BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS

(MUSIC THEATRE)

MONOLOGUES BOOKLET
2013 ENTRY

CONTEMPORARY MALE MONOLOGUES

MYTH, PROPAGANDA AND DISASTER IN NAZI GERMANY AND
CONTEMPORARY AMERICA by Stephen Sewell
MAX
Look, mate, I dont know whats happening I just arrived, right? And, all
right, I know the Americans go on with all this flag-waving, patriotic bullshit
and think the rest of the world hates them, but fuck, Talbot, theyre right:
the rest of the world does hate em I hate em, and I want to live here! Its
envy, isnt it? Everyone looks at what theyve got and wants it...They just
want the stuff, thats right, isnt it? And figure the reason they cant get the
stuff, is because the Americans are stopping them. Thats where were at
now, and now some pricks actually done something about it, and killed
three thousand people, and the Americans are fucking mad as hell, because
they know every single one of them is on that plane hurtling towards the
Twin Towers and they dont like it and theyre not going to stand for it, and
theyre going to get the pricks thatre threatening them. Well, all power to
George W I dont want the fucking pricks to win, either. There were
Aussies killed up there, mate, there were English, there were Scots, there
were fucking Moslems, for fucks sake! There was fucking everybody:
everyones hopes were up there in those two towers....Its a war, Talbot It
is a war. Its a war against terror and its a war against ignorance, and its a
war against prejudice and pure dumb-arsed fuckwittedness, and weve got
to win that war, otherwise were fucked.

THE MATCHMAKER by Thornton Wilder

CORNELIUS
Isn't the world full of wonderful things? There we sit cooped up in Yonkers
for years and years and all the time wonderful people like Mrs Molloy are
walking around in New York and we don't know them at all. I don't know
whether - from where you're sitting - you can see - well, for instance, the
way [pointing to the edge of his right eye] her eye and forehead and cheek
come together, up here. Can you? And the kind of fireworks that shoot out
of her eyes all the time. I tell you right now: a fine woman is the greatest
work of God. You can talk all you like about Niagara Falls and the Pyramids;
they aren't in it at all. Of course, up there at Yonkers they came into the
store all the time, and bought this and that, and I said "Yes, ma'am", and
"That'll be seventy-five cents, ma'am"; and I watched them. But today I've
talked to one, equal to equal, equal to equal, and to the finest one that
ever existed, in my opinion. They're so different from men! Everything that
they say and do is so different that you feel like laughing all the time. [he
laughs] Golly, they're different from men. And they're awfully mysterious,
too. You never can be really sure what's going on in their heads. They have
a kind of wall around them all the time - of pride and a sort of play-acting: I
bet you could know a woman a hundred years without ever being really
sure whether she liked you or not. This minute I'm in danger. I'm in danger
of losing my job and my future and everything that people think is
important; but I don't care. Even if I have to dig ditches for the rest of my
life, I'll be a ditch-digger who once had a wonderful day.

THE LIBERTINE by Stephen Jeffreys

ROCHESTER
Allow me to be frank at the commencement: you will not like me. No, I say
you will not. The gentlemen will be envious and the ladies will be repelled.
You will not like me now and you will like me a good deal less as we go on.
Oh yes, I shall do things you will like. You will say That was a noble impulse
in him or He played a brave part there, but DO NOT WARM TO ME, it will
not serve. When I become a BIT OF A CHARMER that is your danger sign for
it prefaces the change into THE FULL REPTILE a few seconds later. What I
require is not your affection but your attention. I must not be ignored or
you will find me as troublesome a package as ever pissed in the Thames.
Now. Ladies. An announcement. [He looks around.] I am up for it. All the
time. Thats not a boast. Or an opinion. It is bone hard medical fact. I put it
around, dy know? And you will watch me putting it around and sigh for it.
Dont. It is a deal of trouble for you and you are better off watching and
drawing your conclusions from a distance than you would be if I got my
tarse pointing up your petticoats. Gentlemen. [He looks around.] Do not
despair, I am up for that as well. When the mood is on me. And the same
warning applies. Now, gents: if there be vizards in the house, jades, harlots
(as how could there not be) leave them be for the moment. Still your
cheesy erections till I have had my say. But later when you shag and later
you will shag, I shall expect it of you and I will know if you have let me down
I wish you to shag with my homuncular image rattling in your gonads. Feel
how it was for me, how it is for me and ponder. Was that shudder the
same shudder he sensed? Did he know something more profound? Or is
there some wall of wretchedness that we all batter with our heads at that
shining, livelong moment. That is it. That is my prologue, nothing in rhyme,
certainly no protestations of modesty, you were not expecting that I trust. I
reiterate only for those who have arrived late or were buying oranges or
were simply not listening: I am John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester and I
do not want you to like me.

