Capítulo 1 de 18 · 3'44"
The Dowager Countess stuns the family by announcing she owns a villa in the South of France and has given it to Sybbie. Why she never mentioned it, and why she won't refuse it, turn into a masterclass in aristocratic nerve: "who are we to argue?"
❝ Monólogo · 5 frases How the villa arrived
Sixty years of a transfer told as if it were a joke she almost forgot.
Violet Explains the Villa Gift
At Downton, the Dowager Countess tells the family she has come into possession of a villa in the South of France and has signed it over to her great-granddaughter Sybbie. The family presses her for the story, and she finally explains the eccentric gift from the Marquis de Montmirail more than sixty years ago.
The comedy of the scene is that Violet drops a fortune on the table as if it were nothing. A villa in the South of France, a dead marquis who signed it over to her decades ago, and she never bothered to mention it, because she thought it was a joke. The family scrambles for explanation, and she refuses to supply one: "when the truth is I do not know." What she will defend is the gift itself. When someone suggests she might have turned it down, she is almost offended: "Do I look as if I'd turn down a villa in the South of France?" and "who are we to argue?" Underneath the wit, she has also done something deliberate, redirecting the estate so that "darling Sybil's only daughter will inherit little, and I wanted to correct that." It is less an inheritance than a last act of fairness, delivered in the driest possible tone.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“I feel like Andromeda chained to a rock with you lot hovering over me.”
A mythic image for domestic pressure: the chained princess and the hovering crowd.
literary
“If her husband wanted me to have the place, who are we to argue?”
One condition, one rhetorical question, and the argument is closed.
Formal
“She considered it potty at the time and never gave it another thought.”
The whole arc of a strange affair: judged silly, then forgotten.
Neutral
“Do I look as if I'd turn down a villa in the South of France?”
Greed worn lightly: a rhetorical question that answers itself.
Informal
Years ago, before you were born, I was in France, and I met a man, the Marquis de Montmirail. And he invited me to spend some time at a villa he'd just bought. A year or so later, he wrote to me and said he'd transferred the villa into my name. I never thought he was serious, so I didn't pay any attention.
Downton Abbey: A New Era: tu progreso
Capítulo 1 de 18 · quedan unos 36 min
Siguiente · 02take a dim viewLa escena: Jack Barber Pitches Filming at DowntonThe Marquis de Montmirail, whom she met in France more than sixty years earlier, transferred the villa into her name. She assumed it was a joke and ignored it.
She says Sybil's only daughter would otherwise inherit very little, while the other grandchildren are provided for, so she wants to correct an unfair division.
She argues that the marquis wanted her to have it, so questioning the gift is pointless. She also jokes that no one would turn down a villa in the South of France.
His widow and son are upset that the villa went to Violet, and the widow is keen to take the matter to court.
It means there is no good reason to object. Violet uses it to say that since the marquis made the gift, the family has no right to dispute it.
