggests I open her up and cut it out this morning.

[Page] 3/33

LYDGATE
May I take a look, Nancy? I'll be as gentle as I can. Tell me when you feel it ... there? There? There? And when I do this? Hmmm. Thank you, Nancy. [to CRABSTONE in an undertone]
That's not a tumour, it's cramp. Give her a blister and some steel mixture, and send her home to rest. I'll have a word with Minchin.

[Page] 3/34

LYDGATE
I was as tactful as I know how to be, but Minchin took offence. Refused to give his services to the new fever hospital ... well, we'll manage well enough in spite of him. I've an excellent house-surgeon in Crabstone, and I shall have to spend more time there myself for the time heing. The devil of it is, the work's unpaid.
[brightening]
Well, things can't last as they are: we'll have all sorts of reform soon, and then young fellows will be glad to come and study here!

ROSAMOND
Tertius ...

LYDGATE
Yes, my darling.

ROSAMOND
Papa has been saying that our engagement must he given up.

LYDGATE [shocked]
But why? You don't want to give it up?

ROSAMOND
I never give up anything I choose to do.

[Page] 3/35

ROSAMOND
Here is the house. It belonged to old Mrs. Bretton. It's the one I always longed to live in and it's so near to the hospital, but Papa says it's too expensive for a doctor.

LYDGATE
Say no more. I'll take it. It's absolutely the right thing. I wouldn't have you like Dr Minchin's wife, in a poky little ill­ proportioned place. Damn the expense. You shall have everything that is proper for a lady to have - it's degrading to be mean about such things.

LYDGATE
And Rosy - rather than defer our marriage ­ why not hasten it?

ROSAMOND [delighted]
Tertius!

LYDGATE
You won't mind about new clothes. Those can be bought afterwards!

ROSAMOND
Tertius! What original ideas you clever men have! I never heard of the wedding clothes being bought after the marriage!

LYDGATE
You wouldn't deny me for the sake of a few clothes?

ROSAMOND
Tertius!

[Page] 3/36

LYDGATE
I shan't be happy till I've made you altogether mine.

[Page] 3/37

3/25. EXT. MIDDLEMARCH CHURCH. DAY 33. [AUGUST 1830] 1130

MRS. DOLLOP
Handsome couple, though. No denying that.

MRS. FLETT
Handsome is as handsome does. I wouldn't wed a girl of mine to that one. It's a well known fact he tried to cut up Mrs. Goby after she was dead.

MRS. DOLLOP
No! He never, did he?

MRS. FLETT
Poised above her with the knife when her brother burst in, I heard.

MRS. DOLLOP
No! [pause]
Handsome, though.

MRS. FLETT
Oh, very handsome, very smart, the pair of 'em.

[Page] 3/38

MRS. PLYMDALE
Not but what I'm thankful for my Ned's sake, though he could afford to keep such a wife better than Mr. Lydgate, for all his grand ways. I've never liked it when strangers come into a town and take on airs.

MRS. BULSTRODE
I cannot agree with you there, Selina. For my Nicholas was a stranger here at one time. Abraham and Moses were strangers in the land, and we are told to entertain strangers, are we not?

MRS. PLYMDALE
I wasn't speaking in a religious sense, Harriet.

HAWLEY
Vincy's had to dig deep in his pocket for this palaver.

STANDISH
Reckon he's got himself a bargain?

HAWLEY
No better than Brooke got with "The Pioneer" and that young rogue he's got to edit it ... look, there they go, as thick as thieves ... they say Brooke's putting up for Parliament, with his protege to puff him in "The Pioneer"!

STANDISH
Who is he, the young sprig? Some loose fish from London I suppose.

[Page] 3/39

HAWLEY
Name's Ladislaw. Some sort of foreigner I gather. He'll begin with a flourish about the Rights of Man and end up murdering some poor wench.

STANDISH [Laughing]
Aye, shouldn't wonder.

[Page] 3/40

BROOKE
A lovely girl, though, Rosamond Vincy. Rosamond Lydgate, I should say, now. But let's hear your article again.

LADISLAW
The whole thing?

BROOKE
No, no, just the final paragraph if you would ...

LADISLAW
"The Pioneer considers this to be a time when the crying needs of the country might overcome the modesty and reluctance to public action ..."