EUROPE by Michael Gow

DOUGLAS
What a great place. This areas like something out of Thomas Mann or
Kafka. God its exciting being in Europe. So alive, isnt it? So... pulsating. Ive
had a great morning. I saw your Roman mosaic. Went on a tour of that
poets house. Had a look at the inn where whatsisname wrote his opera.
And I went to this great exhibition at the big gallery. Theres some amazing
things in there. Stuff I knew quite well. And that altar theyve got! But there
was this performance art thing. Incredible! There was this big pool full of
fish, carp, I dont know, and this guy, nothing on, you were right, with all
these crucifixes and beads in his hair, wading through the water, dragging
this little raft behind him; he had the rope in his teeth. On the raft was this
pile of animal innards with candles sticking out of it. Then these other
people dressed as astronauts and red Indians ran round and round the
pond screaming and then they lit this fire and threw copies of the Mona
Lisa into it. And then, I dont know how they did it but the water turned
bright red. Just incredible. You must see it. Its great being here.
Everythings so exciting. Ive been keeping everything I get. Every little item,
every bus ticket, gallery ticket, the train tickets. Every postcard. Every
coaster from every bar, every caf.

THE CALL by Patricia Cornelius

CHUNK
You've got it all wrong. It come to me like a whack on the back of the head,
like the floor's suddenly given way. An epiphany, that's what I'm having.
Ever heard of an epiphany, Aldo? It's like God's spoken, like lightning, a
fucking big moment of enlightenment. And I'm having it. It's all crap. It's a
big load of bull. A hoax. Someone major's pulling our leg, got us by the
throat and is throttling us, got us boxed in, packed up. Nothing- meansnothing. You got it? Once you got that, you're living free. Who says how
life's meant to be? Who says what's good, what you should or shouldn't
do? Who in hell's got the right to measure a man's success? He did this, he
did that, he got that job, he got paid a lot. Fuck off. He owns a house, a wife,
two kids. So what? He's a lawyer, a doctor, he's made a success of his life.
No success story for the likes of us. And you know what? I don't give a shit.
Finally it's clear to me. It's all crap. And I'm free of it at last.

BOYS LIFE by Howard Korder

PHIL:
I would have destroyed myself for this woman. Gladly. I would have eaten
garbage. I would have sliced my wrists open. Under the right circumstances,
I mean, if she said, Hey, Phil, why dont you just cut your wrists open, well,
come on, but if seriously We clicked, we connected on so many things,
right off the bat, we talked about God for three hours once, I dont know
what good it did, but that intensityand the first time we went to bed, I
didnt even touch her. I didnt want to, understand what Im saying? And
you know, I played it very casually, because, all right, Ive had some rough
experiences, Im the first to admit, but after a couple of weeks I could feel
we were right there, so I laid it down, everything I wanted to tell her, and
she says to meshe says. Nobody should ever need another person
that badly. Do you believe that? Nobody should ever! What is that? Is
that something you saw on TV? I dump my heart on the table, you give me
Joyce Dr Fucking Brothers? Need, need, Im saying I love you, is that
wrong? Is that not allowed any more? [Pause] And so what if I did need
her? Is that so bad?

HOLDING THE MAN by Tommy Murphy

TIM:
Dear John,
I am sitting in the garden at the back of my hotel, surrounded by orange
trees and bougainvilleas. After the madness of the northern cities, the
island of Lipari is paradise.
I visited the island of Salina yesterday, the island where your
grandparents were born. It was a bit like a private pilgrimage. It is almost
barren, lots of rock and caper bushes. The caf is only open for an hour and
you can understand why they emigrated.
The most unnerving thing: here on Lipari there is a beautiful boy who
works in the bar in our hotel. He is so like you he could easily be one of your
brothers. He was born here but his family is not Caleo. He is so gentle and
shy. We try to talk but be speaks Liparota, a dialect I cant understand. He
occupies my dreams: I fall in love so easily these days.
Life is pretty good at the moment: I have my health and seem to be
doing most of the things I want to do before I die. I guess the hardest thing
is having so much love for you and it somehow not being returned. I
develop crushes all the time but that is just misdirected need for you. You
are a hole in my life, a black hole. Anything I place there cannot be
returned.
I miss you terribly. Ci vedremo lassu, Angelo.

