Women's Monologues

The Comedies

All's Well That Ends Well

Helena	Verse	O! were that all. I think not on my father	I i 41
Helena	Verse	Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,	I i 121
Countess	Verse	If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn	I iii 41
Helena	Verse	Then I confess here on my knee before high heaven and you	I iii 111
Helena	Verse	"Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France."	III ii 82
Countess	Verse	What angel shall bless this unworthy husband? He cannot thrive,	III iv 29
Helena	Verse	That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you,	IV iv 1

As You Like It

Rosalind intercut	Prose	I have been told so of many; but indeed an old religious uncle of mine taught me to speak,	III ii 39
Phoebe	Verse	I would not be thy executioner:	III v 11
Rosalind	Verse	And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,	III v 11
Phoebe	Verse	Think not I love him, though I ask for him.	III v 110-136
Rosalind intercut	Prose	O, I know where you are	V ii 15
Rosalind	Prose	It is not the fashion to see the lady epilogue	Epilogue

The Comedy of Errors

Adriana	Verse	His company must do his minions grace	II i 85
Adrianna	Verse	Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown:	II ii 113-149
Luciana	Verse	And may it be that you have quite forgot	III ii 1
Courtesan	Verse	Now, out of doubt, Antipholus is mad	IV iii 56
Lady Abbess	Verse	And therefore came it that the man was mad	V i 75
Adriana	Verse	May it please your grace, Antipholus my husband,	V i 144

Cymbeline

Queen	Verse	Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in time	I ii 24
Imogen	Verse	I did not take my leave of him, but had	I iii 25
Imogen	Verse	Away! I do condemn mine ears that have	I vi 165
Queen	Verse	That opportunity Which then they had to take from 's, to resume	III i 19
Imogen	Verse	Who? thy lord? that is my lord, Leonatus!	III ii 29
Imogen	Verse	Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place	III iv 1
Imogen	Verse	I false! Thy conscience witness: Iachimo,	III iv 39
Imogen	Verse	Why, I must die; And if I do not by thy hand thou art	III iv 70
Imogen	Verse	I see a man's life is a tedious one	III vi 1
Imogen	Verse	Yes, sir, to Milford Haven. Which is the way?	IV ii 363
Cymbeline	Verse	O rare instinct!	III vi 1-27

Loves Labours Lost

Imogen	Verse	Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,	II i 15
Princess	Verse	See, see my beauty will be sav'd by merit	IV i 24
Princess	Verse	Sweethearts, we shall be rich ere we depart	V ii 1
Rosalind	Verse	They are worse fools to purchase mocking so	V ii 63
Rosalind	Verse	A time, methinks, too short	V ii 773
Rosalind	Verse	Oft have I heard of you, my lord Berowne	V ii 827

Measure for Measure

Isabella	Verse	Could great men thunder	II ii 137
Isabella	Verse	To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,	II iv 170
Isabella	Verse	O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!	III i 151
Isabella intercut	Verse	Most strange but yet most truly will I speak	V i 42
Isabella	Verse	In brief, to set the needless process by	V i 110

Merry Wives of Windsor

Mistress Page	Prose	What, have I scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of my beauty,	II i 1
Mistress Ford	Prose	We burn Daylight. Here, Read, read; percieve how I might be knighted	II i 15
Mistress Quickly	Prose	Marry, this is the short and the long of it	II i 32
Mistress Page	Prose	There is an old tale goes that Herne the hunter	IV iv 24

Merchant of Venice

Portia	Prose	If to do were as easy as to know	I ii 7
Portia	Verse	I pray you, tarry: pause a day or two	III ii 1
Portia	Verse	Away then!   I am lock'd in one of them	III ii 44
Portia	Verse	You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand	III ii 136
Portia	Verse	They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit	III iv 64
Portia	Verse	The quality of mercy is not strain'd,	IV i 179

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Helena	Verse	Call you me fair? That fair again unsay	I i 188
Helena	Verse	How happy some o'er other some can be!	I i 233
Fairy	Verse	Over hill, over dale, through bush, through brier	II i 4
Puck	Verse	The king doth keep his revels here to-night	II i 20
Puck	Verse	Thou speakest aright I am that merry wanderer of the night.	II i 45
Titania	Verse	These are the forgeries of jealousy:	II i 81
Titania	Verse	Set your heart at rest: The fairy land buys not the child of me.	II i 126
Puck	Verse	Through the forest have I gone.	II ii 58
Helena	Verse	O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!	II ii 81
Hermia	Verse	Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best	II ii 138
Titania intercut	Verse	What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?	III i 66
Puck	Verse	My mistress with a monster is in love	III ii 10
Hermia Intercut	Verse	Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse	III ii 50
Helena	Verse	O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent	III ii 152
Helena intercut	Verse	Lo! She is one of this confederacy.	III ii 201
Hermia	Verse	Puppet? Why so? Ay, that way goes the game.	III ii 305
Helena	Verse	Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me	III ii 323
Puck	Verse	Now the hungry lion roars,	V ii 1
Puck	Verse	If we shadows have offended,	V ii 56

Much Ado About Nothing

Beatrice

Verse

What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?

