Monologue

Cleopatra Monologue from All for Love

From All for Love by John Dryden

female · anguished · 1:14 min

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Yet she, who loves him best, is Cleopatra. If you have suffered, I have suffered more. You bear the specious title of a wife, To gild your cause, and draw the pitying world To favour it: the world condemns poor me. For I have lost my honour, lost my fame, And stained the glory of my royal house, And all to bear the branded name of mistress. There wants but life, and that too I would lose For him I love. (OCTAVIA: Be't so, then; take thy wish.) And 'tis my wish, Now he is lost for whom alone I lived. My sight grows dim, and every object dances, And swims before me, in the maze of death. My spirits, while they were opposed, kept up; They could not sink beneath a rival's scorn! But now she's gone, they faint.

About this piece

Cleopatra expresses her deep emotional turmoil over her relationship with her lover, feeling the weight of societal judgment and personal loss as she grapples with her identity as a mistress versus a wife.

30s · sadness · love · honor · betrayal · identity

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