Monologue Library
Russian-classic public-domain monologues by gender, author and acting type.
📖 Guide: how to prepare an audition monologueMonologue of the day
Hotspur
Henry IV, Part 1 · William Shakespeare · 1–2 min
What it trains: Hotspur defending himself before the king — a hot-tempered, contemptuous account of the foppish lord; great for temperament and biting irony.
71 monologues
Hamlet
Hamlet · William Shakespeare
«To be, or not to be, that is the question, Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of…»
'To be, or not to be' — the most famous speech in the repertoire: thought on the edge of life and death. Keep the clarity of thought; don't 'play' despair.
Macbeth
Macbeth · William Shakespeare
«Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not,…»
'Is this a dagger…' — the hallucination before the murder: horror, resolve, unravelling. Strong dramatic/villain material.
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth · William Shakespeare
«The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits…»
'Come, you spirits…' — a summons to darkness, unsexing herself for power. Cold force, not shouting.
Richard III
Richard III · William Shakespeare
«Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd…»
'Now is the winter of our discontent…' — the charismatic villain makes the audience his accomplice. Play wit and relish, not 'villainy'.
Portia
The Merchant of Venice · William Shakespeare
«The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it…»
'The quality of mercy is not strain'd…' — intellect, dignity and moral force.
Jaques
As You Like It · William Shakespeare
«All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;…»
'All the world's a stage…' — the seven ages of man: a thinker's irony and observation.
Juliet
Romeo and Juliet · William Shakespeare
«Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner As Phaethon would whip you to…»
'Gallop apace…' — the impatience of young love: pure ardour and longing.
Shylock
The Merchant of Venice · William Shakespeare
«He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my…»
'Hath not a Jew eyes?' — pain, dignity and the logic of revenge. Living grievance, not pathos.
Henry V
Henry V · William Shakespeare
«Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace…»
'Once more unto the breach…' — a leader rallying his men. Power from an inner anchor, not from force.
Viola
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
«I left no ring with her: what means this lady? Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her! She made good…»
'I left no ring with her…' — realising she's been fallen for, and her own tangle: wit, humour, charm.
Puck
A Midsummer Night's Dream · William Shakespeare
«If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these…»
Puck's epilogue — lightness, charm, direct contact with the audience. A short, winning comic piece.
Iago
Othello · William Shakespeare
«Thus do I ever make my fool my purse: For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane, If I would time expend…»
'Thus do I ever make my fool my purse…' — the cold manipulator builds his plot. Calm intellect is more dangerous than malice.
Faustus
Doctor Faustus · Christopher Marlowe
«O Faustus, Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damn'd perpetually! Stand still,…»
The final hour before damnation: terror, pleading, despair. One of the great dramatic soliloquies.
Algernon
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
«I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing…»
A paradox on love and proposals: lightness, irony, flawless timing. A short, winning comic piece.
Christy Mahon
The Playboy of the Western World · J. M. Synge
«It's little you'll think if my love's a poacher's, or an earl's itself, when you'll feel my two hands…»
A lyrical wooing of Pegeen: musical speech, charm and Irish lilt — material for organic rhythm.
Eliza Doolittle
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
«And I can be civil and kind to people, which is more than you can. Aha! That's done you, Henry Higgins, it…»
Finding her own voice and dignity against Higgins: strength, hurt and liberation.
Benedick
Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare
«I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love,…»
Take it for the sworn bachelor mocking lovers; play it with cocky irony, reeling off his impossible checklist for a wife.
Beatrice
Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare
«What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much? Contempt,…»
A short verse soliloquy — the witty sparrer caught by real feeling; play the proud mask cracking into tenderness.
Don John
Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare
«I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace, and it better fits my blood to be disdained of…»
A blunt manifesto of the plain-dealing villain; take it for the dark self-irony and menace beneath feigned restraint.
Angelo
Measure for Measure · William Shakespeare
«From thee, even from thy virtue! What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the…»
A self-indicting soliloquy of the hypocrite waking to his own lust — play the horror at discovering himself.
Isabella
Measure for Measure · William Shakespeare
«Could great men thunder As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer…»
A blazing rebuke of earthly authority abusing its power — build on rising righteous indignation.
Brutus
Julius Caesar · William Shakespeare
«It must be by his death: and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He…»
A model reasoner's soliloquy: an honest man talks himself into murder step by step — play the thought, not the rhetoric.
Mark Antony
Julius Caesar · William Shakespeare
«O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins…»
Alone with the corpse the mask drops — from grief to a prophecy of vengeance; build the rage, play the turn from mourning to war-lust.
Cassius
Julius Caesar · William Shakespeare
«Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and…»
Burning envy dressed as republican principle — the tempter working on Brutus; play the acid and the personal grievance beneath the politics.
Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra · William Shakespeare
«I dream'd there was an Emperor Antony: O, such another sleep, that I might see But such another man! His face…»
Take it for the apotheosis of love and grief: Cleopatra makes the dead Antony into a cosmic myth — play it on the edge of ecstasy and despair.
Domitius Enobarbus
Antony and Cleopatra · William Shakespeare
«I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten…»
The famous 'barge' description of Cleopatra: sensual word-painting — play a storyteller intoxicated by the very thing he describes.
