# Candida: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> George Bernard Shaw. 7 speaking roles, 14,430 words, about 103 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/candida
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Morell** has the most to say in Candida: about 501 lines and 3,991 words, 27.7% of the play. Candida is Shaw’s comedy about a clergyman, his wife, and the young poet who falls in love with her. The three leads share the play: Morell has the most words, Marchbanks has a quarter, and Candida about a fifth. With only seven speaking roles, all six main parts speak in every act.

- Speaking roles: 7
- Scenes: 3
- Words: 14,430
- Speech time: 103 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Morell | 501 | 3,991 | 27.7% | 28.5 | 3 |
| Marchbanks | 452 | 3,611 | 25% | 25.8 | 3 |
| Candida | 374 | 3,056 | 21.2% | 21.8 | 3 |
| Burgess | 242 | 2,043 | 14.2% | 14.6 | 3 |
| Proserpine | 150 | 1,093 | 7.6% | 7.8 | 3 |
| Lexy | 79 | 596 | 4.1% | 4.3 | 3 |
| A Woman’s Voice | 4 | 40 | 0.3% | 0.3 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: Act 1 = Act 1; Act 2 = Act 2; Act 3 = Act 3.

- **Morell**: Act 1 (2,208), Act 2 (803), Act 3 (980)
- **Marchbanks**: Act 1 (1,081), Act 2 (1,009), Act 3 (1,521)
- **Candida**: Act 1 (442), Act 2 (1,232), Act 3 (1,382)
- **Burgess**: Act 1 (1,073), Act 2 (836), Act 3 (134)
- **Proserpine**: Act 1 (483), Act 2 (522), Act 3 (88)
- **Lexy**: Act 1 (294), Act 2 (198), Act 3 (104)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Candida: “Never mind that just at present. Now I want you to look at this other boy here—my boy—spoiled from his cradle. We go once a fortnight to see his parents. You should come with us, Eugene, and see the pictures of the hero of that household. James as a baby! the most wonderful of all babies. James holding his first school prize, won at the ripe age of eight! James as the captain of his eleven! James in his first frock coat! James under all sorts of glorious circumstances! You know how strong he is (I hope he didn’t hurt you)—how clever he is—how happy! Ask James’s mother and his three sisters what it cost to save James the trouble of doing anything but be strong and clever and happy. Ask me what it costs to be James’s mother and three sisters and wife and mother to his children all in one. Ask Prossy and Maria how troublesome the house is even when we have no visitors to help us to slice the onions. Ask the tradesmen who want to worry James and spoil his beautiful sermons who it is that puts them off. When there is money to give, he gives it: when there is money to refuse, I refuse it. I build a castle of comfort and indulgence and love for him, and stand sentinel always to keep little vulgar cares out. I make him master here, though he does not know it, and could not tell you a moment ago how it came to be so. And when he thought I might go away with you, his only anxiety was what should become of me! And to tempt me to stay he offered me his strength for my defence, his industry for my livelihood, his position for my dignity, his— Ah, I am mixing up your beautiful sentences and spoiling them, am I not, darling?” | Act 3 | 322 | 33 |
| Morell: “Then help to kindle it in them—in me—not to extinguish it. In the future—when you are as happy as I am—I will be your true brother in the faith. I will help you to believe that God has given us a world that nothing but our own folly keeps from being a paradise. I will help you to believe that every stroke of your work is sowing happiness for the great harvest that all—even the humblest—shall one day reap. And last, but trust me, not least, I will help you to believe that your wife loves you and is happy in her home. We need such help, Marchbanks: we need it greatly and always. There are so many things to make us doubt, if once we let our understanding be troubled. Even at home, we sit as if in camp, encompassed by a hostile army of doubts. Will you play the traitor and let them in on me?” | Act 1 | 164 | 17 |
| Candida: “Yes, I must be talked to sometimes. Now you’re beginning to look better already. Why don’t you give up all this tiresome overworking—going out every night lecturing and talking? Of course what you say is all very true and very right; but it does no good: they don’t mind what you say to them one little bit. Of course they agree with you; but what’s the use of people agreeing with you if they go and do just the opposite of what you tell them the moment your back is turned? Look at our congregation at St. Dominic’s! Why do they come to hear you talking about Christianity every Sunday? Why, just because they’ve been so full of business and moneymaking for six days that they want to forget all about it and have a rest on the seventh, so that they can go back fresh and make money harder than ever! You positively help them at it instead of hindering them.” | Act 2 | 163 | 17 |
