Scandalous Quotes

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Caroline: My husband is a man child, a fop doodle who is frittering away my fortune. In the eyes of the law, it's Sir George's fortune, of course, but in reality it was gifted to me by prudent ancestors.
Charlotte: Marriage is the worst kind of thief.

Charlotte: I've been summoned to service my master.
Guy: [George]'d have you pleasure him in public?
Charlotte: Only with words. It's harlotting we do with our clothes on that matters most.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Fallon: I like my pleasure guaranteed.
Charlotte:  I like mine stolen and illicit.

Lord Fallon's friend: Go finger your mother, Quigley.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lydia: You overreach yourself.
Margaret: You underestimate me.

Margaret: You honor us, your lordship.
Fallon: I know.

Cunliffe: Please, I beg you.
Lydia: Yes, beg. BEEEEEG! I like that. I like that a lot.

Edited May 11, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Amelia: Do you fear death more because you are sinners?
Rasselas: Love's not a sin.

Cunliffe: Do you know the penalty if you are convicted?
Charlotte: Hanging.
Cunliffe: Killing your master is petty treason. For that we draw and quarter men and burn women at the stake.
Charlotte: Even in death, women suffer more.
Cunliffe: The method is supposed to protect your modesty, though of course your shift will succumb to the heat long before the flames provide a fig leaf.
 

Edited June 16, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Caroline: I'm a widow and I suffer no man's guidance now.

Cunliffe: Once your conscience peels away, you'll find you can do anything.

Charlotte: I am not to love or be loved.
Daniel: What kind of demented thinking is that?

[LadyintheLoop]

Will: This is a decent cunny house!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Florence: Our lord knew that virtue grew in the desert, not in palaces of luxury. There is honor in poverty and strength in hunger. Those who turn their backs on the sugared coin will be welcomed into paradise. The lord is always with you if you give him your heart. Do not fall into the fleshly chasm, for the brief bliss that it offers will incinerate your soul. Embrace your wretchedness and be thankful, for as you chew the dry crust and thirst for clear water, know that respite is waiting in the next world.

Charlotte: Well, fuck my old boots.

Nancy: Who put the sour plum up your arse?

Nancy: No one ever did murder and slept easy.

Cherry: Violet's been caught thieving. That new justice - he gave Sally McKenzie a month of clink for scratching her muff in the street.

Holland: Mrs. Wells, what news of Miss Charlotte? She and her Irish knave kept me in print for days. Did she murder Sir George Howard?
Margaret: Go fuck a flogging post, Mr. Holland.

Oswald: The court calls Lydia Quigley.
Margaret: What in the name of Saint Cock?

Emily: Lydia Quigley in jail! Well, sing my soul. May she be bitten by a plaguey rat.

Hunt: Last Sunday, the body of a girl was found near Bedford Street. She had been violated and most foully slain. Torment was done unto that girl.
Lydia: And to the girl you've just branded with a hot iron! Can you not smell her burning flesh?

Violet: We both face ruin. Only one of us deserves it. 
Lydia: I have nothing in common with you.
Violet: You're right, for I had friends in court who spoke for me. You were jeered at.

Lydia: A woman's power is in her secrets. I've collected them like jewels and now they'll keep me safe.

Charlotte: [Lydia]'s pressed me to threaten you.
Isabella: Why? Does she hold your secret too?
Charlotte: Forgive me.
Isabella: Perhaps we courtiers are not unlike you courtesans. Our lives, like yours, are a constant game of sham.
Charlotte: Do you ever long to break from that pretense?
Isabella: If I broke free and spoke my heart, the sea would bubble, the sky would turn red, and London would tumble into dust. 
Charlotte: I should like to witness that.

Fallon: I wrote to your mother offering excellent terms to be your keeper.
Lucy: I burnt it. I don't like eating seeds or weird fruit.

Webster: You should service our soldiers for free.
Nell: No money, no cunny.

Edited August 2, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Armitage: Women will always be at the mercy of men's power. Best just to look after yourself.
Fanny: It's not your power we're at the mercy of. It's your weakness.

Hunt: This girl has flimflammed you with feigned virtue.

Emily: I want to live, Charlie. Long enough to see my muff turn silver.

Hunt: You may borrow my books if you please.
Violet: Do you think I'd be a thieving whore if I could read?

Hunt: Will this be your first experience of working as a maid?
Violet: Depends if you count polishing knobs.
Hunt: I have saved you from the prison, and yet you show no gratitude at all.
Violet: If I'm not free to leave, then I'm still in prison.

Nancy: Ale and rage. It's a potent mix.