CONTEMPORARY WOMEN MONOLGUES

ROSE THE SEED by Kate Mulvany
ROSE:
There was a spray that Dad breathed in and now I dont have the eggs.
Theyve all been destroyed by radiotherapy and even if they found one, I
cant carry it. The tumour wiped out half my organs, my body cant support
a baby. Grandda, Im thirty and Ive just started menopause.
I will never have children. [Beat] I will never have children. [Beat] I will
never have children. And you know what? I dont think I deserve them
anyway. When a friend tells me she is pregnant I smile and hug and kiss and
ask her dumb questions. How far along? Any names picked yet? What
are you craving? But I dont let on what Im craving. That despite my big
smile and congratulations Im green and Im bubbling and Im thinking, you
bitch, I hope it fucking dies inside you, you bitch. And when a pregnant
woman walks past me on the street I want punch her belly and walk away
when she falls to the ground and just leave her there to deal with it. And
when a husband tells me hes having his third boy I want to put my hand
down his pants and rip his fucking cock off and squeeze it dry of any seed.
And when I see a baby in a pram...[Beat] I just want to pick it up and smell
its skin and hold it to my heart and stoke its little head and never let
another person touch it for the rest of its life. Is that normal, Grandda? I
dont know. And I never will. Because the seed stops here.

THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL by Neil Simon

SOPHIE:
I dont like you for a lot of reasons I already said. But the main reason I
dont like you is because I am engaged to Lieutenant Burt Fenneman of the
United States Marines. And in a few weeks were supposed to get married.
But for some insane reason that only a Hungarian psychoanalyst could
explain, I have suddenly discovered and here comes the part I was telling
you about that I am physically attracted to you... Now how do you like
that for a point? Did you hear what I said? how do you like them apples?
Them apples. How do you like them? Im serious! There is something
about your physical presence that appeals to me- and I am as repulsed by it
as you are. There is no earthly reason why I should like anything about you.
And I dont. But I do! You are the most irritating, nauseating man I have
ever met in my life and if you tried to kiss me right now I would not stop
you. I suppose you wanna know what started it all? It was your grey
eyelashes. I have never met a man in your age bracket with grey eyelashes.
I think its dumb to have grey eyelashes, but Im very glad you have them...
Now can I ask you a question? Do you have any desire whatsoever to touch
me? I am being honest with my emotions because thats the only way I
know how to deal with them. The plain disgusting truth is I would like to
stand very close to you and feel your breath somewhere on my neck. Is
there any possibility of you having the same disgusting feeling about me?

BOYS LIFE by Howard Korder

LISA:
Its not worth it! Do what you want, it doesnt matter to me. I dont
even know you, Don. After four months I dont know who you are or why
you do what you do. You keep getting your dick stuck in things. What is that
all about, anyway? Will someone please explain that to me? [Pause] Dont
look at me that way. Like a whipped dog. Its just pathetic.
You just dont understand what Im talking about, do you? Youre just
afraid of being punished. Im not your mother. I dont spank. [Pause] Im
going. Have fun fucking your bargain shopper and cracking jokes with your
creepy friends.
Wait. Wait. This is not it. This is nothing. I cant even talk to you if you
dont tell me the truth. Why did you do this, Don? When you knew I trusted
you? Was it her breasts, her buttocks, the smell of her sweat? Was it her
underwear? Was it because she wasnt me? Did you have a reason? Any
reason at all?
[Pause]
Would you like to play a little game Don?
A pretend game. Lets pretend you could do anything you wanted to
do. And whatever you did, nobody could blame you for it. Not me or
anyone else. You would be totally free. You wouldnt have to make
promises and you wouldnt have to lie. All you would have to do is know
how you feel. Just that.
What would you do?

