In what comic play does the hero pose as his friend Jack's fictitious brother in order to court his friend's ward, Cecily?

ODonnell

O'Donnell says: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Oscar Wilde, The first act takes place in Algernon's flat in town. His friend Ernest Worthing, who normally lives in the countryside, visits him. Algernon announces that his aunt will come to tea with her daughter Gwendolen being in love with Ernest. Algernon is the cousin of Gwendolen and wants to disapprove the planned proposing of Ernest to Gwendolen as long as Ernest doesn't tell him about a certain Cecily he's interested in. Of course Ernest doesn't want to talk about this topic because he has something to conceal. But unfortunately he forgot his cigarette case when he visited Algernon the last time. This cigarette case unveils Ernest's real name he hid until now: Jack. Because in town Jack is known as Ernest everywhere, he tells Algernon everything about his double life after Algernon admitted having a little secret of his own. So Jack tells Algernon that he was adopted by Thomas Cardew whose grand-daughter Cecily has been made the ward of Jack, and that he is Ernest in town and Jack in the country to have the possibility to flee from one location to the other if he needs a changing or if he is in trouble in one place. So, if he is in the country, he says that he has a younger brother called Ernest in town who needs some help, and now he's able to go to town where he pretends being Ernest. As soon as he wants to go back to the country he can play the same game the other way round. Algernon confesses having done the same thing called 'Bunburying,' having a younger brother called Bunbury with an extremely bad health in order to get from town to the country. As soon as he has heard of Cecily, he wants to know where she lives. They start to discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of their double lives. Fri Apr 07 20:13:16 CDT 2000 (Delete Entry) (Reposted to ODonnell for credit - McG) Apr 07 02, 3:20 PM