Shakespeare's Greatest Monologues - The Complete Collection

By William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, long hailed as the history's greatest dramatic writer, has been lauded for his mastery of poetic expression, his insight into the human condition and his deep exploration into the psyche and motivations of his characters. These skills are perhaps best exemplified in the monologues he gives his various protagonists, villains

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ft. Raphael Publishing Company
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781949661804

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.

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cover-image, Shakespeare's Greatest Monologues - Complete

FORT RAPHAEL PUBLISHING CO.

OAK PARK, ILLINOIS

www.FortRaphael.com

Copyright © 2022 by Ft. Raphael Publishing Company

All Rights Reserved.

Edited by Kevin Theis, Ft. Raphael Publishing Company

Front Cover Artwork and Graphics by Paul Stroili,

Touchstone Graphic Design, Chicago

Shakespeare’s Greatest

Monologues

The Complete Collection

CONTENTS

I. Chorus from Henry V

II. Hamlet from Hamlet

III. Lady Macbeth from Macbeth

IV. Jacques from As You Like It

V. Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

VI. Othello from Othello

VII. Isabella from Measure for Measure

VIII. Richard II from Richard II

IX. Juliet from Romeo and Juliet

X. Aaron from Titus Andronicus

XI. Portia from The Merchant of Venice

XII. Antony from Julius Caesar

XIII. Margaret from Henry VI, Part III

XIV. Mistress Quickly from Henry V

XV. Edmund from King Lear

XVI. Viola from Twelfth Night

XVII. Macbeth from Macbeth

XVIII. Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra

XIX. Prospero from "The Tempest

XX. Paulina from The Winter's Tale

XXI. Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing

XXII. Constance from King John

XXIII. Richard III from Richard III

XXIV. Joan from King Henry VI, Part I

XXV. Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream

XXVI. Cassius from Julius Caesar

XXVII. Romeo from Romeo and Juliet

XXVIII. Tamora from Titus Andronicus

XXIX. Prince Hal from Henry IV, Part I

XXX. Iago from Othello

XXXI. Henry V from Henry V

XXXII. Shylock from The Merchant of Venice

XXXIII. Adriana from The Comedy of Errors

XXXIV. Berowne from Love’s Labours Lost

XXXV. Goneril from King Lear

XXXVI. Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew

XXXVII. Falstaff from Henry IV, Part I

XXXVIII. Angelo from Measure for Measure

XXXIX. Phebe from As You Like It

XL. Henry IV from Henry IV, Part II

XLI. Imogen from Cymbeline

XLII. Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream

XLIII. Helena from All's Well That Ends Well

XLIV. Malvolio from Twelfth Night

XLV. Portia from Julius Caesar

CHORUS FROM HENRY V

Shakespeare rarely used the form of direct address in his plays and certainly never with such frequency or to greater effect than his employment of the Chorus in Henry V.

Opening each act, the Chorus does not simply set the scene, she also introduces important themes, characters and even establishes the mood for what is to come.

Here, in the opening speech of the play, the Chorus implores the audience to go on a journey of the imagination, even going so far as to acknowledge that the people she is addressing are in a theatre - a wooden O - and that the members of the audience need to assist the acting company in creating the world of the play.

* * * * * * * * *

CHORUS

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention,

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,

Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire

Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,

The flat unraised spirits that have dared

On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth

So great an object: can this cockpit hold

The vasty fields of France? or may we cram

Within this wooden O the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt?

O, pardon! since a crooked figure may

Attest in little place a million;

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls

Are now confined two mighty monarchies,

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Into a thousand parts divide one man,

And make imaginary puissance;

Think when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,

Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,

Turning the accomplishment of many years

Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,

Admit me Chorus to this history;

Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

HAMLET FROM HAMLET

Long hailed as perhaps the greatest play in dramatic history, Hamlet tells the story of the beleaguered Prince Hamlet of Denmark.

Upon his father’s sudden death, Hamlet returns home to discover that Gertrude, his recently widowed mother, has married Claudius, his late father’s brother who now rules the kingdom.

One night, shortly after his return, the Ghost of his father appears to Hamlet and informs him that Claudius was responsible his death, killing his brother to clear the way to the throne and to Gertrude’s bed.  He instructs Hamlet to avenge him and leaves him to carry out his commands.

Here, just prior to his encounter with his father’s ghost, Hamlet is found alone, bemoaning his fate, marveling at the mercurial nature of his mother’s affections and wishing that he could simply disappear.

* * * * * * * * *

HAMLET

O that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two.

So excellent a king, that was to this

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!

Must I remember? Why, she would hang