Part 3: Lesser-Known Monologues to Add to Your Repertoire

Even Dame Judi Dench has no idea which play this is.

By now you've warmed up, read some plays, gone through the old repertoire of old stand-by audition monologues...

And you're hungry for more.

Shakespeare wrote northwards of thirty-seven plays (the exact number is hotly debated) but many are rarely read or performed.  The reasons for this are debatable: maybe tickets sell better for the handful of plays that have been made into popular films or perhaps no one knows how to pronounce the character name "Iachimo."*  Whatever the reason, some fantastic monologues often go overlooked, and they might be just the stuff you need to present yourself desirably in your next audition.

What follows are some of the most underutilized monologues Shakespeare---that also happen to be very good.

For Ladies:

• Portia 3.4, Lines 57-84 ("Come on Nerissa" to "measure twenty miles today") The Merchant of Venice
• Olivia 3.1, Lines 117-133 ("O by your leave" to "let me hear you speak") Twelfth Night
• Julia 4.4 Lines 185-210 ("A virtuous gentlewoman" to "make my master out of love with thee!") Two Gentlemen of Verona
• Isabella 2.2, Lines 106-123 ("So you must be the first" to "laugh themselves mortal") Measure for Measure
• Volumnia 5.3, Lines 131-182 ("Nay, go not from us thus" to  "I am hushed until our city be afire, and then I'll speak a little") Coriolanus
• Goneril 1.4, Lines 220-273 ("Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool" to "Which know themselves and you") King Lear
• Ophelia 2.1, Lines 75-100 ("O, my lord" to "bended their light on me") Hamlet
• Imogen 3.6, Lines 1-27 ("I see a man's life" to "Such a foe, good Heavens!") Cymbeline
• Dionyza 4.3, Lines 16-46 ("She died at night" to "At whose expense 'tis done") Pericles
• Paulina 3.2, Lines 173-215 ("Woe the while!" to "To look that way thou wert") The Winter's Tale

For Gents:

• Duke Senior, 2.1, Lines 1-18 ("Now, my co-mates" to "I would not change it") As You Like It
• Berowne 5.2, Lines 394-415 ("Thus pour the stars" to "sans crack or flaw") Love's Labour's Lost
• Shylock 1.3, Lines 107-130 ("Signor Antonio" to "thus much moneys?") The Merchant of Venice
• Theseus 1.1, Lines 65-90 ("Either to die the death" to "austerity and single life") A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Lysander 1.1 Lines 135-149 ("Ay me!" to "bright things come to confusion") A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Orsino 1.1 Lines 1-24, ("If music be" to "what news of her?") Twelfth Night
• Ulysses 1.3 Lines 142-184 ("The great Achilles" to "As stuff for these two to make paradoxes") Troilus and Cressida
• Menenius 2.1, Lines 51-70 or as far as 99. ("I am known to be a humorous" to "this character, if I be known well enough too?" or "I will be bold to take my leave of you") Coriolanus
• Brutus 2.1, Lines 162-183 ("Our course will seem" to "When Caesar's head is off") Julius Caesar
• Porter 2.3, Lines 1-22 ("Here's a knocking" to "I pray you, remember the Porter") Macbeth
• Timon 4.3, Lines 250-276 ("Thou art a slave" to "Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer") Timon of Athens
• Aaron 4.2, Lines 88-105 ("Stay, murderous villains!" to "excuse it how she can") Titus Andronicus

If you would like me to go into detail explaining the meaning and context of any of the monologues I've mentioned today or in yesterday's post, speak up and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

*It's pronounced "YAH-kih-moh" and it means "little Iago" which in a way is quite correct.  The character is a much lesser villain than Shakespeare's Iago.  Iachimo's monologue from Cymbeline (2.2, Lines 11-51) is also a fun, underutilized one to try... but may need a trunk and a sleeping lady wearing a ring to be done most effectively.