The Other Boleyn Girl Quotes

Sir Thomas Boleyn: [regarding the punishment for Anne's secret marriage] You will be sent to France and stay there until you've learned your lesson.

Anne Boleyn: What? No! Father, please!

Sir Thomas Boleyn: How can you have done this? You knew full well that Mary's friendship with the king is at an extremely delicate state! Any scandal, any mark upon her name could be fatal!

The Duke of Norfolk: You will be sent to join the court of the French queen and stay there until your father has forgiven you.

Anne Boleyn: [crying, runs into the hall where Mary is waiting] You told them didn't you?

Mary Boleyn: It was for your own good. You never would have gotten away with it. It would have ruined your prospects forever.

Anne Boleyn: [still crying] Really? For my good? Well, I'll try to remind myself of that while I'm in exile, and you're here in the king's bed, not challenged for our father's affection! That it was for my good and not yours!

[running down the hall, leaving Mary]

Mary Boleyn: Anne!

[from trailer]

Anne Boleyn: [to her brother, George] You're my only hope. My life depends on it!

Katherine of Aragon: [being led to court; stops in front of Mary and Anne] So, the Boleyn whores. Two former ladies of mine. Hiding in shadows. What did I do to upset you, that you should turn against me like this?

Anne Boleyn: [nose in the air] You failed to give England an heir.

Katherine of Aragon: And that upsets you so?

Anne Boleyn: What upsets the King upsets me.

Katherine of Aragon: How dare you.

Mary Boleyn: You know I love him...

Anne Boleyn: Well, I guess you'll have to stop.

Anne Boleyn: Masters, I here humbly submit to the law, as the law hath judged me. As for my offenses, God knows them, and I remit them to God, beseeching Him to have mercy on my soul. I beseech Jesus, save my Sovereign and master, the King, the goodliest and gentlest master there ever was.

[begins crying after seeing Mary read the King's note; takes off her hood, cape and necklace with shaking hands]

Anne Boleyn: [kneeling] Sweet Jesus, my God, have mercy on me.

Mary Boleyn: [as she enters the room] Anne.

Anne Boleyn: I meant to come sooner. I'm sorry I did not. I've been kept occupied.

Mary Boleyn: So I hear: amusing the king.

Anne Boleyn: Only that sister, I assure you; despite his best efforts...

Mary Boleyn: What, and not yours?

Anne Boleyn: [is silent for a moment] How is it?

[glances towards Mary's belly]

Mary Boleyn: The child is strong, gives me no rest, like his father.

Anne Boleyn: Do you feel as awful as you look? You know, in France, no woman would allow herself to get in such a state.

Mary Boleyn: Why did you come Anne, if all you desire is to torment me?

Anne Boleyn: Perhaps now you know how it feels: to be deceived by your sister.

Mary Boleyn: I did nothing.

Anne Boleyn: You stole the king away, and then you betrayed me over Henry Percy!

Mary Boleyn: If that's what you think fine tell yourself that!

Anne Boleyn: I did sister, every day and every night I was in exile.

King's Messenger: [Messenger walks in, holding a gift] A gift, from the king.

Anne Boleyn: Give it to my sister.

King's Messenger: It's for you mistress Anne.

Anne Boleyn: Me? Then send it back! Immediately!

[looks at Mary]

Anne Boleyn: How dare he! See? I have your interest at heart.

Mary Boleyn: Why? Why this cruelty? You know I love him.

Anne Boleyn: Well perhaps you should stop.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Alright, now, open!

[advising Mary to open her eyes]

Sir Thomas Boleyn: I am to become an earl, your brother a viscount. In addition, we have received a number of new grants and estates, so are debts are paid and there's more: George, the king will arrange a match between you and Jane Parker.

George Boleyn: [frantic] I beg you father, no.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: I thought you had ambitions for this family. The girl is well connected, her fathers' cousin to the king.

George Boleyn: Must I actually marry her?

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Of course you must marry her. Have you no pride? Or would you rather leave everything to Mary?

Mary Boleyn: [in Henry's bedchamber] So, this is it?... Where the king of England sleeps?

King Henry VIII: And reads and writes. Finds a few moments each day to himself.

Mary Boleyn: [nervously] And yet you invite me here?

King Henry VIII: Because I like you and trust you.

Mary Boleyn: You hardly know me.

