Monologue

Clown Monologue from The Winter's Tale

From The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

male · anguished · 1:57 min

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I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land! But I am not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky: betwixt the firmament and it, you cannot thrust a bodkin’s point. (SHEPHERD: Why, boy, how is it?) I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the shore! But that’s not to the point. O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em. Now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you’d thrust a cork into a hogshead. And then for the land service, to see how the bear tore out his shoulder-bone, how he cried to me for help, and said his name was Antigonus, a nobleman. But to make an end of the ship, to see how the sea flap-dragon’d it: but first, how the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them, and how the poor gentleman roared, and the bear mocked him, both roaring louder than the sea or weather. (SHEPHERD: Name of mercy, when was this, boy?) Now, now. I have not winked since I saw these sights: the men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half dined on the gentleman. He’s at it now.

About this piece

The Clown recounts a harrowing shipwreck and the tragic fate of those aboard, expressing a mix of fear and sorrow over the loss of life and the chaos of nature.

20s · fear · death · isolation · fate · survival

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