[No page 4/41]

[Page] 3/42

LADISLAW [V/O continued]
... reluctance to public action on the part of men of large experience of life, men whose minds have acquired breadth as well as concentration, judgment as well as tolerance, dispassionateness tempered by intelligence and energy ... the name of Brooke of Tipton is a name that comes to mind in this connection, and the electors of Middlemarch would be fortunate indeed to secure the services of such a man ...

BROOKE [V/O]
Aye, Ladislaw, that's good, and to the point ... dispassionateness tempered by intelligence and energy. I like that. Yes, I like that very well.

[Page] 3/43

LADISLAW
Yes, this will do for me.

BROOKE
Calling on Casaubon? I'll come with you.

LADISLAW
No - there is a particular sketch I want to take within the grounds.

BROOKE
I'll see you for dinner, then?

LADISLAW
With pleasure, sir.

[Page] 3/44

[Page] 3/45

LADISLAW
Don't disturb Mr. Casaubon on my account, Pratt, I'll wait till the shower's over and be on my way ...

PRATT [overlapping a bit]
Master's out, sir, but Mrs. Casaubon's in the library. I'm sure she'd be glad to see you Mr. Ladislaw ...

LADISLAW
Oh, very well; I wouldn't want to be a nuisance, though ...

DOROTHEA
Mr. Ladislaw!

LADISLAW
Mrs. Casaubon.

[Page] 3/46

[Page] 3/47

3/32. INT. LOWICK. LIBRARY. DAY 33. [AUGUST 1830] 1332

LADISLAW
I really came for the chance of seeing you alone. I wanted to talk about things, as we did in Rome.

DOROTHEA
It seems strange how much I said to you then.

LADISLAW
I remember them all.

LADISLAW
And you spend all your days, shut up indoors, with these?

DOROTHEA
Not all my days. Not all the hours in any day. And I am happy to be here.

LADISLAW
You look so much paler than you did in Rome. Couldn't you get your hushand a secretary? - then you could walk, and ride, and get your colour back, and only help him in lighter ways.

DOROTHEA
How can you think of that? I should have no happiness if I didn't help him in his work... the only thing I desire is to help him more. [pause]
Please do not mention that again.

[Page] 3/48

LADISLAW
Certainly not, now I know your feeling.

LADISLAW
Did you know I was his secretary for a while?

DOROTHEA [smiling]
I should not have thought that post would have suited you.

LADISLAW
It did not suit Mr. Casaubon. I don't think he likes anyone to overlook his work and what he is trying to do. He is too doubtful - too uncertain of himself. I made the mistake of offering him my opinions. I am afraid he dislikes me because I too often ventured to disagree with him.

DOROTHEA [who wants to think well of them both]
And yet he overcame his dislike of you as far as his actions were concerned.

LADISLAW
Yes, he has shown a sense of justice in family matters. It was an abominable thing that my Grandmother should have been disinherited.

DOROTHEA
I wonder how she bore the change from wealth to poverty. Do you know much about her?

LADISLAW
She married for love. That's all. There is nothing to be said against my grandfather except that he was a Polish patriot who was forced to flee his homeland, and obliged to give music lessons for his living. For this alone she was disinherited. My mother ran away from her family too, to get her own living - went on the stage, in fact. You see I come from rebellious blood on both sides.

[Page] 3/49

DOROTHEA
And now you are settled here again?

LADISLAW
For the time being. There is work for me to do here. And I belong to nobody anywhere else. But if you think I shouldn't stay, then I shall go.

DOROTHEA
Why should I think that? I should like you to stay very much.

LADISLAW
Then I will stay.

DOROTHEA
But - perhaps you should be guided by Mr. Casaubon. I spoke without thinking of anything but my own feelings. Can't you wait now and mention it to him?

LADISLAW
I can't wait today. The rain's over now and your uncle is expecting me. And I feel the need to use my body - a five mile walk to Tipton with the sun gleaming on the wet grass is just what I require!

[Page] 3/50

LADISLAW
Goodbye.

[Page] 3/51

[No Sc.3/34-35 : no pages 3/52­3/53]

[Page] 3/54

DOROTHEA
Did you find Mr. Spanning well, Edward?

CASAUBON
Tolerably well, my dear. He was good enough to speak very handsomely of my late tractate on the Egyptian Mysteries.

DOROTHEA
Edward, Mr. Ladislaw has just been here. You missed him only by a few minutes.

CASAUBON
Indeed.

DOROTHEA [not realising this]
Yes - he was hoping to see you. Now that he is independent of your financial support he is seeking some fixed occupation. He would like to stay in the neighbourhood, he says, because no one cares for him elsewhere.