King Henry VIII: I have lied to a hundred times a day. Petitioned. Lobbied. One learns how to decifer a face.

[caresses Mary's face]

King Henry VIII: Yours is as the sun. One shouldn't gaze too long.

[pauses]

King Henry VIII: My flattery makes you uncomfortable?... Because compliments in your family are usually for someone else. The elder sister... That's something I understand. What it is to be the second child. Forever in the shadows... I'm making you uncomfortable again.

[Mary smiles, shaking her head as Henry leans in and kisses her]

Mary Boleyn: Mother, please! Speak to father... Do something... I don't want to go!

Lady Elizabeth: This is not a request. We have been summoned.

[gets up and leaves the room]

Mary Boleyn: [to Anne] Please don't be angry with me... You think I desired to go for this purpose?

Anne Boleyn: All I know is that a man who didn't know who you were was with you in that room for a half-hour and came out besotted!

[starts to leave]

Anne Boleyn: Don't know what you said or did!

Mary Boleyn: Nothing sister! Except sing your praises and talk about my husband.

Anne Boleyn: Really? Well, you must show me how you did that sometime!

[leaves the room]

Anne Boleyn: [in the Tower] You'll look after Elizabeth.

Mary Boleyn: [embracing Anne] It will never come to that.

William Carey: [dancing] Are you happy?

Mary Boleyn: [smiling] I am.

Anne Boleyn: [on Mary's wedding night] You afraid?

Mary Boleyn: A little.

Anne Boleyn: I should be able to tell you how it will be tonight; give you advice on what to do. I failed you as an elder sister.

Mary Boleyn: No one could wish for a better sister.

Katherine of Aragon: [to the physician, exhausted in childbed] Was it a boy?

Physician: [nods] Stillborn... Your Majesty.

Katherine of Aragon: [to her daughter, Princess Mary] No brother for you, to make this country safe. I'm sorry.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: [first lines - strolling through the woods with his wife while the children playfully race through the sunlit fields] I received a request for marriage today for Anne from the Carey family. William, their eldest son.

Lady Elizabeth: Oh, that's wonderful.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: I turned it down. Offered them Mary instead. Everyone improves the standing of their family with their daughters. I think Anne can do better than a merchant's son.

Lady Elizabeth: [exasperated exhalation] And Mary can't? I think you underestimate her.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Oh no, that's not true. I think she's the kinder of the two, quite possibly the fairer. To get ahead in this world, you need more than fair looks and a kind heart.

Young Anne: [after overtaking Mary] I beat you, I beat you!

Young Mary: Hey!

[all three children then fall down in a heap laughing]

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Well done, Anne. Well done, children.

King Henry VIII: [talking in secret] Your sister is gone as you wished. Will you give yourself to me now?

Anne Boleyn: No. When you are loyal to me above all others.

King Henry VIII: But I am.

Anne Boleyn: No. You are loyal to the queen above all others.

King Henry VIII: I barely see Katherine.

Anne Boleyn: But she sits on a throne beside you. Your right hand in matters of state.

King Henry VIII: For appearances' sake only.

Anne Boleyn: Still, she is your queen. And ever present.

[pauses]

Anne Boleyn: I feel her eyes on me. And those of her spies. Look at us. Forever reduced to meeting in secret like this. Speaking in whispers. Hardly conducive to passion.

King Henry VIII: What would you have me do, then?

King Henry VIII: [during a supper in the banquet hall, to Anne] What's so amusing?

Anne Boleyn: I was merely offering my thoughts on the new French king. With such great power, yet such meager authority as a man.

King Henry VIII: [intrigued] Continue.

Anne Boleyn: [slowly walking forward] His pettiness is astounding. He will bear a mortal grudge at the mildest of slights. Spoiled cub with a spike in his paw. Riveted with resentment. Unable to forgive or forget. A great king, a great man rises above such things.

King Henry VIII: And what would you know of great men?

Anne Boleyn: [never taking her eyes from Henry's] I've read enough books and heard enough talk to believe I'd know one if he were before me.

King Henry VIII: Then look about you. I am curious. Do you see one here?

Anne Boleyn: [approaches him, still not looking away] Looking my lord... still looking, my lord.

[pauses in front of the King]

Anne Boleyn: Ah! There. Found one.

King Henry VIII: [laughs to himself as the subjects in the room start to laugh]

Lady Elizabeth: [after the King marches in, angry] Your Grace.

