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Notes about Notes (or, Funding 'the Funds')

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There are a few references to money in The Importance of Being Earnest , usually regarding whether or not one has some, generally followed by a clever quip. (Are 'food' and 'money' the 'death' and 'taxes' of Earnest /Oscar Wilde? Hmm.) Let's see if we can bring in a little clarity. Cecily Cardew's fortune is valued at '130,000 pounds in the funds.' The Funds were another name for the British national debt. When investors put their money 'in the funds' (or invested it in government stocks which paid against the national debt) they were guaranteed an annual return from the government of 3-5% (which led to the nicknames 'the three-percenters' and 'the five-percenters'). It was an extremely stable investment, and therefore very popular. People could have made more putting their money in other stocks, investment schemes, or even banks, but nothing else was as secure on the return as the funds. This means that Ceci...
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Lady Bracknell - So Important She Has Her Own Time Zone

Dear Cast of The Importance of Being Earnest , I hope you're proud of yourselves. I really do, because I TOTALLY AM! It's like you've solved the mystery of the pyramids! Only not, since this is only a 120-year-old play, and those have been around for millennia. But you did DISCOVER a mystery that no one else seems to have noticed in over a century! Although I guess it's not really that mysterious. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME AND YOU BROKE MY BRAIN. (But I'm fine now.) So the first question I got from y'all was about that weird little timeline issue in the first act where Lady Bracknell gets all up in Jack's bid'ness (does anybody still say that anymore? No? OK then) and then storms out with a frosty 'Good morning!' even though it's actually somewhere between 5:30 and 'nearly seven' in the evening. I was pretty excited - these nit-picky little research questions are MY bread and butter (bless you, Gwe...
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The Lords and Ladies

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The Importance of Being Earnest is riddled (lightly) with references to 'Lord' this and 'Lady' that, ' Honorable' and 'Sir' and so on. A fairly typical element of a 'comedy of manners' is that it deals with at least a few cha racters of the 'upper class', and your standard modern historical romance has invented a Duke (they're the most popular, currently) or at least an Earl. So what is all this snooty upper-crusting about? Allow me to explain. No, there is too much - let me sum up. The British aristocracy consist of peers/nobility and their families. Traditional rights included inherited positions in Parliament’s House of Lords, designation in the formal order of precedence, and the right to certain titles (or collection of titles). Also traditionally, these titles included land ownership and income from the rents on these lands. The given titles, in order of precedence, are: Duke (Duchess), Marquess (Marchioness), Earl (C...
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