Shakespeare Monologues for Women
Page 8
marry – certainly
laid wormwood to my dug – put a bitter-tasting plant on her breast (to wean the child)
‘Shake!’ quoth the dove-house – all the doves in the dove-house told her to shake a leg, i.e. hurry up
trudge – leave
stinted – stopped
Romeo and Juliet
WHO Juliet, daughter of the wealthy Capulet family.
WHERE Her room in the Capulets’ house in Verona.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Juliet is alone.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Juliet is waiting for her nurse to bring news from Romeo, with whom she has just fallen in love.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Juliet has only just fallen in love.
• She is desperate for some news from Romeo and impatiently tries to find reasons for the nurse’s delay.
• Though there is urgency in her words, Juliet has time to fill and nothing else to do except talk to herself, so the speech need not be hurried.
• Find ways of physically showing Juliet’s restlessness.
• Now in love herself, she understands for the first time why images of love are portrayed the way they are.
• Her youth is emphasised by her attitude to older people.
• Her train of thought is interrupted by the arrival of the nurse and her servant.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Also head over heels in love are Helena (All’s Well That Ends Well) and Cressida (Troilus and Cressida).
Juliet
“The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse,
In half an hour she promis’d to return,
Perchance she cannot meet him. That’s not so.
O, she is lame, love’s heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams,
Driving back shadows over louring* hills.
Therefore do nimble-pinion’d* doves draw love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
Of this day’s journey, and from nine till twelve
Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
Had she affections and warm youthful blood,
She would be as swift in motion as a ball,
My words would bandy* her to my sweet love,
And his to me,
But old folks, many feign as they were dead,
Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead.
O God, she comes, O honey nurse, what news?
Hast thou met wit him? Send thy man away.”
(Act 2, scene 4, lines 1–19)
GLOSSARY
louring – gloomy
nimble-pinion’d – swift-winged
bandy – join, hurry
Romeo and Juliet
WHO Juliet, daughter of the wealthy Capulet family.
WHERE Her room in the Capulets’ house in Verona.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Juliet is alone.
WHAT IS HAPPENING The newly married Juliet waits for her husband Romeo, not realising that he has just killed her cousin Tybalt and been banished by the Duke.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Juliet is desperate for night to come so she can be with Romeo.
• Her speech is full of elaborate romantic imagery. Decide how much of this she is making up as she speaks it and where it comes from.
• It is a very sensual speech. Picture what the Romeo she is thinking of looks, sounds, tastes, smells and feels like. Work your way through the speech with all your senses.
• It is also a very erotic speech. She has married Romeo but not yet spent the night with him – he has ‘not yet enjoy’d’ her.
• The word ‘die’ can also mean to orgasm and could indicate the degree of sexual desire in the speech.
• Juliet describes herself as being like ‘an impatient child’. Decide how this might show itself in her speech and movements.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra) also talks erotically about her absent lover.
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 runaway’s eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk’d 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,
Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmann’d 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 raven’s back.
Come gentle night, come loving, black-brow’d 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 possess’d it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy’d. 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.
Enter Nurse.
And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo’s name, speaks heavenly eloquence.
Now, nurse, what news?”
(Act 3, scene 2, lines 1–34)
GLOSSARY
Phoebus – Roman god of the sun (pronounced ‘Fee-bus’)
Phaeton – Greek god of the sun (pronounced ‘Fie-yet-on’)
Hood my unmann’d blood bating in my cheeks – cover my uncontrollable blood beating in my cheeks, i.e. making her face red
Julius Caesar
WHO Portia, wife of Brutus, who is plotting to kill Julius Caesar.
WHERE The garden of her house in Rome, c. 44 BC.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Brutus, her husband. The young servant Lucius is asleep nearby.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Once again, her husband Brutus has crept from their bed and left her alone. Portia finds him and pleads with him to tell her the cause of his strange behaviour.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• It is the early hours of the morning. Use that to create a sense of time and atmosphere.
• There is an air of conspiracy. Portia will not want to wake anyone, and there is a young servant asleep close by.
• Consider how often and how long Portia has been lying awake and what makes her unable to bear her anxieties any longer.
• Decide what might have been going through Portia’s mind as she wondered what her husband was being so secret about.
• Think about the history of their marriage and why this conversation is so difficult for them both.
• Portia thinks it is unhealthy to be out at night. She is as keen for both to go inside as she is to find out her husband’s secrets.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Lady Percy (Henry IV, Part One) also pleads with her husband to tell her what is on his mind.
Portia
“Y’ave ungently, Brutus,
Stole from my bed; and yesternight at supper
You suddenly arose and walk’d about,
Musing and sighing, with your arms across,
And when I ask’d you what the matter was,
You star’d upon me with ungentle looks.
I urg’d you further; then you scratch’d your head,
/> And too impatiently stamp’d with your foot.
Yet I insisted; yet you answer’d not,
But, with an angry wafture of your hand,
Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did,
Fearing to strengthen that impatience
Which seem’d too much enkindled, and withal
Hoping it was but an effect of humour,
Which sometime hath his hour with every man.
It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep,
And could it work so much upon your shape
As it hath much prevail’d on your condition,
I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord,
Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
Is Brutus sick? And is it physical
To walk unbracèd* and suck up the humours
Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick?