THE ART OF SUCCESS by Nick Dear

LOUISA:
[shivers] Wind off the Thames blows down the avenues, round the rotunda
and directly up my skirt. I must have the coldest legs in England. A sailor in
a Bermondsey cellar said that in China they tell of a wind disease, a cold,
cold wind blowing round the body, typhoon in your arms and legs,
whispering draughts in the back of your skull. I told him I think Ive got it,
mate, it sounds dead familiar. He laughed and bit my nipple with splintering
teeth. What I would have loved, at that moment, what I longed for, was
that all the air would whoosh out of me like a burst balloon, and I sink
down to nothing at his feet, and teach the disbelieving rat a lesson. Here I
am out in all weathers, all the entrances and exits in my body open to the
elements day and freezing night, whats to stop the gale when it comes in
and fills me? And blows around my bones forever? Wait, is he walking this
way? That dragoon? He looks so saddoesnt he look sadI dont know,
they call this place a pleasure garden, Ive never seen such misery, Id
christen it the garden of wind and disappointment, or cold and frosted
cunt.
Is he coming over here? Come along, then, miss, get all your gusts and
breezes together.
Nice time with an old windbag, soldier? Its not wearing any knickers.

WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING by Andrew Bovell

[GABRIEL: That was your first time, wasnt it?]
Didnt know if I was meant to tell you. Thought Id just let you find out. Told
you I was different. Everybody else in this town got it out of the way before
they left school. I used to think, no way, not me. Im not giving it away. Im
holding on. For someone special. Not from some bloke around here. Before
you know it Im twenty-four and wishing Id got rid of it when I was sixteen
like all the other girls. So Im standing at the window thinking I cant bear it
any longer. Im going crazy. I have to do something about this. And I turn
around and there you are. And I think, hell do. Not bad looking, nice accent
and at least he doesnt smell like fish and have sand between his toes and
he wont tell his mates in the morning. So I used you. Sorry. But you can
have a toasted sandwich on the house if you like.

ANGELS IN AMERICA Part One by Tony Kushner

HARPER:
I burned dinner.
Not my dinner. My dinner was fine. Your dinner. I put it back in the oven
and turned everything up as high as it could go and I watched it till it
burned black. Its still hot. Very hot. Do you want it?
I WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOUVE BEEN! I WANT TO KNOW WHATS
GOING ON!
When you come through the door at night your face is never exactly the
way I remembered it. I get surprised by the way you look. Even the weight
of you in the bed at night, the way you breathe in your sleep seems
unfamiliar.
You think youre the only one who hates sex; I do; I hate it with you; I do;
Im glad we dont do it anymore. I dream that you batter away at me till my
joints all come apart, like wax, and I fall into pieces. Its like a punishment. I
was wrong of me to marry you. I knew you[she stops herself] Its a sin,
and its killing us both.
Are you a homo?
[pause]
Are you? If you try to walk out right now Ill put your dinner back in the
oven and turn it up so high the whole building will fill with smoke and
everyone will asphyxiate. So help me God I will.
Now answer the question.

SWEET PHOEBE by Michael Gow

HELEN:
ashfield
big old house
little woman just opened the door grabbed me and pulled me inside
she checked the street and shut the door after me
her face was thick with powder
on top of the powder there was rouge
you could see the mask of powder
when she moved she left a little cloud of it where her face just was
and a wig an obvious wig but the wig was in a hairnet
she grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall to the lounge room
photos
every surface
children
studio portraits group photos family snaps school photos sports teams
swimming teams scouts
children everywhere
no let me finish this is really important
she still had my hand and she was stroking it
telling me deep voice cigarettes
how shed lost a dog never got over it her life ended
my little mate
then she grabbed me
I was like a shop dummy so amazed
she grabbed me held me close and cried
she knew what it was like for me
I know I know
standing there with this little woman in a wig in my arms
so I sat her down
she cried for a while stopped
we sat on this old lounge terrible pattern
I got up to go but she touched my arm
I didnt get up
frazer I sat there with her for two hours more
not talking just sitting
all these children watching us
it got dark
the photos disappeared into the dark
I couldnt see her face

I was shivering
she got up went out the back the toilet I suppose
I grabbed my bag and ran
ran
frazer why did I sit there