Margaret: We're here to raise our glasses to Kitty Carter! One of the best girls I've had in my house! Kitty was innocent! 
Nancy: No, she wasn't. She was guilty of being poor. The worst crime you can commit. And that's why she'll turn to dust in her grave while Lydia Quigley grows old and saggy.

Nell: If Quigley is the killer, why did the law let her loose?
Margaret: The law is rigged! No evidence strong enough to condemn a white wig, and none too weak to hang a whore!

Margaret: We've scared him witless.
Lucy: That's a good thing.
Margaret: No, a frightened man is a very dangerous thing, Lucy.

Amelia: You're saved!
Violet: Lucky me. Saved from having to filch or fuck for my supper.
Amelia: Aren't you pleased? He said I can teach you to read.
Violet: I'm a lawman's lackey and a traitor to my own kind.
Amelia: You've avoided enslavement in America.
Violet: What is this if not enslavement? No freedom, no pay.

Isabella: What are you doing here, Mrs. Quigley?
Lydia: I wanted to thank you.
Isabella: Not seeing you again will be all the thanks that I need.

Emily: I don't know why everyone's calling for Margaret Wells to be sainted. Turning her back on people is what she's good at.
Harriet: You don't think well of her?
Emily: I'd see her locked in limbo, handless, with an itch in her arse.

Harriet: I have no skill for servicing drunkards against tavern walls, even they agree.
Emily: Trick is to go hard and fast. Conclude them before they puke or you get moved on.

Margaret: You must hate me to do what you did in court.
Charlotte: I don't hate you, Ma. I pity you.
Margaret: Don't you dare pity me! Do you hear?
Charlotte: You are unable to love, unable to be a mother.
Margaret: I am a mother!
Charlotte: You are a pimp. That is the exact opposite. Look at the silks that you are standing in. "Gentlemen, here is my daughter Lucy, a weeping virgin. You have a job parting her frigid little legs, but when you do-"
Margaret: You shut your filthy mouth!
Charlotte: "Or perhaps my older girl, Charlotte, the beautiful fool. You'll have no trouble opening her legs, but keeping her mouth shut."
Margaret: Your trouble is you've not known enough hunger, nor enough of my hand.
Charlotte: Oh, go fetch a rope, Ma. You've ruined me with kindness.

Charles: Emily Lacey, you're as drunk as a lord.
Emily: I know, but this will still be a good idea when I'm not. The culls will love [Harriet]. They won't have come across a stuck-up black before.
Harriet: I can see why they might find refinement a novelty.

Mrs. Scanwell: Mock if you will. There is honor in righteous poverty.
Margaret: And how does that taste between two bits of bread?

[fresiaa]

On ‎13‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 11:08 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Mrs. Scanwell: Mock if you will. There is honor in righteous poverty.
Margaret: And how does that taste between two bits of bread?

Mrs Scanwell: Better than roast pheasant from the devils table.

Margaret: What about a bit of stew from mine?

Mrs Scanwell: I am sure it can be purified through prayer

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Margaret: [Hunt]'s a cunt.
Nancy: Didn't even bring me any flowers.
Margaret: Tried to catch us in the act.
Nancy: Of what? I haven't had a decent fuck since I've been here.

Lucy: Who's Persephone, Nance?
Nancy: She's the stupid slut who ate the fruit of hell.

May: I only have a few rules, girls. No orgies, flagellation, or bestiality. Otherwise you are at liberty to entertain gentleman callers as you wish.

North: You sure you're going to be all right?
Nancy: You fret like an old crone.
North: I'm worried about you on your own.
Nancy: We're born alone, die alone. Some of us like it that way in between. Now piss off or fetch a glass and join me.

May: I only wish you had called on me.
Lydia: You wouldn't have paid a penny, nor would I.
May: In truth, no. Debts irritate friendship like fleas in a wig.

Margaret: Nell. You'd do well at mine.
Nell: Sorry, Mrs. Wells, maybe if you go a month without a murder.

Charlotte: Ten shillings for your services and ten for your silence.
Soldier: Yeah, but the job isn't finished.
Charlotte: It is for me.

Hunt: I fear we may have done the wrong thing, Mr. Oswald.
Oswald: I think you were right to make an example, sir. These places are steeped in sin. The girls are wretched, the men are brutes. Beneath contempt.
[Violet pours soup in Oswald's lap]
Hunt: Miss Cross!
Violet: You eat with a hypocrite, sir. I saw him this very day, rutting on the street with one of his wretched girls.
Hunt: Do you deny this, Mr. Oswald?
Violet: He fucked my poor friend Betsey to the pox house.

