Lady Edith Crawley quotes from Downton Abbey

Lady Edith Crawley

[looks at her illegitimate daughter in her arms] Well, we're together, darling. And I know it's not ideal, but it's such an improvement on being apart that I think we should celebrate. I'll order ice cream, and a glass of champagne, and we'll be as jolly as you like!

Lady Edith Crawley

I thought it was supposed to be unsinkable.

Every mountain is unclimbable until someone climbs it; so every ship is unsinkable until it sinks.

Lady Edith Crawley

You were praying.

Lady Mary Crawley

Don't be ridiculous.

Lady Sybil Crawley

Doesn't it feel odd to have the rooms back?

Lady Edith Crawley

And only us to sit in them. I suppose we'll get used to it.

Lady Sybil Crawley

I don't want to get used to it.

Lady Edith Crawley

What do you mean?

Lady Sybil Crawley

I know what it is to work now. To have a full day, to be tired in a good way. I don't want to start dress fittings or paying calls or standing behind the guns.

Lady Edith Crawley

But how does one escape all that?

Lady Sybil Crawley

I think I've found a way to escape.

Lady Edith Crawley

Nothing too drastic, I hope.

Lady Sybil Crawley

It is drastic. There's no going back once I've done it, but that's what I want. No going back.

Lady Edith Crawley

I don't want to go back, either.

Lady Sybil Crawley

Then don't. You're far nicer than you were before the war, you know.

Lady Edith Crawley

Isn't it exciting?

At my age one must ration one's excitement. [notices Cora fussing about] I told her everything would come right but she wouldn't believe me.

Lady Edith Crawley

I still can't. Something happening in this house is actually about me.

I really think you should go to bed. No bride wants to look tired on her wedding. That means she's anxious or been up to no good.

Lady Edith Crawley

I won't sleep a wink.

Tonight or tomorrow?

Sybil, vulgarity is no substitute for wit.

[smirks at her grandmother] You started it. [she and Edith giggle]

Lady Edith Crawley

Now that the funeral's over, we ought to think about the christening. Do know what you'd like her to be called?

Tom Branson

I'd like to call her Sybil.

Matthew Crawley

Of course.

You don't think it might be a little painful?

Tom Branson

Very painful at first, but I think it's right. I want to remember her mother whenever I look at her.

Lady Edith Crawley

Of course you do. And she would want to be remembered. I'll go and see Mr. Travis this afternoon.

Tom Branson

Why Mr. Travis?

Lady Edith Crawley

To fix the date.

Tom Branson

But Sybil will be Catholic.

What?!

Tom Branson

My daughter is Irish and she'll be Catholic like her father.

Lady Edith Crawley

I'm sorry if this is inconvenient.

Michael Gregson

It's unexpected, not inconvenient.

Lady Edith Crawley

I suppose I'd better just say it.

Michael Gregson

Please do.

Lady Edith Crawley

I had the impression On my last visit, that you were flirting, giving signs that you found me attractive. If I'm wrong, then I apologize.

Michael Gregson

You're not wrong.

Lady Edith Crawley

But since then I have discovered that you are, in fact, married.

Michael Gregson

Yes.

Lady Edith Crawley

I'm afraid I find the idea of a married man flirting with me wholly repugnant. So you see, I must hand in my resignation at once.

Michael Gregson

No. It's true, I am married, but I hope you'll allow me to explain.

Lady Edith Crawley

Explain what? I am familiar with the institution of marriage.

Michael Gregson

Yes, but not with this one. My wife is in an asylum and she has been for some years. Lizzie was a wonderful person, and I loved her very much. Took me a long time to accept that the woman I knew was gone and wouldn't be coming back.

Lady Edith Crawley

Then why haven't you got a divorce?

Michael Gregson

I can't. A lunatic is not deemed responsible. She's neither the guilty nor the innocent party. It means that I'm tied for the rest of my life to a...a madwoman who doesn't even know me.

Lady Edith Crawley

You ought to see more of George.

Isobel Crawley

Poor George. What a burden he is born into. A baby rich as Croesus and a mother almost passed over.

Lady Edith Crawley

That's the law.

Isobel Crawley

It seems so strange. Matthew has always so meticulous.

Lady Edith Crawley

He thought that death was many years away and so it should have been. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me do it.

Isobel Crawley

I'm grateful. But, you see, when your only child dies, then you're not a mother anymore. You're not anything really.

Lady Edith Crawley

You're a grandmother. And I know you're going to be a wonderful one.

[reading] "My darling Mary. We are off to Duneagle in the morning, and I have suddenly realized I have never made a will, or anything like one, which seems pretty feeble for a lawyer. And you being pregnant makes it even more irresponsible--"

Mmm, I'm afraid I have to agree with that.

"I'll do it properly when I get back and tear this up before you ever see it. But I'll feel easier that I've recorded on paper that I wish you to be my sole heiress."

Lady Edith Crawley

What?

"I cannot know if our baby is a boy or a girl, but I do know it will be a baby if anything happens to me before I have drawn up a will. And so you must take charge. And now I shall sign this and get off home for dinner with you. What a lovely, lovely thought. Matthew."

Edith

I'm not even sure which frightens me most: What may have happened to Michael or the baby.

What do you propose to do?

Edith

It's...hard to say the words. But...I've decided to get rid of it.

How terrible that is to hear.

Edith

Please don't pretend you won't be relieved when I do.

Rosamund

I will support you whatever you decide. Just as Cora will and Robert.

Edith

That sounds like a speech from The Second Mrs. Tanquerary but you don't mean a word of it.

Rosamund

I do.

Edith

So I'd be welcome in your drawing room, would I? "Have you met my niece and her charming bastard?"

Rosamund

I refuse to be shocked.

Edith

It's not that I don't love him, you know. I do love him and I would have loved his baby. Bt I just can't see over the top of this.

Rosamund

No.

Edith

I don't want to be an outcast. Not some person people never talk about. Sybil might have brought it off but not me.

Rosamund

I can see that.

Edith

I can't go back to the nursery. Not with Mary's son and Sybil's daughter playing there. I can't do that. I won't be able to do that.

Lady Rosamund Painswick

Edith, should you be doing this?

Lady Edith Crawley

Why? What are you afraid of? That I'll lose the baby?

When are you going to London?

Lady Edith Crawley

Tomorrow. I must get some new clothes now I'm back to normal shape.

I...I know we never talk about the baby, but I realize it must be on your mind constantly.

Lady Edith Crawley

Can we please say "she" and not "it"?

I wish you hadn't been away so long.

Lady Edith Crawley

They thought it helped the baby to be weened by her real mother.

Yes. Well, I'm sure everything worked out for the best. After all your French must be superb.

Lady Edith Crawley

That's right, Granny. Let's get back to what really matters.

Lady Edith Crawley

But what about his child? Doesn't she have some rights?

Lady Rosamund Painswick

his child is not his child anymore. She belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder, and lives in Geneva with the rest of her family.

Lady Edith Crawley

That's all very well saying that, but it doesn't change anything.

Lady Rosamund Painswick

Only because you won't let it.