St Clair Bayfield Quotes in Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

St Clair Bayfield: No mockers and no scoffers!

St Clair Bayfield: Singing at Carnegie Hall is her dream. And I am going to give it to her.

[First lines]

St Clair Bayfield: "Swounds I should take it, for it cannot be but I *am* pigeon-livered and lack gall to make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites with this slave's offal. Boody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O vengeance!"

[applause, takes a bow]

St Clair Bayfield: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. That was, of course, a speech of Hamlet's from a play I was lucky enough to perform in on several occasions, though not, as yet, in the principal role.

Florence Foster Jenkins: [dressed as Valkyre] How do I look?

St Clair Bayfield: Wunderbar.

St Clair Bayfield: In the hall, Madam Florence keeps a collection of chairs in which people of note have expired. They're not for practical use.

St Clair Bayfield: Are you fond of sandwiches?

Cosmé McMoon: Yes.

St Clair Bayfield: Good, good. Madam Florence is inordinately fond of sandwiches. And potato salad as well. When we throw parties we make mountains of the stuff. It would serve you well to consume both with enthusiasm.

Cosmé McMoon: I shall.

Carlo Edwards: Obviously I'll do my utmost to attend the concert, but I'll be away in Florida at some point.

St Clair Bayfield: Oh, right. When?

Carlo Edwards: Let me know when you've fixed a date.

St Clair Bayfield: Is her instrument quite what it was? Perhaps not. But as Beethoven said, a few wrong notes may be forgiven, but singing without feeling cannot.

Florence Foster Jenkins: Just hurry.

St Clair Bayfield: Yes, yes. There in a demisemiquaver.

St Clair Bayfield: You are not strong enough, Bunny. What if it kills you?

Florence Foster Jenkins: Then I shall die happy.

Cosmé McMoon: Mr. Bayfield, I am a serious pianist. I have ambition. I...

St Clair Bayfield: Oh, you think that I didn't have ambition? I was a good actor. But I was never going to be a great actor. It was very very hard to admit that to myself. But once I had, I felt free from the tyranny of ambition. I started to live. Is ours not a happy world, Cosmé? do we not have fun?

St Clair Bayfield: Will you be writing something?

Earl Wilson: Yes, and it will be the truth.

St Clair Bayfield: Isn't the truth that a lot of hurt people are having some fun?

St Clair Bayfield: [Doing breathing exercises with Florence before a concert]

St Clair Bayfield: Blow the candles out.

Florence Foster Jenkins: [breathes feebly]

St Clair Bayfield: Hate the candles!

Cosmé McMoon: Oh! I played Carnegie Hall. I... God darn it, Mr. Bayfield, Cosmé McMoon from San Antonio, Texas, played Carnegie Hall.

St Clair Bayfield: And he was brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant.

Cosmé McMoon: We did it.

St Clair Bayfield: Yes, I think we did.

[both laugh and raise their glasses]

St Clair Bayfield: Mud in your eye.

St Clair Bayfield: If you can forgive Madam Florence her little eccentricities, you'll find her to be a most generous and delightful person. Ours is a very happy world.