Monologues for the "Comedy Type" type
Classic monologues matched to the "Comedy Type" acting type.
21 monologues
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.