And will he steal out of his wholesome bed,
To dare the vile contagion of the night
And tempt the rheumy and unpurgèd* air
To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus,
You have some sick offence within your mind,
Which by the right and virtue of my place
I ought to know of. And upon my knees
I charm you by my once commended beauty,
By all your vows of love, and that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me – your self, your half –
Why you are heavy, and what men tonight
Have had to resort to you, for here have been
Some six or seven who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.”
(Act 2, scene 1, lines 236–77, with some cuts)
GLOSSARY
physical . . . unbracèd – therapeutic . . . without protection
rheumy and unpurgèd – damp and unpurified
Macbeth
WHO Lady Macbeth, wife of Macbeth, a general in King Duncan’s army.
WHERE A room in Macbeth’s castle at Inverness, historically the mid-11thcentury.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Lady Macbeth is alone.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Lady Macbeth has just read a letter from her husband who is away at war. In it he has told of meeting three witches who have prophesied that he will become King. She is interrupted by news that the present King, Duncan, is on his way to her castle. Lady Macbeth calls on spirits to help her kill him and so help her husband attain the crown.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Lady Macbeth talks of ‘my’ battlements. That one possessive word indicates her character and the situation.
• Decide why she needs to call on spirits, whether she has done this before and how scary a thing this might be to do. There is the sense of an invocation, of a magic spell, in her words. Decide at what point she imagines the spirits arrive. Allow time for them to appear to her.
• Lady Macbeth wishes she could do the things a man can do. Decide what she feels about her body and how might this be expressed physically.
• The speech is interrupted by the entrance of Macbeth. Decide how she might continue if he did not arrive when he does and whether she has more to say.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Joan la Pucelle (Henry VI, Part One) and Queen Margaret (Henry VI, Part Three) are other women prepared to do men’s work.
Lady Macbeth
“The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts,* unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious* visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall,* you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall* thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’
(Act 1, scene 5, lines 38–54)
GLOSSARY
tend on mortal thoughts – pay heed to human wishes
compunctious – remorseful
gall – bile, something bitter
pall – cover
Macbeth
WHO Lady Macduff.
WHERE The Macduffs’ castle in Fife.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Her young son, and Ross, a nobleman.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Lady Macduff ’s husband has left Scotland for England to join the rebellion against King Macbeth. She fears for the lives of herself and her children whom Macduff has left behind.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Lady Macduff questions her husband’s behaviour. She can be angry, amazed, confused, lonely, frightened at different times in the speech.
• Then she wonders what to do for herself and the focus moves from her husband to the plight of herself and her children.
• She realises that doing evil is often thought praiseworthy (‘laudable’) and so to plead innocence will do her no good.
• Decide how bleak, quiet and abandoned she must feel at the end of the speech.
• Think about the way in which the idea of ‘flight’ runs through Lady Macduff ’s words.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Another wife fearing death is Imogen (Cymbeline). Other wives feeling abandoned – or worse – by their husbands are Lady Anne (Richard III) and Queen Katharine (Henry VIII).
Lady Macduff
“What had he done, to make him fly the land?
His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors.
Wisdom?To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
His mansion and his titles,* in a place
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not,
He wants the natural touch;* for the poor wren,
The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
All is the fear, and nothing is the love;
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.
Whither should I fly?
I have done no harm. But I remember now
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
Is often laudable, to do good sometime
Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
Do I put up that womanly defence,
To say I have done no harm?”
(Act 4, scene 2, lines 1–77, with some cuts)
GLOSSARY
his mansion and his titles – both his home and his entitlement to it
wants the natural touch – lacks basic instinct
Hamlet
WHO Ophelia, Prince Hamlet’s girlfriend.
WHERE A room in the royal castle of Elsinore, Denmark.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Ophelia’s father, Polonius, and King Claudius are hiding behind a curtain having been eavesdropping on her meeting with Hamlet which has just ended with Hamlet berating her before leaving.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Hamlet’s violent outburst against her has left Ophelia distraught at what has happened to the man she loves.
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT
• Hamlet has just behaved abusively to Ophelia. Perhaps she is crying or weeping, having difficulty knowing what to think and how to express her thoughts.
• She remembers all that she loves about him. Make each of these qualities individual.
• Notice the repetition of ‘quite’, and how it might affect delivery of the line.
• Ophelia thinks about Hamlet before she thinks about herself.
• Decide how his behaviour to her has affected her love
for him.
• Decide whether she remembers that her father and the King are still in hiding.
• Notice the final rhyming couplet. She has nothing left to say and is exhausted.
WHERE ELSE TO LOOK Desdemona (Othello) is also distressed by the behaviour of the man she loves.
Ophelia
“O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,
Th’expectancy and rose* of the fair state,
The glass* of fashion, and the mould of form,*
Th’observ’d of all observers – quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck’d the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy.* O, woe is me,
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see.”
(Act 3, scene 1, lines 159–70)
GLOSSARY
expectancy and rose – vary expectation
glass – looking-glass, mirror
mould of form – model of behaviour
blasted with ecstasy – blighted with madness
King Lear
WHO Goneril, the eldest of King Lear’s three daughters, married to the Duke of Albany.
WHERE A hall in the palace of the Duke of Albany in ancient Britain.
WHO ELSE IS THERE Her father, Lear, with his Fool.
WHAT IS HAPPENING Lear has divided up his kingdom between his daughters. Now without power, Lear has become a burden to his daughters and Goneril tells him she will no longer tolerate the disruptive behaviour of him and his men.