- [Pitt has given the King some papers to sign]
- George III: What is this? America, I suppose.
- Pitt: No, sir.
- George III: Oh, America's not to be spoken of, is that it?
- Pitt: For your peace of mind, sir. But it's not America.
- George III: Peace of mind! I have no peace of mind. I've had no peace of mind since we lost America. Forests, old as the world itself... meadows... plains... strange delicate flowers... immense solitudes... and all nature new to art... all ours... Mine. Gone. A paradise... lost.
- Dr. Willis: If the King refuses food, He will be restrained. If He claims to have no appetite, He will be restrained. If He swears and indulges in *meaningless discourse*... He will be restrained. If He throws off his bed-clothes, tears away His bandages, scratches at His sores, and if He does not strive *every* day and *always* towards His *own recovery*... then He must be restrained.
- George III: I am the King of England.
- Dr. Willis: *No*, sir. You are the *patient*.
- Dr. Willis: I have You in my eye, sir. And I shall *keep* You in my eye until You learn to behave and do as You're told.
- George III: I am the King. I tell, I am not *told*. I am the *verb*, sir, not the *object*.
- Thurlow: Your Majesty seems more yourself.
- George III: Do I? Yes, I do. I've always been myself, even when I was ill. Only now I seem myself. And that's the important thing. I have remembered how to seem. What, what.
- George III: Six hours of sleep is enough for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool!
- Fortnum: We've had three. We didn't go to bed until one.
- George III: Is that insolence, sir?
- Fortnum: No, sir. Arithmetic.
- George III: Is it any wonder a man goes mad? Doctors! 30 guineas a visit and travelling expenses, for six months of torture. They would have a man pay for his own execution, what, what?
- Queen Charlotte: George! Smile, you lazy hound. It's what you're paid for. Smile and wave. Come on. Smile and wave. Everybody, smile and wave. Smile! Wave!
- Prince of Wales: [pointing to medal] What's that one?
- Duke of York: Oh, I found out the other day that I'm Bishop of Osnabruck.
- [pause]
- Duke of York: Amazing what one is, really.
- Warren: When will you get it into your head that one can produce a copious, regular and exquisitely turned evacuation every day of the week and still be a stranger to reason.
- George III: When felons were induced to talk, they were shown first the instruments of their torture. The King is shown the instrument of His... to induce Him *not* to talk...
- Thurlow: The Prince of Wales cannot marry without the King's consent and he *cannot* marry a Catholic. You performed an illegal ceremony.
- Clergyman: [indignantly] And they only give me ten pound for it.
- Thurlow: Here's another ten pounds. Keep this to yourself.
- [Thurlow gives the clergyman money and starts tearing the page from the register]
- Clergyman: Here, you can't do that, it's against the law.
- Thurlow: I *am* the law.
- Pitt: We consider ourselves blessed in our constitution. We tell ourselves our Parliament is the envy of the world. But we live in the health and well-being of the sovereign as much as any vizier does the Sultan.
- [Pitt exits]
- Thurlow: [to Dundas] The Sultan orders it better. He has the son and heir strangled.
- Pitt: I used to sit with my father when he was ill. I used to read him Shakespeare.
- Dr. Willis: I have never read Shakespeare.
- [Pitt and Thurlow stare at Willis in shock]
- Dr. Willis: I am a clergyman.
- Thurlow: [to Dr. Willis] King Lear; do you think that is wise?
- Dr. Willis: I did not know what the play was about.
- George III: [signing a document] Married yet, Mr. Pitt, what what?
- Pitt: No, sir.
- George III: [blowing excess pounce off document] Got your eye on anybody then, hey?
- Pitt: No, sir.
- George III: [holding out the document, which Pitt retrieves while handing the king another one] A man should marry - yes, yes.
- [Pitt looks at the new document]
- George III: Best thing I ever did. And children, you see, children. Great comfort, of course.
- [George indicates the paper]
- George III: This fellow we're putting in as professor at Oxford - was his father Canon of Westminster?
- Pitt: I've no idea, sir.
- George III: Yes! Yes. Phillips. That's the father, this is the son. And the daughter married the organist at Norwich Cathedral. Sharpe. Yes, and their son is the painter. And the other son is a master at Eton. And he married somebody's niece.
- Pitt: Your Majesty's knowledge of even the lowliest of your appointments never ceases to astonish me.
- [George laughs as he signs the document]
- George III: What of the colonies, Mr. Pitt?
- Pitt: America is now a nation, sir.
- George III: Is it? Well. We must try and get used to it. I have known stranger things. I once saw a sheep with five legs...
- George III: By your dress, sir, and general demeanor, I'd say you were a minister of God.
- Dr. Willis: Oh, that's true, Your Majesty, I was once in the service of the Church. Now I practice medicine.
- George III: Well, I'm sorry for it. You've quitted a profession I've always loved and embraced one I most heartily *detest*.
- Dr. Willis: Our Savior went about healing the sick.