III i 113

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Marina	Verse	Do anything but this thou doest	IV vi 113
Marina	Verse	I am a maid, My lord, that ne'er before invited eyes	V i 99

The Taming of the Shrew

Kate	Verse	No shame but mine. I must forsooth be forc'd	III ii 8-20
Kate	Verse	The more my wrong, the more his spite appears	IV iii 78-104
Kate	Verse	Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow	V ii 54

The Tempest

Miranda	Verse	If by your art, my dearest father, you have	I ii 1
*Miranda	Verse	Abhorred slave, which any print of goodness wilt not take	I ii 419
Miranda	Verse	Alas, now, pray you, Work not so hard: I would the lightning had	III i 19
Miranda	Verse	I do not know One of my sex; no woman's face remember,	III i 61
		*The Edition (1914 Oxford) on the Bartleby server to which we link gives this speech to Prospero. The Riverside gives the speech to Miranda. The First Folio has it as Miranda's.

Troilus and Cressida

Prologue	Verse	In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece	Prologue
Cressida	Verse	Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice	I ii 169
Cressida	Verse	Hard to seem won: but I was won, my lord	III ii 64

Twelfth Night

Viola	Verse	Above my fortunes, yet my state is well	I v 151
Viola	Verse	I left no ring with her: what means this lady?	II ii 8
Viola	Verse	O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful	III i 111

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Julia	Verse	O hateful hands, to tear such loving words!	I ii 115
Julia	Verse	The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns	II vii 26
Silvia	Verse	O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman	IV iii 16
Julia	Verse	How many women would do such a message?	IV iv 51
Julia	Verse	A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful	IV iv 142

The Winter's Tale

Hermione intercut	Verse	There's some ill planet reigns I must be patient till the heavens look	II i 130
Paulina	Verse	I dare be sworn These dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king,	II ii 42
Hermione	Verse	Since what I am to say must be but that Which contradicts my accusation and	III ii 16
Hermione	Verse	Sir, spare your threats: The bug which you would fright me with I seek.	III ii 90
Paulina	Verse	What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?	III ii 185
Time (Chorus)	Verse	I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror <	IV 0 1

The Histories

Henry IV i

Lady Hotspur

Verse

O, my good lord, why are you thus alone?

II iii 35

Henry IV ii

Rumour	Verse	Open your ears; for which of you will stop	Induction
Quickly	Prose	I am undone by his going; I warrant you	II i 16
Quickly	Prose	Marry, if thou wert an honest man	II i 39
Lady Percy	Verse	O yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars!	II iii 11
Epilogue	Prose	First my fear; then my courtesy; last my speech.	V v 92

Henry V

Chorus	Verse	O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend	Prologue 1
Chorus	Verse	Now all the youth of England are on fire	II prologue 1
Hostess	Prose	Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosom	II iii 9
Chorus	Verse	Thus with imagined wing our swift scene flies	III prologue 1
Chorus	Verse	Now entertain conjecture of a time	IV prologue 1

Henry VI i

Joan	Verse	Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daughter	I ii 77
Joan	Verse	Assign'd am I to be the English scourge.	I ii 132
Joan intercut	Verse	Look on thy country, look on fertile France,	III iii 48
Joan	Verse	The regent conquers, and the Frenchmen fly.	V iii 1
Joan intercut	Verse	First, let me tell you whom you have condemn'd	V iv 39

Henry VI ii

Joan intercut	Verse	Why droops my lord, like over-ripen'd corn	I ii 1
Queen	Verse	My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise	I iii 25
Eleanor	Verse	Ah, Gloucester, teach me to forget myself	II iv 31
Margaret	Verse	Can you not see? or will ye not observe	III i 6
Queen	Verse	Why do you rate my Lord of Suffolk thus?	III ii 62
Margaret	Verse	Be woe for me, more wretched than he is	III ii 9

Henry VI iii

Margaret	Verse	Who can be patient in such extremes?	I i 222
Margaret	Verse	Enforc'd thee! art thou king, and wilt be forc'd?	I i 237
Margaret	Verse	Brave warriors, Clifford and Northumberland	I iv 69
Margaret	Verse	Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts	III iii 24
Margaret	Verse	Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,	V iv 1
Margaret	Verse	O Ned, sweet Ned! speak to thy mother, boy!	V v 54

Henry VIII

Prologue	Verse	I come no more to make you laugh: things now	prologue
Surveyor intercut	Verse	Not long before your highness sped to France	I ii 175
Katherine	Verse	Sir, I desire you do me right and justice	II iv 15
Katherine	Verse	My lord, my lord, I am a simple woman, much too weak	II iv 115
Katherine	Verse	In which I have commended to his goodness	IV ii 156

