Category: Mumming

‘O for a Muse of fire’ (Henry V) so begins the Prologue to Henry V. The Prologue is spoken by the Chorus, and the speech sets the scene for the historical drama that will follow; it also makes reference to the very theatre in which Henry V was first performed, which makes it doubly notable […]

‘If music be the food of love, play on’: (Twelfth Night) These nine words, spoken by the Count Orsino, are among the most famous opening lines in all of Shakespeare. To set the scene: Twelfth Night opens with the Duke of Illyria, Orsino, pining away with love for Olivia, a countess whose father died a […]

‘The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan’ (Macbeth) so begins Lady Macbeth’s first great soliloquy. The speech comes in Act 1 Scene 5, immediately after Lady Macbeth has received news from a messenger that Duncan, the King, will be arriving at the castle that night, accompanied by Lady Macbeth’s […]

‘Was the hope drunk wherein you dress’d yourself?’ (Macbeth) Lady Macbeth taunts her husband for his loss of resolve, in Act 1 Scene 7. The scene, and Lady Macbeth’s exchange with her husband, bring the first act of Macbeth to a close, paving the way for the bloody events that will follow in the next […]

“But, soft! What light from yonder window breaks” (Romeo and Juliet) is a speech made by Romeo at the beginning of Act II Scene 2 The whole of the speech represents the consolidation and confirmation of Romeo’s love for Juliet. Romeo begins this speech when he sees Juliet at her window. (Whether she’s at a […]

“What Angel wakes me from my flowery bed?” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) In Bard Words (19) Oberon, King of the Fairies instructed his henchman Robin Goodfellow (Puck) to obtain a the juice of a rare flower and with it to anoint the eyes of Titania, the Fairy Queen. The effect of this juice is to […]

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) Today we return to Shakespeare’s ‘Dream’ in which we find a tangled knot of lovers. Hermia is ordered by her father, to marry Demetrius, who is loved by Helena, but Hermia loves Lysander. The star-crossed pair decides to flee the forest, followed […]

‘Make me a willow cabin at your gate‘ (Twelfth Night) Viola (in her disguise as Cesario) delivers this speech to Olivia after Orsino has sent her to carry his messages of love to Olivia. In this speech, however, Cesario sets aside the prepared messages and instead tells Olivia what he would do if he were […]

‘O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!’ (Hamlet): Hamlet exclaims in one of his more despairing soliloquies in Shakespeare’s play. But what prompts him and what does he say in this important speech in the play? Hamlet’s soliloquy comes in act 2 scene 2, shortly after he has spoken with the players or […]

“What a piece of work is a man” (Hamlet) In the play the prince is visited by two fellow university students, brought to Elsinore by Hamlet’s murderous uncle, to spy on him. They find him depressed and spiritually paralysed. He tells them that ‘I… have lost all my mirth, foregone all customs and exercise.’ The […]