Nigel Hawthorne credited as playing...
George III
- [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?
- 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...
- 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.
- [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...
- 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.
- 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.