- George III: Yes... but He had not seven hundred pounds a year for it.
- George III: [laughing] Well, that's not bad for a madman.
- Thurlow: [referring to the Prince of Wales] It takes character to withstand the rigours of indolence.
- [Margaret Nicholson has attempted unsuccessfully to kill the King]
- Margaret Nicholson: I have a property due to me from the Crown of England!
- George III: The poor creature's mad. No, do not hurt her, she has not hurt me.
- Margaret Nicholson: Give me my property or the country will be drenched in blood!
- George III: Will it indeed, madam?
- [He picks up her extremely small knife]
- George III: Well, not with this. It's a fruit knife, wouldn't cut a cabbage.
- Margaret Nicholson: Oh.
- George III: [walking past a row of bowing courtiers] Elbow people! Knee gentlemen! Bending persons! Hand kissers!
- George III: [reading his speech at the State Opening of Parliament] Whereas we, George III, in this year of our Lord seventeen eighty-eight, do open this Parliament, giving notice that our will and pleasure is that the following bills shall be laid before this House. A bill for the regulation of trade with our possessions in North America...
- [Thurlow gives a reproving cough]
- George III: Our *former* possessions in North America...
- Fitzroy: To be kind does not commend you to kings. They see it, as they see any flow of feeling, as a liberty. A blind eye will serve you better.
- Baker: [shown the King's discoloured urine, evidence of his porphyria] Medicine, young man, is a *science*! It consists of *observation*! Whether a man's water is blue is neither here nor there.
- George III: Good evening, Mrs. King.
- Queen Charlotte: Good evening, Mr. King.
- George III: When we get this far, I call it dandy.
- Queen Charlotte: Yes, Mr. King.
- George III: I absolutely agree. As I agree with you, Mr Pitt, on everything. Apart from the place we mustn't mention. The colonies!
- Pitt: They're now called the United States, sir.
- George III: Are they? Goodness, me. The United States. Well, I haven't mentioned them. I prefer not to, whatever they're called.
- Baker: I sent over some senna. Was that given to him?
- Greville: Yes. The pain got worse.
- Baker: Whereabouts was the pain?
- Greville: Would it not be better to ask His Majesty that?
- Baker: How long have you been in waiting? I cannot address His Majesty until he addresses me! I cannot inquire after His Majesty's symptoms until he chooses to inform me of them.
- Greville: Sir George, whatever his situation, His Majesty is just a man.
- Baker: You're the King's equerry with radical notions like that? Good God! With any patient, I undertake a physical examination only as a last resort. It's an intolerable intrusion of a gentleman's privacy. With His Majesty, it's unthinkable!
- Willis: The state of monarchy and the state of lunacy share a frontier. Some of my lunatics fancy themselves kings. He - he's the King.
- Willis: I have you in my eye, Sir. And I shall keep you in my eye until you learn to do as you're told.
- George III: I am the King. I tell, I'm not told. I am the verb, Sir. I am not the object.
- George III: Did we? did-did, did we ever forget ourselves - utterly? Because, if we did forget ourselves I should so like to remember, what, what?
- Lady Pembroke: No, Sir. Your Majesty's behavior throughout was impeccable.
- George III: Hey, hey!
- Lady Pembroke: Like the kindest father, as well as the most generous of Sovereigns.
- George III: Good, good.
- George III: What's happened to Mr. Fox?
- [Pitt arches one eyebrow significantly]
- George III: Such a dodger. Reform! And too many ideas. Not like you, Mr. Pitt. You don't have ideas.
- [Pitt grits his teeth]
- Prince of Wales: Do you like music, Warren?
- Warren: [tonelessly] If it's played, sir, I listen to it.
- Prince of Wales: Assaulted by both one's parents in the same evening! What *is* family life coming to?
- George III: [crudely staring at Lady Pembroke's bosom] Fine cluster there, eh?
- George III: [to Queen Charlotte] Go on. Look. Look. Go on. You might learn something.
- George III: [circling around Lady Pembroke] Good arse too.
- George III: [rubbing his arse against Lady Pembroke's] And warm, eh, I'll bet. Ahh.
- Footman: The government is still in bed.
- Greville: No, I... I cannot do it ma'am. Besides, if Her Majesty sees him, he-he-he-he still utters such improprieties.
- Lady Pembroke: About what?
- Greville: About... uh... about you madam.
- Lady Pembroke: Tell me.
- Greville: I cannot say.
- Lady Pembroke: What is it His Majesty dreams of doing, Mr.Greville, hmm? Is it this?
- Greville: Please madam.
- Lady Pembroke: This?
- Greville: Ooh!
- Lady Pembroke: Or this?
- George III: Cold fish, Pitt. Never smiles.
- Queen Charlotte: Yet he works hard, though.
- George III: Never stops. Drinks, they say.
- Queen Charlotte: They all drink.
- Baker: Your Majesty will probably feel better after a warm bath and its settling effect on the spirit.
- George III: Well, you have one. Your spirit's more agitated than mine.