Mr Darcy’s second proposal in Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice (2005), screenplay credited to Deborah Moggach ↗. What makes this one interesting is that most of the speech is Austen: “You are too generous to trifle with me… if your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once” is chapter 58, almost verbatim. The clause everyone quotes — “you have bewitched me, body and soul” — is the part that is not in the book.
“You have bewitched me, body and soul” Jane Austen did not write “You have bewitched me, body and soul.” It is Darcy’s line in the 2005 film of Pride & Prejudice, screenplay credited to Deborah Moggach. The rest of that speech is adapted almost verbatim from the novel’s chapter 58 — this clause is the screenwriter’s addition. Via quotle.info · Verbatim: “If, however, your feelings have changed, I would have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love… I love… I love you.”
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Jane Austen. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Deborah Moggach — English novelist and screenwriter. Theme: "You have bewitched me, body and soul". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "You have bewitched me, body and soul". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The source
Work
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Screenplay credit
Deborah Moggach (sole credit)
Spoken by
Mr Darcy — a fictional character
Built on
Pride and Prejudice (1813), chapter 58
Released
16 September 2005 (UK)
MR DARCY: You must know, surely you must know, it was all for you. You are too generous to trifle with me. I believe you spoke with my aunt last night, and it has taught me to hope as I’d scarcely allowed myself before. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes have not changed, but one word from you will silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I would have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love… I love… I love you. And I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.
The 2005 film — Darcy’s second proposal
Now Austen’s chapter 58, for comparison: “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.” The screenplay keeps almost every word of that and adds the one the internet remembers.
Searched all eight Austen texts at Project Gutenberg for “bewitched me, body and soul”: zero matches. Austen does use “bewitched” once, in chapter 10 of Pride and Prejudice ↗, but as narration and about Darcy, not from him: “Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her.”
Read Austen’s actual second proposal, chapter 58 ↗, and compared it line by line with the film speech. The film reproduces “You are too generous to trifle with me”, “if your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once” and “one word from you will silence me” nearly verbatim. It does not reproduce “bewitched me, body and soul”, because that sentence is not there.
Took the film wording from Wikiquote’s transcription of the 2005 film ↗. We have not viewed the film, so the spoken wording rests on that transcription rather than on our own check of a print.
Confirmed credits and release against Wikipedia’s article on the film ↗, which also quotes director Joe Wright saying he did not want to “be too reverential” to Austen’s dialogue — the stated policy that produced this line.
In copyright. We are deliberately not naming a rights holder: screen writing is work for hire, so the rights sit with the production and not the credited writer, and we could not reach a source that states the film’s copyright line, so we would rather leave the field empty than guess at it. The half of the speech that comes from Austen’s 1813 novel is public domain and free to quote; the famous clause is not.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Often misattributed
This is the hardest kind of misquotation to spot, because the sentence sits inside a speech that really is Austen’s.
✕
The creditJane Austen, Pride and Prejudicerefuted
The clause returns no match in the novel ↗. Austen uses “bewitched” once, in chapter 10, in narration.
What IS Austen in that speechJane Austen, chapter 58 context
“You are too generous to trifle with me… one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever” is in the novel ↗, nearly word for word. The speech is a genuine adaptation with one invented clause.
✓The proposal is Austen’s. The line people tattoo on themselves is the 2005 film’s ↗.
Context
Why this one fools everybody
Most fake Austen quotes fail a sniff test: they sound like a fridge magnet. This one does not, because it is embedded in sentences Austen actually wrote. The screenwriter kept Darcy’s stiff, careful phrasing and then let him say one uncontrolled thing — which is why it lands, and why it feels earned.
It also explains the confusion. Readers who half-remember chapter 58 remember it correctly; they simply do not notice which clause was added on the way to the screen.
The speech is Austen’s. The famous half-sentence is not.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
born 28 June 1948 · English novelist and screenwriter
Deborah Moggach (born 28 June 1948) is an English playwright, novelist and screenwriter, the author of nineteen novels including Tulip Fever (1999) and These Foolish Things (2004, filmed as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). She holds the sole screenplay credit on Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice (2005).
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
Pride & Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright, screenplay by Deborah Moggach (Universal Pictures / StudioCanal / Working Title Films, 2005). Dialogue as transcribed at Wikiquote. The surrounding speech adapts Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813), chap. 58; the quoted clause does not appear there.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You have bewitched me, body and soul’?” Last verified 11 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-have-bewitched-me-body-and-soul/