Holland: Oh, Miss Lacey. You were a vision before but now you're a dream in human form.
Emily: Such a scribe. Always using ten words when one would do.

Hunt: How does a girl end up in a bawdy house? I want to understand.
Violet: It's not obvious? She needs money or food or some bastard's coming for her with a mallet.

Hunt: I was surprised to see you this morning. I would not have thought the Wells house a fitting place.
Amelia: Charity comes from strange places.

North: Where'd you learn to fight like that?
Soldier: I was born fighting. Comes natural to a black boy raised in a white man's house.

Emily: A guinea.
Holland: Oh, you're priceless. And I'm late being paid, so here is five six shillings and a piece of cheese.

Lucy: What are your ma's hopes for you, then?
Amelia: I never thought. Uh she'd want me to rest in God's favor.
Lucy: And what do you want?
Amelia: I don't know. You?
Lucy: Money.

Margaret: I punched Lydia Quigley tonight.
Florence: I hope you punched her hard.

[SkateBettyDraper]

These are so great, well done, EB!!

I've been trying to find one tho that you've not listed, maybe you can help? ?

After Kitty's wake, when they're gathered in Mrs. Wells' kitchen, Mrs. Scanwell says something, innocently referring to Kitty's neck, about her "gash"...which of course cracks the rest of the assembled totally up, and leaving poor Mrs. Scanwell puzzled. Have you any idea what it was? 

(I apologize for what I'm sure comes across as sheer laziness but I actually don't have access to Hulu just at this moment...hopefully next paycheck ? )

Thanks in advance for any help!

[dleighg]

On 7/20/2018 at 10:30 AM, SkateBettyDraper said:

After Kitty's wake, when they're gathered in Mrs. Wells' kitchen, Mrs. Scanwell says something, innocently referring to Kitty's neck, about her "gash"...which of course cracks the rest of the assembled totally up, and leaving poor Mrs. Scanwell puzzled. Have you any idea what it was? 

 

I believe it is because "gash" is another (crude) synonym for "vagina." 

See "cunny."

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Charlotte: The whole of London's corrupt and [Hunt] thinks he's different.

Emily: Well, I'll be dicked. An apology from Margaret Wells.

Blayne: I've never known a harlot who seems to enjoy the act as much as the money.
Isabella: It's her job, perhaps she's just good at it.

I've never seen so much powder in my life.
Fanny:  The bigger the wig, the smaller the pintle.

Noah: I mean no offense, but that was really, really expensive.
Harriet: Well, I am. Because I'm exotic. 
Noah: Not exotic to me. 
Harriet: You're not getting a discount.
Noah: But you didn't enjoy it.
Harriet: That's not what I'm paid for.
Noah: Let me pleasure you for free, and you can pretend I'm whoever you want me to be.

Blayne: You saw my sister last night and I saw yours. What a strange dance we're all doing.

Charlotte: Why do you and your sister jostle like you do?
Blayne: Well, the dynamic of a family is hard to explain. How did you end up at Quigley's house when your mother has one of her own?
Charlotte: My family's dynamic is as inexplicable as yours.
Blayne: Then why do you not have a keeper?
Charlotte: My last one was killed. Understandably, it has put me off.

Dodds: Four cards. A risk-taker.
Lydia: In battle, it is the cowards who run the most risk.
Dodds: And bravery is a rampart of the defense. You know your Roman philosophy.
Lydia: I always preferred it to the Greek.
Dodds: The Greeks invented rational thought.
Lydia: Hmm. But the Romans had a greater empire. 
Dodds: I don't believe we've been introduced.
Isabella: Mrs. Quigley is a bawd. She's quite famous in her field, did you know that, my lord? Lord Dodds is the Lord Chief Justice.

Blayne: So have you made your decision?
Isabella: About what?
Blayne: I want to be Miss Wells' keeper.
Charlotte: It's an attractive offer but I value my freedom.
Blayne: 600 a year.
Isabella: Harcourt, you're being vulgar.
Blayne: Vulgar? You invited the brothel to the party.

Dodds: I now know why you revere our Latin forebears.
Lydia: My lord?
Dodds: They welcome prostitutes without moral qualm.

Dodds: Tally ho, Mrs. Quigley! Tally ho!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Charlotte: These people want honest jobs.
Lydia: They think they do, but who really wants to be a drudge for six pounds a year when they could live in splendor at Golden Square?

Fallon: How many have you had since [your first]?
Lucy: I'm a harlot. I don't keep count.

