Sir Arthur Little Monologue from Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts

From Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

male · defiant · 1:11 min

This is not an occasion when one can afford to give a chance. It's hit or miss. If the man I choose is a failure the Khedive will never ask me to do such a thing for him again. I can't take any risks. (CHRISTINA: Will you tell me what qualifications Henry lacks to make him suitable for the post?) Certainly. It's true he speaks Arabic, but he doesn't understand the native mind. Grammars can't teach you that, my dear, only sympathy. He has the mind of an official. I often think that you must have swallowed a ramrod in early life and poor Henry was born with a foot-rule in his inside. (CHRISTINA: I am not amused, Arthur.) I have no doubt in course of time he'll become a very competent official, but he'll never be anything else. He lacks imagination, and that is just as necessary to a statesman as to a novelist. Finally he has no charm.

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