King John

Constance	Verse	Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth!	II i 182
First Citizen	Verse	That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch	II i 439
Constance	Verse	Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace!	III i 1
Constance	Verse	If thou, that bid'st me be content, wert grim	III i 45
Constance	Verse	A wicked day, and not a holy day!	III i 87
Constance intercut	Verse	No, I defy all counsel, all redress	III iv 26
Constance	Verse	I tore them from their bonds and cried aloud	III iv 75
Constance	Verse	Grief fills the room up of my absent child	III iv 98

Richard II

Duchess	Verse	Yet one word more. Grief boundeth where it falls	II ii 60
Constance	Verse	Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?	I ii 11

Richard III

Anne	Verse	Set down, set down your honourable load	I ii 1
Anne	Verse	What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?	I ii 43
Margaret	Verse	What? were you snarling all before I came,	I iii 193
Margaret	Verse	If heaven have any grievous plague in store	I iii 222
Duchess	Verse	Ah! so much interest have I in thy sorrow	II ii 46
Duchess	Verse	Accursed and unquiet wrangling days	II iv 61
Anne	Verse	No! why? When he that is my husband now	IV i 71
Margaret	Verse	Bear with me; I am hungry for revenge	IV iv 64
Margaret	Verse	I call'd thee then vain flourish of my fortune	IV iv 85

The Tragedies

Antony & Cleopatra

Cleopatra	Verse	Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?	I v 26
Cleopatra	Verse	No more, but e'en a woman, and commanded	IV xiii 91
Cleopatra	Verse	Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir	V ii 62
Cleopatra	Verse	O Caesar what a wounding shame is this	V ii 194
Cleopatra intercut	Verse	Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have	V ii 315

Coriolanus

Volumnia	Prose	If my son were my husband, I would freelier rejoice	I iii 1
Volumnia	Verse	Because that now it lies you on to speak	III ii 70
Volumnia	Verse	Should we be silent and not speak	V iii 108
Volumnia	Verse	Nay, go not from us thus	V iii 148

Hamlet

Ophelia intercut	Verse	O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!	II i 87
Ophelia	Verse	O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown	III i 132
Player Queen	Verse	So many journeys may the sun and moon	III ii 110
Ophelia intercut	Prose & Verse	How should I your true love know	IV v 27
Ophelia intercut	Prose & Verse	They bore him barefaced on the bier;	IV v 148
Gertrude intercut	Verse	One woe doth tread upon another's heel	IV vii 180

Julius Caesar

Portia	Verse	Nor for yours neither. You've ungently, Brutus,	II i 257
Portia	Verse	Is Brutus sick? and is it physical	II i 237-280
Calpurnia	Verse	Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies	II ii 13

King Lear

Cordelia intercut	Verse	Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave my heart into my mouth	I i 76
Goneril intercut	Verse	By day and night he wrongs me, every hour	I iii 5
Goneril	Verse	Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd fool	I iv 114
Goneril	Verse	This admiration, sir, is much o' th' favour	I iv 147

Macbeth

Lady Macbeth	Prose & Verse	They met me in the day of success	I v 1
Lady Macbeth	Verse	The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan	I v 31
Lady Macbeth intercut	verse	Was the hope drunk wherein you dress'd yourself?	I vii 41

Othello

Desdemona	Verse	My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty	I iii 201
Desdemona	Verse	That I [did] love the Moor to live with him	I iii 266
Desdemona	Verse	I prithee do so. Something sure of state,	I iii 150
Desdemona	Verse	Why then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn	III iii 71
Desdemona	Verse	Alas! thrice-gentle Cassio!	III iii 131
Desdemona	Verse	Something, sure, of state, Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practice	III iv 150
Desdemona	Verse	Alas Iago, what shall i do to win my lord again?	IV ii 175
Emilia	Verse	But I do think it is their husband's faults	IV iii 72

Romeo and Juliet

Nurse intercut	Verse	Even or odd, of all days in the year	I iii 23
Lady Capulet	Verse	What say you, can you love the gentleman?	I iii 86
Juliet intercut	Verse	O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou	II ii 32-46
Juliet	Verse	O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! <	III ii 78
Juliet	Verse	Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face	II ii 85
Juliet	Verse	The clock strook nine when I did send the nurse	II v 1
Juliet	Verse	Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds	III ii 1
Juliet	Verse	Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?	III ii 104
Juliet intercut	Verse	Is there no pity sitting in the clouds	III v 211
Nurse	Verse	Faith, here it is, Romeo is banished	III v 215
Juliet	Verse	Tell me not, friar, that thou hearest of this	IV i 54
Juliet	Verse	Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.	IV iii 18

Titus Andronicus

Tamora	Verse	Stay, Roman brethren! Gracious conqueror,	I i 109
Tamora	Verse	My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad	II iii 13
Tamora	Verse	Have I not reason, think you, to look pale?	II iii 96
Tamora	Verse	King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name	IV iv 83
Tamora	Verse	Know, thou sad man, I am not Tamora	V ii 31

Other Works

Support this site: Total donations to date: $97