Ranging from the playful whimsy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and Much Ado About Nothing to the powerful reflections of Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Richard III, this superlative collection offers moving speeches for both men and women from one of the world's finest monologists.
Dover Original.

Table of Contents for Shakespeare's Great Soliloquies

All's Well That Ends Well
Helena: "O, were that all! I think not on my father" [Act I, Scene 1]
Helena: "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie" [Act I, Scene 1]
Antony and Cleopatra
Enobarbus: "I am alone the villain of the earth" [Act IV, Scene 6]
Enobarbus: "O, bear me witness, night--" [Act IV, Scene 9]
Antony: "All is lost!/This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me" [Act IV, Scene 12]
Cleopatra: "I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony" [Act V, Scene 2]
As You Like It
Orlando: "Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love" [Act III, Scene 2]
Coriolanus
Coriolanus: "Most sweet voices!/Better it is to die, better to starve" [Act II, Scene 3]
Coriolanus: "O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn" [Act IV, Scene 4]
Cymbeline
Posthumus: "O noble misery!/To be i' the field, and ask, 'What news?' of me!" [Act V, Scene 3]
Posthumus: "Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot" [Act V, Scene 4]
Hamlet
Hamlet: "Now I am alone./O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" [Act II, Scene 2]
Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question" [Act III, Scene 1]
Ophelia: "O, what a noble mind is here o'er-thrown!" [Act III, Scene 1]
Hamlet: "'Tis now the very witching time of night" [Act III, Scene 2]
Claudius, King of Denmark: "O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven!" [Act III, Scene 3]
Henry IV, Part 1
Prince Hal: "I know you all, and will awhile uphold" [Act I, Scene 2]
Hotspur: "'But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented . . .'" [Act II, Scene 3]
Falstaff: "If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet." [Act IV, Scene 2]
Henry IV, Part 2
King Henry IV: "How many thousand of my poorest subjects" [Act III, Scene 1]
Falstaff: "As I return, I will fetch off these justices . . ." [Act III, Scene 2]
Henry V
King Henry: "Upon the king! Let us our lives, our souls" [Act IV, Scene 1]
King Henry: "O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts" [Act IV, Scene 1]
Henry VI, Part 1
La Pucelle (Joan of Arc): "The regent conquers, and the Frenchmen fly" [Act V, Scene 3]
Suffolk: "I have no power to let her pass" [Act V, Scene 3]
Henry VI, Part 2
York: "Anjou and Maine are given to the French" [Act I, Scene 1]
Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester: "Follow I must; I cannot go before" [Act I, Scene 2]
York: "Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts" [Act III, Scene 1]
King Henry: "O Thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts" [Act III, Scene 2]
Young Clifford: "Shame and confusion! all is on the rout" [Act V, Scene 2]
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry: "This battle fares like to the morning's war" [Act II, Scene 5]
Clifford: "Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies" [Act II, Scene 6]
Richard, Duke of Gloucester: "Ay, Edward will use women honourably" [Act III, Scene 2]
Warwick: "Ah, who is nigh? Come to me, friend or foe" [Act V, Sce
Richard, Duke of Gloucester: "What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster" [Act V, Scene 6]
Henry VIII
Cardinal Wolsey: "So farewell to the little good you bear me" [Act III, Scene 2]
Julius Caesar
Brutus: "Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar" [Act II, Scene 1]
Brutus: "O conspiracy!/Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night" [Act II, Scene 1]
Antony: "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth" [Act III, Scene 1]
King John
Philip the Bastard: "Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition!" [Act II, Scene 1]
King Lear
Edmund: "Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law" [Act I, Scene 2]
Edmund: "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune . . ." [Act I, Scene 2]
Lear: "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!" [Act III, Scene 2]
Edgar: "When we our betters see bearing our woes" [Act III, Scene 6]
Love's Labour's Lost
Armado: "I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread." [Act I, Scene 2]
Berowne: "And I, forsooth, in love!" [Act III, Scene 1]
Macbeth
Macbeth: "This supernatural soliciting/Cannot be ill, cannot be good . . ." [Act I, Scene 3]
Lady Macbeth: "They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in
them than mortal knowledge." [Act I, Scene 5]