Lucy: I was thinking about Kitty, who killed her.
Fallon: These things befall the weak.
Lucy: You think it was her fault?
Fallon: There are hunters and there are prey. Killing is an art. A killer has a certain nobility, a superiority of character.
Lucy: I thought killing was a desperate act.
Fallon: Quite the contrary. It is the preserve of a select few.

Emily: Guilt money? I'll take it.

Margaret: A life lived in fear is a life not worth living.

Lydia: Virtue is a hindrance to a woman.

Charles: No true mother would attack her son's home.
Lydia: And no son of mine would be such a dull headed dupe.

Dodds: First you interrupt my whoring and then this warrant arrives!

Dodds: You want to raise a warrant on the strength of a button and the word of a whore?

Blayne: You want money.
Isabella: I always want money.
Blayne: Is Charlotte Wells blackmailing you?
Isabella: She saw me out riding naked and threatens to ruin my reputation.
Blayne: What's left of it.

Blayne: Are you blackmailing my sister?
Lydia: Blackmail is such a vulgar word. I am a keeper of secrets.

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Margaret: The law's as useless as pants on a man.

Violet: When you marry, Amelia will be your unpaid housekeeper so you won't need me.

Hunt: My men are out there now looking for witnesses. Whatever her mother may be, Amelia is blameless.
Margaret: From where I'm standing, all girls are blameless, even those with used cunnies like poor Kitty Carter.

[PinkRibbons]

It's actually "paps on a man". I make a point of watching with the subtitles on because the accents can blow right past my ear!

[pamplemousse]

This is from memory so sorry if it's not 100% correct but:

 

Lydia Quigley: Love is strongest when it's cruel.

 

Best line of both seasons IMO, knocked me back.

[nodorothyparker]

Quigley:  Your final lesson in being a bawd: Own what you have done.

There was just something about the way she delivered that line that hit the very essence of who she is as a character.

[PinkRibbons]

From 2.03, the exchange that made me love Cherry:

Cherry: You looking for new girls too?

Margaret: I might be.

Cherry: I pull a peg better than anyone in London. Culls will be queuing up, even if it is a cursed death house.

Margaret: A what?!

Cherry: It's just something I've heard...lucky for you, I don't scare easy.

Margaret: Cherry, you're not right for me. But I'll pay you sixpence for every girl you send 'round, and a shilling for talking the house up.

Cherry: I'll do that, till you see sense.

And from 2.04, Emily and Harriet scanning for new girls:

Emily (spotting Nell): Cor, she's a diamond!

Harriet: I thought we needed variation.

Emily: Do you know how many blonde blowsies there are in Soho? I just ride the pole better than any of them. Don't let a little competition scare you.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lydia: If death is the worst thing you can contemplate, you have not yet known suffering.

Lydia: Charles, you may have pricked the dough, but it is the baker who bakes the bread.

Nancy: I'll tup him and you hit him on the head.
Margaret: What will he find down there? Cobwebs?
Nancy: A fucking mousetrap.

Margaret: Soon I will be dead and you will still be more putrid than I.

Dodds: Lady Isabella, surely you don't lend your name to such an absurd plea?
Isabella: I find men who visit brothels absurd.
Dodds: I beg your pardon?
Isabella: How absurd it is to pay for affection then enjoy it as if it were real.

Hunt: I will not hang Mrs. Wells while my betters are left free to slay with impunity.

Hunt: I'm truly sorry, Mrs. Wells.
Nancy: Shove it up your hole!

Emily: I can't rely on Charles. His seed might be as dopey as he is.

Isabella: Your uncle is a monstrous incubus.

Margaret: The law says you must hang me.
Hunt: The law is ink placed on parchment by rich, self-serving rich men.

[heckkitty]

13 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Emily: I can't rely on Charles. His seed might be as dopey as he is.

The scene right before these of Emily boredly screwing a series of culls in the street to try to get pregnant was hilarious! Rolling her eyes, picking her teeth, etc.  much needed levity in this episode!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Nancy: Your ma found her love. So will you and Lucy.
Charlotte: Did you find yours?
Nancy: I loved your ma, you silly cunt.

[heckkitty]

I loved the poem Charlotte brought in to taunt Alfie.  I can’t reproduce it without a rewatch though; did anybody catch it?

[heckkitty]

I’m doing a rewatch. In the second episode of season 1:

Quigley: “When I want fatuous, dell-witted commentary, I will buy a parrot.”

Mary Cooper: “I want more gin, I want laudanum, I want five pounds, and I want a roast chicken”. I know she’s got the pox & everything, but that actress must have the time of her life playing Mary. 

Edited July 14, 2019 by heckkitty

[Hammerjaz]

Her soul is three shades blacker than your skin!!!!-Florence Scanwell to William North