Participants interested in joining the Shakespeare workshop can

prepare by choosing any of the short speeches listed here, for men and

for women, and memorizing them beforehand.

TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL Duke Orsino is so in love with his mistress that even a few sweet notes of music can propel him into romantic ecstasy! Here he’s carried away as he listens to musicians in his court ORSINO: If music be the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

That strain again! It had a dying fall;

Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing, and giving odor. Enough, no more.

'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING The "man's man" Benedick has just been tricked by his friends into believing that the Lady Beatrice--with whom he continually quarrels throughout the play--secretly loves him. Everyone knows how Benedick has always mocked love, marriage, and especially the Lady Beatrice. But in this speech he decides to change his mind! Love me! Why, it must be requited! They say the lady is fair--'tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuous--tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. By my troth, I will be horribly in love with her! I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. No, the world must be peopled! When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE-CLAUDIO In this speech the condemned Claudio pleads with his sister to save his life from the hangman by bribing the judge. His fevered imagination reminds her of the torments he will suffer if she doesn’t agree to his plan. CLAUDIO: Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world!

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Falstaff has just escaped from a jealous husband’s rage who caught him seducing his wife. Falstaff hid himself in a laundry basket, but the joke was that the merry wife ordered her servants to carry the basket down to the river and empty it into the muddy slop. Falstaff returns here to his own lodgings covered in filth, and in a very bad frame of mind! Falstaff: Go, fetch me a quart of sack, and put toast in't!

Have I lived to be carried in a basket like a barrel of

butcher’s offall? and to be thrown in the Thames? Well,

if I be served such another trick, I’ll have my brains taken out and buttered, and give them to a dog for a

New Year’s gift. The rogues slighted me into the river

with as little remorse, as they would have drowned a

blind bitch’s puppies, fifteen in the litter!

KING LEAR The bastard son, Edmund, rails against his status as the illegitimate child who will inherit nothing, while his lawfully-born brother, Edgar, will receive everything. Edmund’s resentment is such that he will eventually cause his own father’s murder later in the play. EDMUND: Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law

My services are bound. Wherefore should I

permit the curiosity of nations to deprive me,

For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines

Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?

Why brand they us with base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

The "man's man" Benedick has just been tricked by his friends into believing that the Lady Beatrice--with whom he continually quarrels throughout the play--secretly loves him. Everyone knows how Benedick has always mocked love, marriage, and especially the Lady Beatrice. But in this speech he decides to change his mind! BENEDICK: Love me! Why, it must be requited! They say the lady is fair--'tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuous--tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. By my troth, I will be horribly in love with her! I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. No, the world must be peopled! When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

HENRY THE FOURTH, PART ONE Moments before the final battle scene, the cynical Falstaff muses on what it would mean to “earn honor” for himself on the battlefield. Being a lazy fellow by nature, he’s not entirely convinced that he’s ready to rush into battle with his friend, Prince Hal. FALSTAFF: Well, honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor prick me off when I

come on? how then? Can honor set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take

away the grief of a wound? no. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? no.

What is honor? a word. What is in that word honor? what is that honor?

air. A trim reckoning!

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM PUCK is the mischievous fairy spirit doing the bidding of the King of the Faeries, Oberon. He/she plays pranks on others at Oberon’s bidding, and often speaks directly to the audience in doing so, taking us into his/her confidence. This is the play’s epilogue where Puck asks the audience for applause. PUCK: If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended:

That you have but slumbered here,

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream.

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.

Else the Puck a liar call.

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH This is the Prologue to the play, spoken by the "CHORUS" character directly to the audience. Here, he/she asks the spectators to use their imaginations to "flesh-out" the bare stage with the story and characters they are about to see. CHORUS: O for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene. Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraisèd spirits that hath dared, On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth So great an object. Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt?

KING HENRY THE FOURTH, part one Hotspur is in haste to join the rebel forces and wage war against the king, but his wife, Lady Percy, tries to hold him back and persuade him to avoid the battle. In this speech he calls for his horse and tries to free himself from her questions and doubts. HOTSPUR: Away,

Away, you trifler! Love! I love thee not,

I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world

To play with mammets and to tilt with lips:

We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns,MENS SPEECHES

And pass them current too. God's me, my horse!

What say'st thou, Kate? what would'st thou

have with me?

