Monologue

Albany Monologue from King Lear

From King Lear by William Shakespeare

male · anguished · 1:19 min

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O Goneril! You are not worth the dust which the rude wind Blows in your face! I fear your disposition; That nature which contemns its origin Cannot be bordered certain in itself. She that herself will sliver and disbranch From her material sap, perforce must wither And come to deadly use. (GONERIL: No more; the text is foolish.) Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; Filths savour but themselves. What have you done? Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform’d? A father, and a gracious aged man, Whose reverence even the head-lugg’d bear would lick, Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded. Could my good brother suffer you to do it? A man, a prince, by him so benefitted! If that the heavens do not their visible spirits Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, It will come, Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Like monsters of the deep.

About this piece

Albany confronts the actions of his wife and her sisters, expressing his horror and disbelief at their betrayal of their father, King Lear.

40s · anger · betrayal · family · madness · power

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