DOROTHEA
It appears that my Uncle has bought one of the Middlemarch newspapers, and has asked Mr Ladislaw to conduct it for him ...

[Page] 3/55

CASAUBON
Did Mr. Ladislaw come on purpose to ask my opinion?

DOROTHEA
No - he didn't say that - but of course he expected me to tell you of it.

CASAUBON [V/O in a tone of controlled savagery]
Dear Mr. Ladislaw, Mrs. Casaubon informs me that a proposal has been made for you. Let me inform you that your acceptance of this proposal would be highly offensive to me ...

[Page] 3/56

CASAUBON [V/O cont]
There are certain social fitnesses and proprieties which should hinder a near relation of mine from making himself conspicuous in this vicinity in a status far below my own ...

LADISLAW
Ha!

CASAUBON [V/O cont]
... but associated at best with political adventurers, at worst with scoundrels. I must tell you that any persistence in this course must disqualify you from further reception at my house. Yours faithfully, Edward Casaubon.

LADISLAW
Pompous old fool! I'm damned if I'll let you drive me away!

PRINTER
What's that, Mr. Ladislaw?

LADISLAW
Nothing, Jenkins. Ah! Freedom is a noble thing, eh?

PRINTER
It is, sir. And in short supply.

[Page] 3/57

LADISLAW [V/O]
Dear Mr. Casaubon, you will pardon me for not seeing that my obligation to you should restrain me from living where I choose and maintaining myself by any lawful occupation that I choose.

[No Sc.3/38: no page 3/58]

[Page] 3/59

LADISLAW [V/O cont]
My conscience tells me I am doing nothing wrong. If yours forbids you to receive me in your house again, so be it. I remain, with deep regret, yours in persistent obligation, Will Ladislaw.

[Page] 3/60

[Page] 3/61

3/41. INT. LOWICK. BEDROOM. NIGHT 34. [AUGUST 1830] 2246

DOROTHEA
Would you like me to read to you, Edward?

CASAUBON
No, thank you; not at present.

DOROTHEA
Then may I talk to you a little?

CASAUBON
Certainly.

DOROTHEA
I've been thinking about money - that I have always had too much, and the prospect of too much ... and about your Aunt Julia, how she was cut off from the family only because she married a poor man. And about her grandson Will - it isn't right that he should live in poverty while we are rich.

CASAUBON [who has tensed up at the first mention of money, and got worse at the first mention of Will]
Mr. Ladislaw has no doubt spoken to you on this subject.

[Page] 3/62

DOROTHEA
No, no, not at all! - but I was thinking you are so good, so just! - would it not be a fine thing to give him now the money that would enable him to take his true place in society - and then he need not take on employment that might be beneath him.
[pause]
Edward?

CASAUBON
Dorothea, my love: this is not the first occasion on which you have assumed a judgment on subjects beyond your scope. It is not for you to interfere between me and Mr. Ladislaw, still less to encourage communications from him to you which constitute a criticism on my procedure.

CASAUBON
Be so good as to put out the candle.

[Page] 3/63

PRATT
Yes, Mr. Casaubon?

CASAUBON
Would you ask Mr. Standish to wait upon me at his earliest convenience? I wish to make certain alterations to the documents he drew up for me last April. He will know to which documents I refer.

[No Scenes 3/43-4: no pages 3/64-66]

[Page] 3/67

[No Sc.3/46 : no page 3/68]

[Page] 3/69

CELIA
There, Dodo! Is he not quite the most perfect little creature you ever saw?

DOROTHEA
Indeed he is. Probably the most perfect baby that ever lived.

CELIA
Probably? Certainly he is, certainly! Aren't you, my sweet one?

CELIA
It is, truly, a wonderful thing, though don't you think?

DOROTHEA
Yes, it is.

[Page] 3/69a

MRS. CADWALLADER
But what about all this new nonsense of Brooke's? Does he really mean to stand for Parliament? He'll be roasted alive at the hustings!

CHETTAM
He brings it upon himself. He's the worst landlord in the county. I want him to take Caleb Garth on again as agent - he got rid of Garth twelve years ago, and everything's been going wrong since. I think of getting Garth to manage for me - he's an excellent man.

LADY CHETTAM
If Dorothea had kept near her uncle there might have been some hope for him. But now Casaubon takes her up almost entirely.

MRS. CADWALLADER [looking at DOROTHEA]
Well: if she can visit her nephew she can visit her uncle. Someone, at any rate, is going to have to teach that man some sense.