Falstaff
Henry IV, Part 1 · William Shakespeare
«'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls…»
The famous 'catechism' on honour — play it as a live argument with himself, irony and cowardice masked as common sense.
Hotspur
Henry IV, Part 1 · William Shakespeare
«My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and…»
Hotspur defending himself before the king — a hot-tempered, contemptuous account of the foppish lord; great for temperament and biting irony.
Prince Henry
Henry IV, Part 1 · William Shakespeare
«I know you all, and will awhile uphold The unyoked humour of your idleness: Yet herein will I imitate the…»
The 'I know you all' soliloquy — the heir's calculated confession of his pretence; play cool self-control and a hidden plan.
Constance
King John · William Shakespeare
«Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace! False blood to false blood join'd! gone to be friends! Shall Lewis…»
A mother just told her cause is betrayed — play mounting disbelief and dread, clinging to hope until the last word.
The Bastard (Philip Faulconbridge)
King John · William Shakespeare
«Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, Hath willingly departed…»
A cynical anatomy of Commodity's grip on the world — play the witty bitterness that finally confesses its own price.
King John
King John · William Shakespeare
«Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet, But thou shalt have; and creep time ne'er so slow, Yet it…»
The king coaxes Hubert toward murder without naming it — play the insinuating, midnight menace of the unspoken.
Leontes
The Winter's Tale · William Shakespeare
«Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses? Kissing with inside lip? stopping the…»
Leontes' jealousy at full boil — each line speeds the paranoia; play the spiralling self-conviction, not the shouting.
Hermione
The Winter's Tale · William Shakespeare
«Since what I am to say must be but that Which contradicts my accusation and The testimony on my part no other…»
The slandered queen's courtroom defence — dignity and clear reason against tyranny; hold quiet strength, not complaint.
Paulina
The Winter's Tale · William Shakespeare
«What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling? In leads or…»
Paulina hurls the queen's death at the tyrant — righteous fury unleashed; build relentlessly to the curse.
Duke Orsino
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
«If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and…»
The famous opening on love as appetite — play the indulgent melancholy, not just pretty verse.
Olivia
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
«'What is your parentage?' 'Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: I am a gentleman.' I'll be sworn thou…»
Olivia catches herself falling in love at first sight — play the surprise and surrender to the feeling.
Malvolio
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
«M, O, A, I; this simulation is not as the former: and yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for…»
Malvolio decodes the forged letter and convinces himself Olivia loves him — vanity played dead-straight is the comedy.
Lady Bracknell
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
«The line is immaterial. Mr. Worthing, I confess I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To…»
The iconic hand-bag put-down — play monumental self-assurance and lethal social logic with total deadpan gravity.
Gwendolen
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
«Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more…»
A love declaration aimed at the name 'Ernest': earnest ardour on an absurd premise—comedy mined from total sincerity.
Cecily
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
«Well, ever since dear Uncle Jack first confessed to us that he had a younger brother who was very wicked and…»
Cecily recounts an engagement she invented entirely: dreamy naivety delivered as established fact—pure ingénue comedy.
Sir Peter Teazle
The School for Scandal · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«When an old Bachelor takes a young Wife—what is He to expect—'Tis now six months since Lady Teazle made me…»
A grumbling confessional opener for an old husband: play the self-mockery and the tenderness he refuses to admit.
Joseph Surface
The School for Scandal · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«But my dear Lady Teazle 'tis your own fault if you suffer it—when a Husband entertains a groundless suspicion…»
The hypocrite's famous sophistry talking another man's wife toward betrayal by 'logic': silky charm over cold calculation.
Lady Teazle
The School for Scandal · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«Hear me Sir Peter—I came hither on no matter relating to your ward and even ignorant of this Gentleman's…»
The turning-point repentance after the screen falls: from coquette to candour, the wife's tenderness winning out over vanity.
Duchess
The Duchess of Malfi · John Webster
«The misery of us that are born great! We are forc'd to woo, because none dare woo us; And as a tyrant doubles…»
A high-born widow woos her own steward — play it as courage, tenderness and vulnerability at once, never coy.
Bosola
The Duchess of Malfi · John Webster
«He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o'erladen…»
The malcontent mercenary on the ingratitude of patrons and the cast-off soldier's fate; corrosive, biting bitterness.
Alfred Doolittle
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
«Don’t say that, Governor. Don’t look at it that way. What am I, Governors both? I ask you, what am I? I’m one…»
A dazzling comic sophist's set-piece on the “undeserving poor” — play the charm and cheeky logic of a born chancer.
Henry Higgins
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
«Well, I haven’t. I find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting,…»
The self-satisfied bachelor-reasoner on women — dry wit, self-irony, crisp epigrammatic rhythm.
Caliban
The Tempest · William Shakespeare
«I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou takest from me. When thou camest…»
Play the enslaved native's grievance: from tender memory of kindness to a burning curse over stolen freedom.
Miranda
The Tempest · William Shakespeare
«I do not know One of my sex; no woman's face remember, Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen More…»
The innocent heroine confesses love for the first time — chaste, candid, without coquetry.
