Rochester: I shall never forgive you for teaching me how to love life.
King Charles II: I thought about putting you in the tower. I even considered putting your head on a spike. But I decided on something worse. I'm going to ignore you. I will no longer encourage any hope in my breast for you. I am condemning you to be you for the rest of your life.
King Charles II: The most advanced scientific instrument in western Europe. It cost £60,000. It tells the time in every corner of the globe. Understand? That is achievement. The man who did that was not continually pissed for the last three years.
Molly Luscombe: My lord, Alice Twoumy has sent word. Her child is sick and she shan't come.
Rochester: What was to be her role?
Molly Luscombe: She was playing "Little Clitoris."
Rochester: Of course. Alcock! This is your moment. You will stand in for her.
Alcock: No, my lord.
Rochester: I beg your pardon?
Alcock: I'm Alcock. "Little Clitoris" is beyond my range.
Elizabeth Barry: You see? I have gone too far. A trait which in you is fascinating but in me is a fault.
Rochester: Well freeze my piss if the royal finger ain't beckoning me. How exciting.
King Charles II: I handed you a chance to show your shining talent and what do you give me in return? A pornographic representation of a royal court where the men only deal in buggery and the women's sole object of interest is the dildo.
Rochester: A monument to your reign.
Elizabeth Malet: You abducted me in a coach like this when I was still a virgin heiress.
Rochester: And did you like abduction?
Elizabeth Malet: Passionately.
Rochester: But life is not a succession of urgent "nows." It's a listless trickle of "why should I's."
Rochester: I don't mean to upset people, but I must speak my mind. For what's in my mind is far more interesting than what's outside my mind.
Alcock: Makes you impossible to live with, though. You see?
Rochester: Did I once praise you for your blunt manner?
Alcock: It was your reason for employing me.
Rochester: It could as easy be your grounds for dismissal.
Rochester: What is your name?
Alcock: Alcock.
George Etherege: Like master, like servant.
Rochester: Ah, to die onstage at the hands of a beautiful woman.
Elizabeth Barry: I am no such.
Rochester: When I wake in the country, I dream of being in London. When I get here, it's full of people like you.
King Charles II: Your father spirited me out of England when my life was at stake, so I looked after him and after you.
Rochester: You put me in the Tower.
King Charles II: And I let you out. The time has come for you to pay your dues. People listen to you, Johnny. If you took your seat in the Lords, you could make great speeches that would influence events. Anyone can oppose, it's fun to be against things, but there comes a time when you have to start being for things as well.
