The London Season

Downton Abbey 4×9

Thomas Barrow: Marvelous, isn't it? One minute he's the chauffeur and in the normal way of things, he'd be below me now. But instead I have to wait on him hand and foot, standing there while he decides what might please him next.
Ivy Stuart: He never strikes me as being like that. He always seems friendly.
Thomas Barrow: But we still have to call him "sir."

Ethan Slade: Would you care for one of these? I think they're quite nice.
Mr. Carson: Have you lost your mind?!
Ethan Slade: Why? What have I done?
Mr. Carson: You're a footman, not a traveling salesman! Please keep your opinions on the catering to yourself!

Honorable Madeleine Allsopp: Do you know England well, Mr. Levinson?
Martha Levinson: Uh, not really. He hasn't been here since my daughter got married.
Harold Levinson: But don't worry, I'm well prepared for cold baths, warm drinks and, most of all, the food.

Tom Branson: The point is, we only went upstairs so she could enjoy the view down into the hall. I wouldn't want you to think any different.
Thomas Barrow: However you wish to command me, I am your servant, Mr. Branson. But I was not aware I was under orders as to what I might think.

Lord Merton: What changed your mind?
Isobel Crawley: Well, I suppose it came to me that these balls and presentations and comings out are not just aristocratic folderol, but traditions by which members of this family measure their progress through life.
Lord Merton: And you wanted to be part of that?
Isobel Crawley: Well, I felt by dismissing it as trivia, I was being smug and intolerant.
Lord Merton: Do they know what they have in you?
Isobel Crawley: I know what I have in them.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Cora insisted I come without a maid. I can't believe she understood the implications.
Isobel Crawley: Which are?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Well, how do I get a guard to take my luggage? And when we arrive in London, what happens then?
Isobel Crawley: Fear not. I have never traveled with a maid; you can share my knowledge of the jungle.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Can't you even offer help without sounding like a trumpeter on the peak of the moral high ground?
Isobel Crawley: And must you always sound like the sister of Marie Antoinette?
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: The Queen of Naples was a stalwart figure. I take it as a compliment.
Isobel Crawley: You take everything as a compliment.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: I advise you to do the same. It saves many an awkward moment.

Lady Rose MacClare: Mm, we're packed in like sardines, but I suppose it's not for long.
Mrs. Patmore: If the family's sardines, m'lady, the staff are like maggots.

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham: We should start the dancing, and I think it would be nice if you began it with Rose.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham: Family duty comes in many forms.

Mrs. Hughes: It's a lot of work. You'd better take James with you.
Mr. Carson: We can manage with Mr. Molesley for lunch. Would you mind?
Joseph Molesley: I'm a footman. I don't have the right to mind.
Mr. Carson: Thank you, Wat Tyler.

Lady Mary Crawley: Charles is on the other side of that struggle. He's an outsider who resents the very people I come from. Even if he loves me, how can we pull as a team?

Lord Billy Aysgarth: Don't you want to be Lady Aysgarth and rank alongside your daughter?
Martha Levinson: Lord Aysgarth, I'm a modern. I don't hanker for those days before the war. And I don't really want to spend the rest of my life among people who think me loud and opinionated and common.
Lord Billy Aysgarth: But I assure you, they wouldn't.
Martha Levinson: Well, yes, they would. And you know, they'd be right, because I think they are narrow and pompous and boring.

Lady Edith Crawley: So did you enjoy it? After all?
Tom Branson: I enjoyed it fine, but we need to stand up to them, you and I. We may love them, but if we don't fight our corner, they'll roll us out flat.

Martha Levinson: Well, actually, I turned him down.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh? You surprise me.
Martha Levinson: Mm-hmm, I'm sure. You see, I have no wish to be a Great Lady.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: No, a decision that must be reinforced whenever you look in the glass...
Martha Levinson: ... Violet? I don't mind looking in the mirror. Because what I see is a woman who's not afraid of the future. My world is coming nearer and your world? It's slipping further and further away. Good night.

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