Prospero
The Tempest · William Shakespeare
«I pray thee, mark me. I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness and the bettering of my…»
The deposed duke dissects how his own trust bred his brother's treachery — a reasoned indictment.
Edmund
King Lear · William Shakespeare
«Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law My services are bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of…»
The bastard's manifesto — play it as a seductive, lucid challenge to the social order.
Cordelia
King Lear · William Shakespeare
«I yet beseech your majesty,— If for I want that glib and oily art, To speak and purpose not; since what I…»
The quiet dignity of a rejected daughter — play it restrained, tearless, anchored in truth.
Goneril
King Lear · William Shakespeare
«Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool, But other of your insolent retinue Do hourly carp and quarrel;…»
Goneril goes on the offensive against her father — play it cold, with calculated menace masked as concern.
Fool
King Lear · William Shakespeare
«This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I'll speak a prophecy ere I go: When priests are more in word than…»
The Fool's mock prophecy in the storm — play it with bitter irony, balancing clowning and prophecy.
Launce
Two Gentlemen of Verona · William Shakespeare
«Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have…»
A solo comic turn: he re-enacts his family's tearful farewell using shoes and a hat, cursing his unfeeling dog. Pure clowning with props.
Julia
Two Gentlemen of Verona · William Shakespeare
«Nay, would I were so anger'd with the same! O hateful hands, to tear such loving words! Injurious wasps, to…»
Having torn up Proteus's love letter in pique, she instantly repents and tenderly gathers the scraps bearing his name — a play of shame, love and wilful pride.
Proteus
Two Gentlemen of Verona · William Shakespeare
«To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn; To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn; To wrong my friend, I shall…»
Newly smitten with Silvia, he sophistically justifies a threefold betrayal — of Julia, his friend, and his oath — then coolly plots his scheme.
Valentine
Two Gentlemen of Verona · William Shakespeare
«And why not death rather than living torment? To die is to be banish'd from myself; And Silvia is myself:…»
Banished by the Duke, he equates his very life with Silvia: to be parted from her is death itself. A lyrical lament of exile.
Marina
Pericles · William Shakespeare
«Why would she have me kill'd? Now, as I can remember, by my troth, I never did her hurt in all my life: I…»
An innocent girl pleads with her hired killer, cataloguing her harmlessness — play genuine bewilderment building into dread.
Aaron
Titus Andronicus · William Shakespeare
«Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top, Safe out of fortune's shot; and sits aloft, Secure of thunder's crack or…»
Play the intoxication of ambition and predatory desire as the villain savours his mistress's rise and his own climb to power.
Tamora
Titus Andronicus · William Shakespeare
«Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? These two have 'ticed me hither to this place: A barren detested…»
Cold-blooded lie engineered to provoke murder: a fabricated tale of her own torment with which she sets her sons on to kill.
Katharina
The Taming of the Shrew · William Shakespeare
«Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy…»
The famous final speech on a wife's duty — play it as submission, irony, or veiled defiance.
Petruchio
The Taming of the Shrew · William Shakespeare
«Thus have I politicly begun my reign, And 'tis my hope to end successfully. My falcon now is sharp and…»
Alone, Petruchio lets the audience in on his taming method — conspiratorial charm laced with cruelty.
Vittoria Corombona
The White Devil · John Webster
«Humbly thus, Thus low to the most worthy and respected Lieger ambassadors, my modesty And womanhood I tender;…»
A woman on trial for her life refuses to grovel: she turns the courtroom into her stage and makes her accusers look small.
Cressida
Troilus and Cressida · William Shakespeare
«Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprise; But more in Troilus…»
A cool, clear-eyed credo of a woman who knows the rules of desire: play her intelligence and self-protection, not coquetry — the love is real, the mask is strategy.
Beatrice-Joanna
The Changeling · Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
«This fellow has undone me endlessly; Never was bride so fearfully distress’d: The more I think upon th'…»
Play a gambler one beat before her move, not a weeping victim: the panic must pivot into predatory scheming the instant she spots the closet.
Helena
A Midsummer Night's Dream · William Shakespeare
«How happy some o'er other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that?…»
Play the thought being born in real time, not a complaint: avoid self-pity, find the self-irony and the thrill of the moment her bad idea suddenly feels brilliant.
Lydia Languish
The Rivals · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«Why, is it not provoking? when I thought we were coming to the prettiest distress imaginable, to find myself…»
A perfect comic ingenue piece: play her despair absolutely sincerely — the joke is that her tragedy is getting everything she should want; don't wink at the audience.
Bottom
A Midsummer Night's Dream · William Shakespeare
«When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince!…»
Play Bottom's utterly sincere attempt to grasp the ungraspable — the comedy comes from his total self-belief, never from mugging for laughs.
Launcelot Gobbo
The Merchant of Venice · William Shakespeare
«Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts…»
A classic comic-servant inner trial: play the fiend and conscience as two distinct living voices pulling him physically in opposite directions, and let the final 'I will run' land as a triumphant verdict — the trap is reciting it as one even narration instead of a fought-out debate.