| Morell: “That’ll do; I’ll go to the Hoxton Group of Freedom instead. , which has come by post, and glances through Mr. Stewart Hendlam’s leader and the Guild of St. Matthew news. These proceedings are presently enlivened by the appearance of Morell’s curate, the Reverend Alexander Mill, a young gentleman gathered by Morell from the nearest University settlement, whither he had come from Oxford to give the east end of London the benefit of his university training. He is a conceitedly well-intentioned, enthusiastic, immature person, with nothing positively unbearable about him except a habit of speaking with his lips carefully closed for half an inch from each corner, a finicking articulation, and a set of horribly corrupt vowels, notably ow for o, this being his chief means of bringing Oxford refinement to bear on Hackney vulgarity. Morell, whom he has won over by a doglike devotion, looks up indulgently from The Church Reformer as he enters, and remarks: Well, Lexy! Late again, as usual.” | Act 1 | 162 | 17 |
| Morell: “Yes, I did. Well, that did not prevent our getting on very well together. God made you what I call a scoundrel as he made me what you call a fool. It was not for me to quarrel with his handiwork in the one case more than in the other. So long as you come here honestly as a self-respecting, thorough, convinced scoundrel, justifying your scoundrelism, and proud of it, you are welcome. But I won’t have you here snivelling about being a model employer and a converted man when you’re only an apostate with your coat turned for the sake of a County Council contract. No: I like a man to be true to himself, even in wickedness. Come now: either take your hat and go; or else sit down and give me a good scoundrelly reason for wanting to be friends with me. That’s right. Now, out with it.” | Act 1 | 151 | 16 |
| Morell: “Eugene: listen to me. Some day, I hope and trust, you will be a happy man like me. You will be married; and you will be working with all your might and valor to make every spot on earth as happy as your own home. You will be one of the makers of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth; and—who knows?—you may be a pioneer and master builder where I am only a humble journeyman; for don’t think, my boy, that I cannot see in you, young as you are, promise of higher powers than I can ever pretend to. I well know that it is in the poet that the holy spirit of man—the god within him—is most godlike. It should make you tremble to think of that—to think that the heavy burden and great gift of a poet may be laid upon you.” | Act 1 | 150 | 15 |
| Burgess: “Yes, times ’as changed mor’n I could a believed. Five yorr (year) ago, no sensible man would a thought o’ takin’ up with your ideas. I hused to wonder you was let preach at all. Why, I know a clorgyman that ’as bin kep’ hout of his job for yorrs by the Bishop of London, although the pore feller’s not a bit more religious than you are. But today, if henyone was to offer to bet me a thousan’ poun’ that you’ll end by bein’ a bishop yourself, I shouldn’t venture to take the bet. You and yore crew are gettin’ hinfluential: I can see that. They’ll ’ave to give you something someday, if it’s only to stop yore mouth. You ’ad the right instinc’ arter all, James: the line you took is the payin’ line in the long run fur a man o’ your sort.” | Act 1 | 146 | 15 |
| Marchbanks: “Yes, it does. You think because I shrink from being brutally handled—because I can do nothing but cry with rage when I am met with violence—because I can’t lift a heavy trunk down from the top of a cab like you—because I can’t fight you for your wife as a navvy would: all that makes you think that I’m afraid of you. But you’re wrong. If I haven’t got what you call British pluck, I haven’t British cowardice either: I’m not afraid of a clergyman’s ideas. I’ll fight your ideas. I’ll rescue her from her slavery to them: I’ll pit my own ideas against them. You are driving me out of the house because you daren’t let her choose between your ideas and mine. You are afraid to let me see her again. Let me alone, I say. I’m going.” | Act 1 | 143 | 15 |
| Marchbanks: “It’s the gift of the gab, nothing more and nothing less. What has your knack of fine talking to do with the truth, any more than playing the organ has? I’ve never been in your church; but I’ve been to your political meetings; and I’ve seen you do what’s called rousing the meeting to enthusiasm: that is, you excited them until they behaved exactly as if they were drunk. And their wives looked on and saw clearly enough what fools they were. Oh, it’s an old story: you’ll find it in the Bible. I imagine King David, in his fits of enthusiasm, was very like you. “But his wife despised him in her heart.”” | Act 1 | 114 | 12 |
| Marchbanks: “Hush! I go about in search of love; and I find it in unmeasured stores in the bosoms of others. But when I try to ask for it, this horrible shyness strangles me; and I stand dumb, or worse than dumb, saying meaningless things—foolish lies. And I see the affection I am longing for given to dogs and cats and pet birds, because they come and ask for it. It must be asked for: it is like a ghost: it cannot speak unless it is first spoken to. All the love in the world is longing to speak; only it dare not, because it is shy, shy, shy. That is the world’s tragedy.” | Act 2 | 114 | 12 |

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in Candida?

Morell, with about 501 lines and 3,991 words, 27.7% of everything spoken in the play. Marchbanks is next, with about 452 lines (25%).

### How long is Candida?

The full text has 14,430 spoken words, about 103 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in Candida?

7 named roles speak in this edition, across 3 scenes. 1 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/george-bernard-shaw/candida) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).