[Page] 3/70

DOROTHEA
Thank you. You won't come in with me?

CHETTAM
You'll do much better on your own. And Celia frets, you know, when I'm away from her. Be firm with him. I think we must be cruel to be kind, you know.

[Page] 3/71

BROOKE
Excellent, excellent, Ladislaw. I should never have thought of that, you know, though I went into it pretty deeply at one time.

LADISLAW
Sheep stealing, sir?

BROOKE
Yes, no; capital punishment was what I meant, in fact, but excellent, excellent, we shall do a great deal, you and I!

MRS KELL
Mrs. Casaubon is here, sir.

BROOKE
Dorothea! Excellent!

DOROTHEA
Mr. Ladislaw.

LADISLAW
Mrs. Casaubon.

[Page] 3/72

DOROTHEA
I hear you are going to engage Mr. Garth who praised my cottage designs!

BROOKE
Ah! Well! No! Now! Did Chettam say that? He's a little hasty, you know. I never said I should do anything of the kind.

DOROTHEA
But I am sure you will, Uncle, for you mean to enter Parliament, I know, as a member who cares for progress, and how could you do that while your tenants live in filth and squalor?

BROOKE
Yes, what is it?

MRS KELL
The keeper's caught Dagley's boy, sir, with a leveret fresh killed.

BROOKE
Has he indeed? I'll go and speak with the boy's father ... [to DOROTHEA]
Will you come with me, Dorothea, as far as Dagley's cottage?

DOROTHEA
Yes, of course, if you wish, Uncle?

BROOKE
I shall let him off lightly, you know. Wait there while I talk to the keeper.

[Page] 3/73

DOROTHEA
Monk! Monk! [turning to LADISLAW, smiling and then catching his expression]
Is something the matter?

LADISLAW
I ... you do know that Mr. Casaubon has forbidden me to visit you?

DOROTHEA
No, I did not know. I am very sorry. But ... you still intend to stay at Tipton?

LADISLAW
Yes. But ... I shall hardly ever see you now, or hear what you are doing.

DOROTHEA
No, but I shall hear of you, from my uncle. And as for what I shall be doing .... my life is very simple. I am always at Lowick.

LADISLAW
That's a dreadful imprisonment!

DOROTHEA
No, please don't think that. I have no longings. Except ...

LADISLAW [eagerly]
What?

[Page] 3/74

DOROTHEA
Except that I wish I hadn't so much more than my share, without really doing anything for others. Tell me - do you think that by desiring what is good and perfect, even when we don't know how to achieve it, we're part of the struggle against evil?

LADISLAW
My religion is to love what's good and beautiful when I see it. But I am a rebel. I don't feel bound, as you do, to submit to what I don't like.

DOROTHEA
But if you like what is good, that comes to the same thing.

DOROTHEA
But how long my uncle is - I must go and look for him!

[Page] 3/75

3/50. EXT. TIPTON ESTATE. MUDDY LANE TO DAGLEY'S COTTAGE. DAY 36. [AUGUST 1830] 1632

BROOKE
Chettam finds fault with me about gates, and repairs, and wants me to go fancy farming, but I'd like to know another landlord who's as easy ahout rent arrears as I have been. I'm very easy, I'm uncommonly easy, I'm well known for going easy, treasured for it.

DOROTHEA
I know it Uncle, but if the whole estate was under proper professional management ...

BROOKE
Yes, yes, well, well, I dare say, ah, here we are! And there's Dagley himself!

[Page] 3/76

DAGLEY [to the shutter]
Damn you and blast you, git up and stay put ...

BROOKE
Ah, Dagley, my good fellow!

DAGLEY [turning]
What? Ah, Mr. Brooke, is it? And I'm your good fellow, am I? Well I'm very glad to hear that! I'm very glad to hear I'm your good fellow!

BROOKE
Yes, well, I'm afraid your little lad's been poaching, Dagley. Johnson will bring him back before dark, and then you should give him a reprimand, you know, a reprimand.

[Page] 3/77

DAGLEY
No I won't.

BROOKE [a bit relieved to see her]
Ah, how d'you do, Mrs. Dagley?

DAGLEY
I'm damned if I'll leather my boy to please you, not if you was twenty landlords i'stead of one, and that a bad 'un!

BROOKE
Now, now, I didn't mean the stick, you know.

DAGLEY
Stick, is it? You talk of stick on these premises! You won't give a stick towards mending! Stick, he says! Worst landlord in the county! You go to Middlemarch and axe for your character there!