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Petrsuchio has just bullied the headstrong Kate into accepting him as a husband, following a scene of hilarious physical comedy and sparring between the two. In this speech, Petruchio announces Kate’s surrender to her father, who discovers the two loves in the middle of a heated verbal and physical battle. PETRUCHIO: Father, 'tis thus: yourself and all the world,

That talk'd of her, have talk'd amiss of her:

If she be curst, it is for policy,

For she's not froward, but modest as the dove;

She is not hot, but temperate as the morn;

And to conclude, we have 'greed so well together,

That upon Sunday is the wedding-day.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS Adriana is distraught that her husband, Antipholus, pretends not to know her--when in fact, it’s his twin brother that she mistakes for her husband and is now addressing. She’s afraid that Antipholus has found a mistress in the town and no longer loves her. ADRIANA: Aye, Aye, Antipholus, look strange and frown,

Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects: The time was once, when thou un-urged wouldst vow,

That never words were music to thine ear,

That never object pleasing in thine eye,

That never touch well welcome to thy hand,

That never meat sweet-savored in thy taste,

Unless I spake, or looked, or touched, or carved to thee.

How comes it now, my husband, oh how comes it,

That thou art then estranged from thy self?

ROMEO AND JULIET Juliet has just been secretly married to Romeo and impatiently awaits his arrival that night to their “bridal bed” in a chamber of her parents’ house. She expresses her longing for Romeo by chiding the afternoon sun to hurry and set, so that night can conceal their amours. Juliet: Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner As Phaethon 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.

COMEDY OF ERRORS

Adriana is desperate to win her husband back from the clutches of a local courtesan whom she believes has stolen his attention. In this speech she tries to seduce him and drag him back to their home--unknowing that she’s speaking NOT to her husband but to his twin brother who doesn’t recognize her! ADRIANA: Come I will fasten on this sleeve of thine:

Thou art an Elm my husband, I a vine:

Whose weakness married to thy stronger state,

Makes me with thy strength to communicate:

If ought possess thee from me, it is dross,

Usurping ivy, briar, or idle moss,

Who all for want of pruning, with intrusion,

Infect thy sap, and live on thy confusion.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Isabella visits her condemned brother in prison, but is outraged by his proposal that she bribe the judge with sex in exchange for her brother’s life. She never realized her brother was so callous. And her reaction is particularly acute because she has until now been a postulant, preparing to take the vows of a chaste nun.

ISABELLA: O you beast!

O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!

Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?

Take my defiance! Die, perish!

I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,

No word to save thee.

OTHELLO In the public court, Desdemona must confess to everyone that she now loves her new husband, Othello, more than her family or any other human being. Her father, who listens, has brought charges against Othello for having tricked Desdemona into the secret marriage. DESDEMONA: My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:

To you I am bound for life and education;

My life and education both do learn me

How to respect you; you are the lord of duty;

I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband.

TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL The beauteous Viola has disguised herself as a man and taken employment as a page in the palace of Duke Orsino. Orsino has sent Viola on a “love mission,” to woo the Lady Olivia with love poems. But following the meeting, Lady Olivia sent her ring after Viola urging her to “visit and woo” her again! Now Viola suddenly realizes that Olivia is in love with her, believing her to be a man! VIOLA: I left no ring with her: what means this lady? Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her! She made good view of me; indeed, so much, That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue, For she did speak in starts distractedly. She loves me, sure; Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

PUCK is the mischievous fairy spirit doing the bidding of the King of the Faeries, Oberon. He/she plays pranks on others at Oberon’s bidding, and often speaks directly to the audience in doing so, taking us into his/her confidence. This is the play’s epilogue where Puck asks the audience for applause. PUCK: If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended:

That you have but slumbered here,

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream.

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.

Else the Puck a liar call.

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH

This is the Prologue to the play, spoken by the "CHORUS" character directly to the audience. Here, he/she asks the spectators to use their imaginations to "flesh-out" the bare stage with the story and characters they are about to see. CHORUS: O for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene. But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraisèd spirits that hath dared, On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth So great an object. Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt?

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW This is a section of Kate’s speech in the play’s final scene where she criticizes the other women at the marriage banquet for bullying their husbands around the house. KATHARINA: Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,

To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:

It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,

And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,

Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;

And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty

Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.