King Henry VIII: Your daughter, where is she?

Lady Elizabeth: [Quietly to her servants] Leave us.

King Henry VIII: Where is she?

Lady Elizabeth: Which one?

[Stares coldly as she walks forward]

Lady Elizabeth: Your Grace, which one?

King Henry VIII: Anne!

Anne Boleyn: Your Grace?

King Henry VIII: You received my gifts?

Anne Boleyn: Yes

King Henry VIII: And? Do they not please you?

Anne Boleyn: On the contrary, my lord, they please me greatly

King Henry VIII: Then why do you insult me by returning them?

Anne Boleyn: Because you insult me by sending them at all!

The Duke of Norfolk: Damn you! Not a single detail was left to chance! And now the moment of our greatest glory...!

Anne Boleyn: Glory? What glory? A mistress gave a man a bastard, no more.

The Duke of Norfolk: A male bastard, a son!

Anne Boleyn: The queen may yet give birth to a son.

The Duke of Norfolk: The queen no longer bleeds!

Anne Boleyn: Can you be sure?

The Duke of Norfolk: One of her physicians, and the moment this family provides him with a son he turned his back to it on your account! You better have a plan, girl! And that plan better work!

Anne Boleyn: Or what, uncle?

Lady Elizabeth: Enough, both of you! And what about Mary, hum? And her child? Or have you forgotten about them already?

Anne Boleyn: Mary and her bastard child will go back to the country. It is the king's wish... and mine.

Lady Elizabeth: Very well, and you can be the one to tell her. I think you've earned that privilege.

Mary Boleyn: How can you show your face in here? My own sister... take care, because he would only do to you what he has done to me

Anne Boleyn: You should not have given yourself so lightly, these are the consequences.

Mary Boleyn: I gave myself to a man I loved, and he loved me.

Anne Boleyn: A man's love is worthless. Our mother's loved, look where it got her, a feeble husband. Love is of no value without power and position. If I gave the king a son, he would not be a bastard.

Mary Boleyn: [after Anne tells her how to secure her position] What you suggest is treason! He cannot marry you, he has his queen!

Anne Boleyn: [Smiling coldly] Who cannot produce a male heir

Mary Boleyn: You've reached too high! As always!

Anne Boleyn: The king will deal with Catherine, you'll hear about it from where I'm standing. You are to go back to Rocher, isn't that what you've always wanted? A life in the country, alone with your child.

[She leaves, later, Mary will see her once free-riding sister sitting behind the King on a horse]

Sir Thomas Boleyn: [Refering to Anne's previous secret marriage] I knew this would come back to haunt us!

Anne Boleyn: I must go to the king...

Sir Thomas Boleyn: No, he doesn't want to see you, he doesn't want to hear a word from your lips! He won't even talk to me! The only Boelyn he will talk to, the only person whose testimony he would trust, is Mary!

Anne Boleyn: [Coldly] Then bring her here, now!

King Henry VIII: [Refering to Anne] I need to be certain, can I trust her?

Mary Boleyn: Why would you not?

King Henry VIII: Usually my instincts are sharp, but with your sister, she has a power over me.

Mary Boleyn: [Refering to the Queen] The crowds are with her.

Anne Boleyn: [Confidently] The crowds have no vote.

Anne Boleyn: [Discussing politics with her family] And risking civil war, the very thing Henry fears most. Somehow, I need to make him understand that this will be worth it. When I am his queen, and give him a son.

[She ignores the shocked looks of her family]

King Henry VIII: I have torn this country apart for you!

Anne Boleyn: For which you should thank me, not be angry!

King Henry VIII: Broken with Rome...

Anne Boleyn: Freed yourself, more like, from the decadence of a corrupt church

King Henry VIII: Got rid of a good woman in the queen...

Anne Boleyn: And with Spanish blood shackles you to Rome

King Henry VIII: Of which I would be excommunicated...

Anne Boleyn: And instead, become head of a new church! The Church of England!

William Stafford: If you came with me, I would never betray you or take you for granted.

Mary Boleyn: It's impossible, you know that. My family would never allow it.

William Stafford: And you would care what they think after everything they've done to you?

Lady Elizabeth: My children, my children...

[Turns around and slaps her husband, then walks towards her brother without any sign of hysteria]

Lady Elizabeth: Look what you've done.

King Henry VIII: I would do nothing to hurt any part of you.