MRS. DAGLEY
Dagley, hold your tongue. [to BROOKE]
He's been to market, sir, and taken liquor, and he's heard about reform, sir, he don't mean any harm.

DAGLEY
I will not hold my tongue! I can carry my liquor well as he can! Talks about Rinform, he does! Come the Rinform, it's you and your likes'll be sent scuttling!

[Page] 3/78

BROOKE
Now, now, Dagley, you're drunk, you know, we'll talk another time, you know, another time ... good day to you Mrs. Dagley ...

DAGLEY
Aye, that's it, go on, get out of it! Make yourself scarce!

BROOKE
Yes, well, this isn't the way at all you know ...

BROOKE
We chose a bad time, I'm afraid the man's the worse for drink, he was most uncouth, quite overstepped the mark ... but you know, my dear, reflecting on Chettam's notion that Garth might take on the management, you see he has an eye for detail, while I take a broader view of things ...

DOROTHEA [smiling]
Uncle, I think that would be an excellent idea!

[Page] 3/79

[Page] 3/80

ROSAMOND [ad lib - OOV]
Tertius?

ROSAMOND
Tertius, don't you think this is the prettiest pattern you ever saw?

LYDGATE
Rosy. More dress material?

ROSAMOND [playfully]
I see you bought the dearest wine glasses after all!

ROSAMOND
It wasn't expensive, Tertius. And it does suit me, doesn't it?

LYDGATE [smiling]
You will ruin me.

[Page] 3/81

LYDGATE
It becomes you very well.

ROSAMOND
Tertius.

LYDGATE
You'll ruin me. Ruin me.

LYDGATE
Ruin me. Ah ... ruin me.

[Page] 3/82

CALEB
That's that then. I'll make Brooke have new agreements with the tenants, and I'll draw up a rotation of crops. It's fine work, Susan! Man without a family would be glad to do it for nothing.

MRS. GARTH
Mind you don't, though.

MARY
Here's Mr. Farebrother.

FAREBROTHER
Lovely evening! Mrs. Garth: Caleb. Mary. How's Letty?

LETTY
Very well thank you, sir.

FAREBROTHER
Good! I come as an envoy, Mrs. Garth, from poor Fred Vincy.

[Page] 3/83

CALEB
We haven't seen the lad for months. I couldn't think what was become of him.

FAREBROTHER
He's been away on a visit, because home was a little too hot for him, and I don't think he dares show his face here.

MRS. GARTH
I'm not surprised.

FAREBROTHER
But he asked me to tell you how miserable he feels about his debt to you, and his inability to pay.

CALEB [huge smile]
Tell him it doesn't signify a farthing, because I'm going to be as rich Croesus!

FAREBROTHER
No.

CALEB
Oh, yes, indeed!

MRS. GARTH
Well, rich enough to educate Alfred and keep Mary at home.

CALEB
I'm going to be agent for two estates, Freshitt and Tipton, and a bit of Lowick besides. It makes me very happy, Mr. Farebrother: it's an uncommon cramping thing to sit on horseback and look over the hedges at the wrong thing, and not to be able to put your hand to it to make it right.

[Page] 3/84

MARY [overlaps with the first part of FAREBROTHER's speech]
Come on, Letty, bring your doll.

FAREBROTHER
I'm delighted for you, Caleb: this is the best sort of news to carry to Fred Vincy. He's going to try again for his degree, to please his father, though he hates the idea of becoming a clergyman.

MARY
He'd make a ridiculous clergyman. The sort that brings the whole profession into disrepute.

FAREBROTHER
Well: that was so cutting I felt a little bit cut myself.

[Page] 3/85

3/55. INT. GARTH HOUSE. PARLOUR. NIGHT 37. [SEPT 1830] 2050

MRS. GARTH
He's fond of Mary.

CALEB
She's a good girl, and he's known her since she was a baby. Why would he not be fond of her?

MRS. GARTH
You don't see what's staring you in the face, do you? He loves her, Caleb. And he's ten times the man that idle scamp Fred Vincy will ever be. But for all that ... ah, well, never mind.

CALEB
I have been thinking about Fred, Susan. I could do him a good turn, I think. Christy's gone, Alfred will be gone soon. I shall want help, and Fred might come and learn the business under me. What do you think?

MRS. GARTH
I think there's nothing honest his family would object to more. They want him to be a fine gentleman, Caleb.

