Heavens to Mergatroyd

ROCHESTER 
So, you wonÕt kiss the husband of Antoinette Mason. What must you think of 
me? Now listen - we will go to my villa in France. 
I will give Grace Poole a salary to stay here, along with her son, a strapping young man, who will keep 
her company and guard her against any attacks or attempted murders by that - 
my "wife."

JANE 
You are cruel to hate her so much. She can't help it if she is insane. 

ROCHESTER 
Do you think that is why I hate her? Do you think that if you became insane I would hate you? 

JANE 
I do indeed. 

ROCHESTER 
You are mistaken. I should not shrink from you in disgust as I do from her. 
Your mind is my treasure, and if broken, it would be my treasure still. You 
must learn everything about my former marriage. Will you please listen to me? 

JANE 
Yes. 

ROCHESTER 
My father could not bear the thought of dividing property between my elder 
brother and I. So they conspired to have me marry a wealthy woman. When I 
left college I was sent directly to Jamaica to meet my future bride. She was 
beautiful and charming and I was the envy of society. A marriage was achieved 
almost before I knew where I was. Only after the marriage did I discover the 
lunacy which runs in her family. Her mother was already in an asylum. Once I 
began to know my wife, I began to perceive signs that she would carry on the  
family tradition. But not before she dragged me through the mud. She had no 
appetite for quiet conversation or intellectual accomplishment, but she had a 
massive craving for the pleasures of the flesh, and she betrayed me with a half 
dozen men at least. DonÕt you pity me and my youthful stupidity Jane?  
 
JANE 
I do pity you. 

ROCHESTER 
And so what was I to do Jane? Should I have sent her to Bedlam with the other 
lunatics, to be gawked at, and tormented and perhaps die? As much as I wished 
to be rid of her, yet I do have a conscience, whatever else you may believe 
about me. I pity her Jane. I canÕt love her, or bear to spend time in her company, 
but I do pity her. But by the laws of our society she is mine, forever, for better 
or for worse. And so I brought her here from the West Indies, and paid for her 
care. Nobody in the neighborhood had yet heard of the marriage, and I kept it 
that way. There were rumors of course, I knew about them. One was that she 
was a cast-off mistress, another my illegitimate half-sister. The latter is what 
Mrs. Fairfax and the servants believed. And so I went to Europe. I could not 
live alone Jane, I am not a naturally solitary man. I had my dalliances, with 
ladies from France, from Italy, from Spain, from Germany, but I never found a  
woman with whom I felt true sympathy. I returned to Thornfield Hall, on 
necessary business, including the business of meeting the new governess. And 
there you were with your shy Lowood manners.  I made you talk, and found 
you were full of strange contrasts. Diffident and refined, but completely unused 
to society. I felt the penetration and power of your glance. And I believe that 
soon you felt the same feeling of sympathy that I did. I used to enjoy a chance 
meeting with you Jane. There was a curious hesitation in your manner, and you 
were not sure what caprice of my nature would appear. But I soon saw 
something else in your face Jane Š a lightness, a sense of hope.  

JANE 
Don't talk of those days any more! 

(She can't help but cry, which greatly distresses Rochester.) 

ROCHESTER 
Very well, let us talk about the future. We will go to France, on the blue 
Mediterranean, and there we will be husband and wife. And never will there be 
a husband who doted more on his precious darling wife. We will be the talk of 
the town Jane, we will scandalize even the French.  

JANE 
You have a wife. To say otherwise is sophistry. 

(Rochester embraces her.) 

ROCHESTER 
Do you call it "sophistry" now? 

JANE 
Yes. 

(Rochester kisses her on the head and neck.) 

ROCHESTER 
And now? 

JANE 
Yes. 

ROCHESTER 
Is it so wicked to love me? Jane will give me her love, nobly and generously. 
Just say this Jane: "I will be yours, Edward." 

(He tries to turn her face to his, but she turns away.) 

My little Jane - she will be my comforter, my rescuer, my darling love. Why 
should that be impossible? 

JANE 
It is impossible, sir, because it is wrong. 

(She exits as he stands looking at her in disbelief. ) 

ROCHESTER 
Go up to your own room then. Think what I have said. Have mercy on my 
suffering Jane.  

(end of scene)

Heavens to Mergatroyd