[a grateful Mary kneels down to him, he looks away]

King Henry VIII: Go

Anne Boleyn: Henry Percy

George Boleyn: [Teasingly] Why ever would he interest you? What could you possibly want with the sole heir to the richest earldom in the whole of England?

Anne Boleyn: [Jokingly] Oh I have no knowledge of that! I simply like his face!

George Boleyn: Well, he's betrothed

Anne Boleyn: Betrothed is not married. It's a long journey from bended knee to the altar.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Easy for you to say! You've had position and wealth all your life!

Lady Elizabeth: Until I married you, Thomas, and I was happy to give it all for love.

King Henry VIII: [Before the hunt] With no man to hold onto how do you plan to stay on your horse?

Anne Boleyn: [She gets on her own horse] As you do Your Grace, with my thighs.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: The king has secured for you a position in the queen's household

Mary Boleyn: But I don't want to go to court, nor does my husband

William Carey: The king has also offered me a position, as a gentleman of the Privy Council

Sir Thomas Boleyn: You hear that Mary? Privy Council, tending upon his Majesty himself

Mary Boleyn: What about our future in the country?

The Duke of Norfolk: Oh, you must put that out of your mind. From now on your future is at court.

Mary Boleyn: William please, don't you understand what this means? They'll seperate us, put me in different accommadation where the king can always find me

The Duke of Norfolk: Happily your husband understands the value of such an oppurtunity, for us all

George Boleyn: It's embarrassing.

Anne Boleyn: Look, she has her eye on you. Sweet Jane Parker would be a match to please our father.

George Boleyn: Ugh, vile girl, she's the most ambitious little servant in court.

Anne Boleyn: She can't stop watching.

Mary Boleyn: How are you Stafford?

William Stafford: I'm well, thank you.

[pause]

William Stafford: I'm not sure I'm one for court though... I'm a little homesick.

Mary Boleyn: Well, you and I both.

William Stafford: In my view, it changes people... and not necessary for the better. Your sister though is thriving. She's truly caught the eye of Henry Percy.

Mary Boleyn: Why does she do this? He's already taken.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Would a smile be too much to ask?

Lady Elizabeth: What's there to smile about? I'm a mother of a child ordered to marry a girl he hates, another banished aboard in disgrace, and a third whoring in public with an adulteer. You say you are concerned for her happiness, will Mary be happy when he leaves her? Because you know that will happen in the end.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Only God knows how anything will end.

Lady Elizabeth: God? He turned his back on all this a long time ago.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: These rooms, our new position? Does none of my work please you?

Lady Elizabeth: These gifts, this favor will go as swiftly as it came. These rooms once belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, the King's closest friend. His head now rots on a spike.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: He committed treason.

Lady Elizabeth: Treason? What is treason? Anything the king or his lawyers decide it to be. On a whim.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: And these rooms, our new position? Does none of my work please you?

Lady Elizabeth: These gifts, this favour will go as swiftly as it came. These rooms belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, the king's closest friend. His head now rots on a spike.

King Henry VIII: Anne, have you considered what I've asked? Is there hope?

Anne Boleyn: How could I ever trust you, when I've seen how you betray first your wife, now my sister?

King Henry VIII: Why are you here for her?

Mary Boleyn: Because she is my sister, and therefore one half of me.

[deleted scene]

William Carey: Have you christened the child?

Mary Boleyn: Henry.

William Carey: I see. And is he to take my name or is he to be a Fitzroyal or some other sign that he's a royal bastard?

Mary Boleyn: He is to be Henry Carey.

William Carey: [looking up at her] To think, all you needed to say was no.

William Carey: [begins weeping] Can you forgive me? Although I could never forgive myself.

[Mary takes his hand and he kisses it]

George Boleyn: You look adequate.

Anne Boleyn: Not too adequate, I hope. This is our sister's day. One wouldn't want to outshine her.

Anne Boleyn: So how was it, the wedding night?

Mary Boleyn: It was very satisfactory.

Anne Boleyn: Really? William Carey, a good lover.

Mary Boleyn: Yes. Oh, God. He was in rather a hurry. And he snores!

Anne Boleyn: No.

Mary Boleyn: He got up in the middle of the night and used a pisspot by the side of the bed. It was awful!

Anne Boleyn: Last night, our father put his trust in me and - gave me a commission.