CALEB
Well it seems a shame to me. The lad's of age and he should get his bread. And I shall need an extra hand, no doubt of that. Work seems to breed work. Only today, I had two men at me on different sides to do the same bit of valuing. Stone Court. One was Mr. Rigg, the owner. The other was Mr. Bulstrode.

[Page] 3/86

BULSTRODE
So how should you like to the mistress of Stone Court and all the Featherstone land, Harriet?

MRS. BULSTRODE
I should like it very well, Nicholas, if it gave you pleasure.

BULSTRODE
I believe it is the Almighty's will for us, Harriet.

[No Scenes 3/57-3/61 : therefore no pages 3/87-3/92]

[Page] 3/93

CASAUBON
Dr. Lydgate. I am obliged to you for your punctuality.

[Page] 3/94

CASAUBON
My life, Dr Lydgate, derives a possible importance through my work, at present uncompleted: a "Key to All Mythologies". It is, I believe, all that I will be remembered for, and - if I am to die soon ­ I would wish to leave it in such a state that it might be committed to the press by ..... others. You understand what I am saying?

LYDGATE
Yes. Yes, I do.

CASAUBON
You have not implied that my symptons were those of a fatal disease, but were it so, such knowledge would be very .... useful to me.

LYDGATE
Mr Casaubon, with diseases of the heart it is particularly difficult to predict with certainty - you may live a comfortable life for another fifteen years, but ... it is my duty to tell you that death is often sudden.

[Page] 3/95

CASAUBON [after a pause]
I thank you, Dr. Lydgate. One thing more I have to ask you: did you communicate what you have now told me to Mrs. Casaubon?

LYDGATE
As to the possible issues? Yes, I did.

CASAUBON
I see. Thank you.

[Page] 3/96

[Page] 3/97

DOROTHEA
Edward?

DOROTHEA
What have I done - what am I? - that you should treat me so?

[Page] 3/98

[Page] 3/99

CASAUBON
Dorothea. Were you waiting for me?

DOROTHEA
Yes - I didn't like to disturb you.

CASAUBON
Come, my dear, come. You are young, and need not extend your life by watching.

[Page] 3/100

[Page] 3/101

MAIDSERVANT
Dr. Lydgate is not at home ma'am, but Mrs. Lydgate will be very happy to receive you, Mrs. Casaubon.

DOROTHEA
Thank you.

[Page] 3/102

ROSAMOND
Mrs. Casaubon. You're very welcome.

DOROTHEA
Thank you for allowing me to interrupt you. I am anxious to see Dr. Lydgate if possible before I go home - I hoped you might tell me where I could find him, or even allow me to wait for him, if you expect him soon.

ROSAMOND
He's at the new hospital. I am not sure how soon he will come home. Should I send for him?

LADISLAW [coming forward]
Will you let me go and fetch him?

DOROTHEA [putting out her hand]
Mr. Ladislaw. I'm sorry - I didn't know it was you. I had not thought of seeing you here.

LADISLAW
Well. May I be of service? May I go to the hospital and fetch him?

[Page] 3/103

DOROTHEA
No. I - I wish to lose no time. You are very kind, but I will drive to the Hospital myself and see him there - Pray excuse me, Mrs. Lydgate. I am very much obliged to you. Thank you. Goodbye.

LADISLAW
I must go too - it's always fatal to have music interrupted.

ROSAMOND
Do come again, some evening. Tertius will like to hear the music; and I cannot enjoy it so well without him.

[Page] 3/104

DOROTHEA
And there is truly no further cause for anxiety, no marked deterioration? I thought he seemed ... diminished, somehow, shaken.

LYDGATE
In his mind, rather than his body, I feel. Each of us knows that we must die, but when we must grasp it as a certainty, as something very near, and palpable ... even the most devout must feel a certain terror.

DOROTHEA
Yes. Yes. I am sure you are right. Poor Edward.

DOROTHEA
This is a fine place, Dr. Lydgate, you must be very happy to have charge of it.

LYDGATE
Yes, there's all to be done here. The other medical men have set themselves against it. Well, they'll come round in time. But then there's money too. Bulstrode can't be expected to foot all the bills, but half the town seem to delight in thwarting him, and me.

[Page] 3/105

DOROTHEA
Why would they do that?

LYDGATE
Bulstrode's unpopular. People don't like his religious tone, and I gather half of Middlemarch is in debt to him. As to myself: well, my colleagues don't like it that Bulstrode has put the medical direction in my charge. So they not only refuse to cooperate themselves, but try to blacken the whole affair and hinder subscriptions.

