Author: Sweeperlutze

“I left no ring with her” (Twelfth Night) In the kingdom of Illyria, a nobleman named Orsino lies around listening to music, pining away for the love of Lady Olivia. He cannot have her because she is in mourning for her dead brother and refuses to entertain any proposals of marriage. Meanwhile, off the coast, […]

Continuing our research into the voices of Shakespeares’ women we return to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and to the words of one of the main female protangonists – Helena. Again there is a paucity of clips of this speech, and so we rely mainly on what appear to be audition tapes, however the extract featuring […]

From the words of Portia, a woman who had to disguise herself as a male lawyer to be heard, to the words of Titania, the Queen of the Fairies in her battle of words with her husband Oberon in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Interestingly there a fewer versions of this speech to be found […]

I think it is time that we heard a woman’s voice in our collection of Bard Words. “The quality of mercy” is a speech given by Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Act 4, Scene 1). In the speech, Portia, disguised as a male lawyer, begs Shylock, the Jewish moneylender who has demanded a […]

“To be, or not to be” is the opening phrase of a soliloquy given by Prince Hamlet in the so-called “nunnery scene” of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1). In the speech, Hamlet contemplates death and suicide, bemoaning the pain and unfairness of life but acknowledging that the alternative might be worse. The opening […]

It has been said that Hamlet is play wrapped around a series of soliloquies In the play Shakespeare’s title character is shown to speak in seven soliloquies. Each soliloquy advances the plot, reveals Hamlet’s inner thoughts to the audience and helps to create an atmosphere in the play. ‘O, that this too too solid flesh […]

Having heard the melancholy Jaques describe the ‘Seven Ages of Man’ we now find Shakespeare reflecting on the apparent meaninglessness of life. Again the comparison between the role of the actor and of real life is made. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” is the beginning of the second sentence of one of the most famous […]

“All the world’s a stage” is the phrase that begins a monologue from Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. Through Jaques, Shakespeare takes the audience on a journey of the complete lifecycle of a human being, made particularly vivid by its visual images of […]

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” is the first line of a speech by Mark Antony in the play Julius Caesar. Occurring in Act III, scene II, it is one of the most famous lines in all of Shakespeare’s works. The speech is a famous example of the use of emotionally charged rhetoric. Comparisons […]

‘Now is the winter of our discontent’‘ is the famous opening line of Richard III. The play fictionalizes the reign of King Richard III, who lived from 1452 until 1485. He reigned over England from 1483 until his death, meaning he was in power for only two years. Shakespeare had his own particular political reasons […]