Lady Macbeth: "The raven himself is hoarse" [Act I, Scene 5]
Macbeth: "Is this a dagger which I see before me" [Act II, Scene 1]
Porter: "Here's a knocking indeed!" [Act II, Scene 3]
Lady Macbeth: "Yet here's a spot" [Act V, Scene 1]
Measure for Measure
Angelo: "What's this? What's this? Is this her fault or mine?" [Act II, Scene 2]
Angelo: "When I would pray and think, I think and pray" [Act II, Scene 4]
Isabella: "To whom should I complain? Did I tell this" [Act II, Scene 4]
Duke: "He who the sword of heaven will bear" [Act III, Scene 2]
Angelo: "This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant" [Act IV, Scene 4]
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Ford: "What a damned Epicurean rascal is this!" [Act II, Scene 2]
Falstaff: "The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws on." [Act V, Scene 5]
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Helena: "How happy some o'er other some can be!" [Act I, Scene 1]
Helena: "O, I am out of breath in this fond chase" [Act II, Scene 2]
Hermia: "Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy best" [Act II, Scene 2]
Helena: "O weary night, O long and tedious night" [Act III, Scene 2]
Bottom: "When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer" [Act IV, Scene 1]
Pyramus: "Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams" [Act V, Scene 1]
Much Ado About Nothing
Benedick: "I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love . . ." [Act II, Scene 3]
Benedick: "This can be no trick . . ." [Act II, Sce
Beatrice: "What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?" [Act III, Scene 1]
Othello
Iago: "And what's he then that says I play the villain" [Act II, Scene 3]
Othello: "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul" [Act V, Scene 2]
Pericles
Pericles: "Yet cease your ire, you angry stars of heaven!" [Act II, Scene 1]
Richard II
Richard: "I have been studying how I may compare" [Act V, Scene 5]
Richard III
Richard: "Now is the winter of our discontent" [Act I, Scene 1]
Richard: "Was ever woman in this humour wooed?" [Act I, Scene 2]
Richard: "Give me another horse! Bind up my wounds!" [Act V, Scene 3]
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo: "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" [Act II, Scene 2]
Juliet: "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" [Act II, Scene 2]
Friar Laurence: "The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night" [Act II, Scene 3]
Juliet: "Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds" [Act III, Scene 2]
Juliet: "Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again" [Act IV, Scene 3]
Romeo: "If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep" [Act V, Scene 1]
Romeo: "Let me peruse this face" [Act V, Scene 3]
The Taming of the Shrew
Petruchio: "Thus have I politicly begun my reign" [Act IV, Scene 1]
The Tempest
Caliban: "All the infections that the sun sucks up" [Act II, Scene 2]
Ferdinand: "There be some sports are painful, and their labour" [Act III, Scene 1]
Timon of Athens
Alcibiades: "Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live" [Act III, Scene 5]
Timon: "Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall" [Act IV, Scene 1]
Flavius: "O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!" [Act IV, Scene 2]
Timon: "O blessed breeding sun! Draw from the earth" [Act IV, Scene 3]
Troilus and Cressida
Troilus: "Peace, you ungracious clamours! Peace, rude sounds!" [Act I, Scene 1]
Cressida: "Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice" [Act I, Scene 2]
Troilus: "I am giddy; expectation whirls me round" [Act III, Scene 2]
Twelfth Night
Olivia: "'What is your parentage?'" [Act I, Scene 5]
Violet: "I left no ring with her: what means this lady?" [Act II, Scene 2]
Malvolio: "'Tis but fortune; all is fortune" [Act II, Scene 5]
Violet: "This fellow's wise enough to play the fool" [Act III, Scene 1]
Sebastian: "This is the air; that is the glorious sun" [Act IV, Scene 3]
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Julia: "Nay, would I were so anger'd with the same!" [Act I, Scene 2]
Launce: "Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping" [Act II, Scene 3]
Proteus: "To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn" [Act II, Scene 6]
Valentine: "And why not death rather than living torment?" [Act III, Scene 1]
Launce: "When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard . . ." [Act IV, Scene 4]
Julia: "A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful" [Act IV, Sce
Valentine: "How use doth breed a habit in a man!" [Act V, Scene 4]
The Winter's Tale
Camillo: "O miserable lady! But, for me" [Act I, Scene 2]

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