DOROTHEA
How very petty! I am very sorry to hear this, Dr. Lydgate.

DOROTHEA
I should like to help you, if I can. I am sure that I could spare two hundred a year for a grand purpose like this ... a hospital where everyone can come without fear of expense, and in confidence of the very best, most modern care!

LYDGATE
You're very generous, Mrs. Casaubon.

DOROTHEA
No, it makes me happy! And how happy you must be, to awake each morning knowing that you have the power of doing so much good each day!

LYDGATE
Yes. I should remember that more often.

[Page] 3/106

ROSAMOND
What are you thinking?

LYDGATE
I'll tell you. I was thinking about Vesalius.

ROSAMOND
Who was he?

LYDGATE
He was a great anatomist. But the only way he could study was to go at night and snatch bodies from graveyards, or places of execution.

ROSAMOND
Ugh. I hope he's not one of your great heroes.

[Page] 3/107

LYDGATE
But he is, Rosy, he is. All the other doctors were against him, but he was right, and he proved it, for all they called him a liar and a poisonous monster, and for all his body snatching.

ROSAMOND
And what happened to him in the end?

LYDGATE
Oh, he had to fight throughout his life. Then he got shipwrecked, just as he was coming from Jerusalem to take a great chair in Padua. He died rather miserably.

ROSAMOND
Tertius.

LYDGATE
Mm?

ROSAMOND
D'you know, I often wish you hadn't become a medical man?

LYDGATE [drawing her close]
No, Rosy, don't say that; that's like saying you wish you'd married another man.

ROSAMOND
Still. I do not think it a nice profession.

LYDGATE [with passion]
But Rosy - you don't understand - that is what I am.

[No page 3/108]

[Page] 3/109

3/73. EXT. LOWICK CHURCH. DAY 41. [MAR 1831] 0920

CASAUBON [V/O]
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, and I thought as a child.

[Page] 3/110

CASAUBON [OOV]
But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

CASAUBON
For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then, face to face: now, I know in parts; then shall I know even as also I am known.

[Page] 3/111

CASAUBON [V/O]
And now abideth, faith, hope, charity; these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

[Page] 3/112

3/76. INT. LOWICK. LIBRARY. DAY 41. [MAR 1831] 1020

CASAUBON
Now there is not time to lose - we have dallied too long. This is the first step in a sifting process which I have long had in view, and which will require much intensive labour from you, my dear, both now and in the future.

DOROTHEA
But where am I to start?

CASAUBON
Here, with the Egyptians, of course. No ­ here, with the Apocryphal. Copy the marked passages, the marked passages only, and no others, do you understand?

DOROTHEA
But Edward, they are all marked.

CASAUBON
Then copy them all.

[No Sc.3/77 : no page 113-4]

[Page] 3/115

[Page] 3/116

3/79. INT. LOWICK. BEDROOM. NIGHT 41/42. [MAR 1831] 0146

DOROTHEA
Are you ill, Edward?

CASAUBON
I feel some discomfort.

DOROTHEA
Can I do anything for you?

CASAUBON
My dear, before we sleep, I have a request to make.

DOROTHEA
What is it?

CASAUBON
That you will tell me whether, in the event of my death, you will carry out my wishes. Whether you will avoid doing what I should deprecate, and do what I should desire.

[Page] 3/117

CASAUBON
You refuse?

DOROTHEA
No, I do not refuse - but it is too solemn - I think it is not right - to make a promise when I am ignorant what it will bind me to. Will you not tell me what you have in mind?

CASAUBON
I see you would use your own judgment: I ask you to obey mine; you refuse.

DOROTHEA
No, dear, no! Edward: may I wait and reflect a little? I desire with my whole soul to do what will comfort you. Will you not grant me till tomorrow? Please Edward, I beg you.

CASAUBON
Till tomorrow, then.

[Page] 3/118

[Page] 3/119

DOROTHEA
Tantripp?

DOROTHEA
Is Mr. Casaubon risen?

TANTRIPP
This half hour, ma'am. He said that he would await your answer in the Yew Tree Walk, ma'am.

DOROTHEA
Oh, Tantripp, quickly, I must dress.

[Page] 3/120

[Page] 3/121

TANTRIPP
I wish every book in the house was built into a catacomb for your master.

[Page] 3/122

3/84. EXT. LOWICK. YEW TREE WALK. DAY 42. [MAR 1831] 0727

DOROTHEA
Edward? I am come. I am ready. I am come to answer.