THE SECRET RAPTURE by David Hare

ISOBEL:
Oh God, I cant explain. Dont you understand? Its why I can never talk to
you. Its why I can never look at you. I cant find a way of describing whats
happened, without seeming to be disgustingly cruel. There we are, you see,
now I look at you youre flinching already.
And Im standing here thinking, this is just stupid, Im no longer in
love with you. Why dont I just give you the push?
Why dont I just tell you to leave? As any sensible girl would. Why?
Because, actually, theres a good part of me which is very fond of you. And
wants to work with you. And hold onto what is best in you. So the fact is, I
find it very hard.
I know you love me. God knows, you say it often enough.
I dont say that to be cruel. But I never hear the words without
sensing somethings being asked of me. The words drain me. From your lips
they become a kind of blackmail. They mean, I love you and soSo I am
entitled to be endlessly supported and comforted and cheered[she
smiles] Oh, yes, and Ive been happy to do it. I comforted. I supported. I
cheered. Because I got something back. But its gone.

WOMENS SHAKESPEARE
HAMLET Act 3 scene 1
OPHELIA
O, what a noble mind is here oerthrown!
The courtiers, soldiers, scholars, eye, tongue, sword,
Thexpectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Thobserved of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh,
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. O woe is me,
Thave seen what I have seen, see what I see.

HENRY V: Act 1 scene 1 (prologue)

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
(Leashed in like hounds) should famine, sword, and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, Gentles all:
The flat, unraised spirits, that hath dared,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object. Can this cock-pit hold
The vastie fields of France? Or may we cram
Within this Wooden O, the very casks
That did afright the air at Agincourt?
O pardon: since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million,
And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confind two mighty monarchies,
Whose high, up-reared, 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 hooves ithreceiving earth:
For tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there: jumping oer times;
Turning thaccomplishment 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.

MACBETH Act 5 Scene 1 (edited)

LADY MACBETH:
Yet heres a spot. Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One; two; why,
then tis time to dot.- Hell is murky.-Fie, my Lord, fie! a soldier, and
afeard?-what need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
power to accompt?- Yet who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him? The Thane of Fife had a wife:
where is she now?- what, will these hands neer be clean?- No
more othat, my Lord, no more othat: you mar all with this starting.
Heres the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will
not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! oh! Wash your hands, put on
your nightgown; look not so pale.- I tell you yet again, Banquos
buried: he cannot come out ons grave. To bed, to bed: theres
knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your
hand. Whats done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.

ROMEO AND JULIET Act III scene i

JULIET:
Gallop apace, you fiery footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus lodging, such a wagoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain love-performing night,
That runaways eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalked of and unseen,
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or if love be blind,
It best agrees with night: come civil night,
Thou sober suited matron all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Playd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods,
Hood my unmannd blood bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, till strange love grow bold,
Think true love acted simple modesty:
Come night, come Romeo, come thou day in night,
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a ravens back:
Come gentle night, come loving black-browed night.
Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

O I have bought the mansion of a love,

But not possessed it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyd, so tedious is this day,
As is the night before some festival,
To an impatient child that hath new robes
And may not wear them, O here comes my Nurse:

Twelfth Night Act 2 scene 2

VIOLA:
I left no ring with her; what means this lady?
Fortune forbid my outside hath not charmed her!
She made good view of me, indeed so much
That sure, methought her eyes had lost their tongue,
For she did speak in starts, distractedly.
She loves me, sure, the cunning of her passion
Invites me in this churlish messenger.
None of my lords ring? Why, he sent her none.
I am the man! If it be so as tis
Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness
Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.
How easy is it for the proper false
In womens waxen hearts to set their forms.
Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,
For such as we are made of such we be.
How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly;
And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.
What will become of this? As I am man,
My state is desperate for my masters love.
As I am woman now, alas the day,
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!
O Time, thou must untangle this, not I!
It is to hard a knot for me tuntie.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Act 2 scene 2 (edited)