Mary Boleyn: Tell, tell.

Anne Boleyn: To divert the King. The King of England himself, on his visit.

Mary Boleyn: Divert him?

Anne Boleyn: Divert him. Beguile him. Enchant him.

Mary Boleyn: He has a wife.

Anne Boleyn: I know. But who knows what could happen? If he liked me, I'd be married off to a Duke. I could be a happy Duchess.

Anne Boleyn: Do you think he'll like me?

Mary Boleyn: Course he will, sister. How could he not?

King Henry VIII: You don't think he'll miss court? A young ambitious man.

Mary Boleyn: He says not, Your Majesty. But if he ever changed his mind, as his wife, of course, I would do his bidding.

Lady in Waiting: Appointed by His Majesty the King.

Mary Boleyn: By my husband? Really? Well, then she must be some kind of gift or surprise. He must have seen in her some talent he knew would please me. Tell me. What special talent is it that you have apart from your obvious youth and beauty?

Mary Boleyn: I...

Katherine of Aragon: Poetry, perhaps?

Mary Boleyn: No.

Katherine of Aragon: Or dressmaking?

Mary Boleyn: No.

Katherine of Aragon: Singing then, surely?

Mary Boleyn: No, Your Majesty.

Katherine of Aragon: Come, you're too modest. Sing for us.

Mary Boleyn: Really, I beg you.

Katherine of Aragon: Sing!

Mary Boleyn: [singing] Western wind, When will thou blow...

Mary Boleyn: It should be you in my place.

Anne Boleyn: Don't concern yourself with me. I'll make my own way. Shall I walk with you?

Mary Boleyn: No need.

Anne Boleyn: Try to please him. If you can.

The Duke of Norfolk: Did he have you?

Mary Boleyn: Yes.

William Stafford: More than once?

The Duke of Norfolk: You better get used to talking about it. When you sleep with the King, it ceases to be a private matter.

Mary Boleyn: Yes, more than once.

The Duke of Norfolk: And was he satisfied?

Mary Boleyn: I believe so.

The Duke of Norfolk: Did he say so?

Mary Boleyn: He did not need to, Uncle.

The Duke of Norfolk: Now our work begins. It's one thing to catch a king, quite another to keep him. She must be well-read, know her music, excel in company, and she must be clean.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Anne will see to it.

Lady Elizabeth: See to what? Mary is already all of these things. Thanks to the education I have given her. And for what? She may be traded like cattle for the advancement and amusement of men?

King Henry VIII: If I gave your husband an assignment that took him away from court - would you object?

Mary Boleyn: I would not presume to interfere in affairs of State.

Anne Boleyn: You cannot undo what has been done before God. And consummated too!

Sir Thomas Boleyn: There have been - improper intimacies?

Anne Boleyn: I have lain with my husband. There's nothing improper about it.

The Duke of Norfolk: Now that Mary is lying-in, the King will no longer bed her. Out of compassion, he'll visit her every day for, what, a week? The Queen will have his head spinning with pretty little Spanish things. Not to mention the Seymours and that milky-faced girl of theirs. We must influence him in our favor with whatever means we have. Yes?

Sir Thomas Boleyn: Well, I - I was going to suggest - Anne.

King Henry VIII: So forgiveness, you say, makes a man great. What else?

Anne Boleyn: Generosity. Humility. The ability to recognize his match in others and not be threatened by it.

King Henry VIII: You believe that? That women can be the match of men?

Anne Boleyn: It's a question women have asked themselves for some time. But we concede men do have some value. So we accept them as equal.

King Henry VIII: I find you much changed, Mistress Anne.

Anne Boleyn: Then my prayers have been answered.

King Henry VIII: Another talent picked up in France?

Anne Boleyn: The Queen offers her ladies a broad education.

King Henry VIII: I hope you kept your ears shut.

Anne Boleyn: I did. And a cross - close to my heart - at all times.

King Henry VIII: Will you give yourself to me now?

Anne Boleyn: My Lord. I desire nothing more. But, as long as we remain unmarried, any child I gave you would be dubbed "bastard." And I a whore. Do you really wish that for me?

Anne Boleyn: How was he with you?

Mary Boleyn: He was tender, surprisingly so.

Anne Boleyn: They say he's with Jane Seymour now. Is it true?

Mary Boleyn: No.

Anne Boleyn: Thank you. A generous lie.