DOROTHEA
Edward?

DOROTHEA
Edward. Wake, dear. I am here now. I am come to give my answer.

[END OF EPISODE THREE.]

[Page] 4/[i]

THE SENDING OF THIS SCRIPT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY PART IN IT.

REVISED ISSUE 3 - 16.02.93

MIDDLEMARCH

by GEORGE ELIOT

Screenplay for television in six parts

by ANDREW DAVIES

EPISODE 4

PRODUCER ··· LOUIS MARKS
Associate Producer ... ALISON GEE
Script Editor ··· SUSIE CHAPMAN
Producer's Secretary ··· LUCY HOARE

DIRECTOR ... ANTHONY PAGE
First Assistant Director ... ROB EVANS
Production Manager ... JULIE EDWARDS
Location Manager ··· SAM BRECKMAN
Location Manager ... JEFF GOLDING
Continuity ··· JANE GRIFFITHS
P.A. ··· UNA SAPLAMIDES
Finance Assistant ··· IAN BOALER
Second Assistant Director ... KATY BRIERS
Second Assistant Director ... TANIA NORMAND
Third Assistant Director ··· ANNE-MARIE CRAWFORD

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN ... BRIAN TUFANO
Camera Assistant ··· IAN JACKSON
Clapper Loader ... JULIAN BUCKNALL
SOUND RECORDIST ... DICK BOULTER
Sound Assistant ··· TIM BOISSAUD-COOKE
Grip ... ROY RUSSELL
LIGHTING GAFFER ... ALAN MUHLEY
Best Boy ... TERRY MONTAGUE
FILM EDITOR ... JERRY LEON
FILM EDITOR ... PAUL TOTHILL

DESIGNER ... GERRY SCOTT
Art Director ... JOHN COLLINS
Art Director ... MARK KEBBY
Buyer ... SARA RICHARDSON
Set Dresser ··· MARJ PRATT
Construction Manager ... BARRY MOLL
Design Op. Supervisor ... VIC YOUNG
Prop Master ··· BOB ELTON
Prod. Op. ... MARK BEVAN
Prod. Op. ··· DANNY EUSTON
Prod. Op· ··· JOE MALONE

CONTINUED

[Page] [ii]

COSTUME DESIGNER ... ANUSHIA NIERADZIK
Costume Assistant ... THERESA HUGHES
Costume Assistant ... SALLY PLUMB
Dresser ... SUE BURROWS
Dresser ... RUSSELL BARNETT
MAKE-UP DESIGNER ... DEANNE TURNER
Make-Up Assistant ... JUDITH GILL-DOUGHERTY
Make-Up Assistant ... JANE BURSTOW
Make-Up Assistant ... PHILLIPPA HALL
VISUAL EFFECTS DESIGNER ... STUART BRISDON

CASTING DIRECTOR ... GAIL STEVENS
Assistant ... ANDY PRYOR

Artists Booker ... MAGGIE ANSON

Researcher ... JUNE AVERIL

[Page] 4/1

4/1. EXT. MIDDLEMARCH. MARKET SQUARE. MARCH 1831. DAY 43. (1040).

LADISLAW
Morning! Good morning! How are you? [to the bill-sticker ]
That's it, Shrevely!

MAN IN ARGUING GROUP
Ladislaw! Just the man! Over here! Here's the man to put us straight!

LADISLAW
Sorry, Tonks, late as it is. Come round to the Pioneer office later - or you could try our friend over there!

AGITATOR
I go up and down the country, friends, and all I see is rich folk's boots on poor folk's necks, one law for rich and one for poor, and absentee landlords, living high in their grand houses paid with our rents, our labour, and we never see 'em from one year's end to the next, unless they come and see us hanged for sport!

[Page] 4/2

HAWLEY
Seditious poppycock, I'd have a care, my friend, if I were you!

AGITATOR
Aye, you'd hang me soon enough, too, no doubt about it, but you don't have the rope to hang us all. The tide is turning, for all you fine Tory gentlemen, and one day you'll be swept away on it!

SUPPORTERS
Aye, aye, give it to him, that's the way!

HAWLEY
Damn me, the fellow's talking revolution!

OTHER TORY [rumbling]
Never happen in England.

HAWLEY
Happened in France.

OTHER TORY
Well, France ...

[Page] 4/3

4/2. INT. MIDDLEMARCH. PIONEER OFFICE. MARCH 1831. DAY 43 (1120).