Mistress Quickly
Marry, this is the short and the long of it; you have brought Mistress
Ford into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful. The best courtier of them all,
when the court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her to such a
canary. Yet there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their
coaches, I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after
gift; smelling so sweetly, all musk, and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk
and gold; and in such alligant terms; and in such wine and sugar of the
best and the fairest, that would have won any woman's heart; and, I
warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her. I had myself
twenty angels given me this morning; but I defy all angels, in
any such sort, as they say, but in the way of honesty: and, I warrant you,
they could never get her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of
them all: and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners;
but, I warrant you, all is one with her. Marry now she hath received your
letter, for the which she thanks you a thousand times; and she gives you
to notify that her husband will be absence from his house between ten
and eleven. And then you may come and see the picture, she says, that
you wot of: Master Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the
sweet woman leads an ill life with him: he's a very jealousy man: she
leads a very frampold life with him, good heart. But I have another
messenger to your worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty
commendations to you too: and let me tell you in your ear, she's as
fartuous a civil modest wife, and one, I tell you, that will not miss you
morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe'er be the other:
and she bade me tell your worship that her husband is seldom from
home; but she hopes there will come a time. I never knew a woman so
dote upon a man: surely I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE Act 2 scene 4

ISABELLA :
To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof;
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will:
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour
That, had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorr'd pollution.
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.

MENS SHAKESPEARE
KING LEAR Act 1 scene 2
EDMUND:
Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well-compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true
As honest madams issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tired bed
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops
Got tween asleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land,
Our fathers love is to bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate. Fine word, legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow. I prosper.
Now gods, stand up for bastards!

CORIOLANUS Act II scene i

BRUTUS:
All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights
Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
While she chats him. The kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram bout her reechy neck,
Clambering the wall to eye him. Stalls, bulks, windows
Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed
With variable complexions, all agreeing
In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs and puff
To win a vulgar station. Our veiled dames
Commit the war of white and damask in
Their nicely gawded cheeks to thwanton spoil
Of Phoebus burning kisses. Such a pother
As if that whatsoever god who leads him
Were slily crept into his human powers
And gave him graceful posture.

MACBETH: Act 1 scene 7

MACBETH:
If it were done, when tis done, then twere well
It were done quickly: if thassassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
Wed jump the life to come. But in these cases,
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
To plague thinventor: this even-handed Justice
Commends thingredience of our poisond chalice
To our own lips. Hes here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman, and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against the murtherer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek; hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongud against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And Pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or Heavens Cherubin, horsd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself,
And falls on thother-

THE WINTERS TALE Act 1 scene 2

Leontes:
Gone already!
Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one!
Go, play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I
Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave: contempt and clamour
Will be my knell. Go play, boy, play. There have been,
(Or I am much deceived), cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is, (even at this present,
Now while I speak this), holds his wife by th arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in's absence
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't
Whiles other men have gates and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north and south: be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly. Know't;
It will let in and out the enemy
With bag and baggage: many thousand on's
Have the disease, and feel't not. How now, boy!

HENRY V: Act 1 scene 1 (prologue)

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
(Leashed in like hounds) should famine, sword, and fire
crouch for employment. But pardon, Gentles all:
The flat, unraised spirits, that hath dared,
On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth
So great an object. Can this cock-pit hold
The vastie fields of France? Or may we cram
Within this Wooden O, the very casks
That did afright the air at Agincourt?
O pardon: since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million,
And let us, cyphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confind two mighty monarchies,
Whose high, up-reared, 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 hooves ith receiving earth:
For tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there: jumping oer times;
Turning thaccomplishment 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.

ROMEO AND JULIET Act 2 scene 2

ROMEO:
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
[JULIET appears above at a window]
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!
She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Act 4 scene 1

PETRUCHIO
Thus have I politicly begun my reign,
And 'tis my hope to end successfully.
My falcon now is sharp and passing empty
And till she stoop she must not be full-gorg'd,
For then she never looks upon her lure.
Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come, and know her keeper's call,
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites
That bate and beat, and will not be obedient.
She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat.
Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not;
As with the meat, some undeserved fault
I'll find about the making of the bed;
And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster,
This way the coverlet, another way the sheets;
Ay, and amid this hurly I intend
That all is done in reverend care of herAnd, in conclusion, she shall watch all night;
And if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl
And with the clamour keep her still awake:
This is a way to kill a wife with kindness,
And thus I'll curb her mad and headstrong humour.
He that knows better how to tame a shrew,
Now let him speak; 'tis charity to show.