(now, and serious.)

Contemporary dramatic monologues for men

Serious pieces for men from the last few decades, listed by character, work and length. Most are copyrighted, so the text lives with the rights holder and the search opens the rest.

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1
Cullum from 12
Nikita Mikhalkov · film · dramatic · 2:46 min
2
Richard "Dick" Dudgeon from The Devil's Disciple
George Bernard Shaw · play · dramatic · 1:27 min
They call me the Devil’s Disciple. I was brought up in the other service; but I knew from the first that the Devil was my natural master and captain and friend. I saw that he was…
3
Eugene Marchbanks from Candida
George Bernard Shaw · play · dramatic · 1:13 min
You think because I shrink from being brutally handled—because I can do nothing but cry with rage when I am met with violence—because I can't lift a heavy trunk down from the top…
4
King Henry II from The Lion in Winter
Anthony Harvey · film · dramatic · 0:52 min
5
Julius Caesar from Caesar and Cleopatra
George Bernard Shaw · play · dramatic · 1:53 min
If one man in all the world can be found, now or forever, to know that you did wrong, that man will have either to conquer the world as I have, or be crucified by it.. Do you…
6
The Grandfather from The Intruder
Maurice Maeterlinck · play · anguished · 1:31 min
It is a very long time since I saw my daughter!... I took her hands yesterday evening, but I could not see her!... I do not know what has become of her.... I do not know how she…
7
The Grandfather from The Intruder
Maurice Maeterlinck · play · dramatic · 1:09 min
You have been hiding something from me for a long time!... Something has happened in the house.... But I am beginning to understand now.... You have been deceiving me too…
8
Lamblin from Monsieur Lamblin
George Ancey · play · anguished · 1:25 min
Yes,—only, just because I love you is no reason why I should feel no affection for her, and that you should treat her as you do! She is so devoted! She does for me what others…
9
Lamblin from Monsieur Lamblin
George Ancey · play · dramatic · 3:11 min
She does for me what others would not do—you for instance! She has a steady affection for me; I keep it for my bad moments; her action doesn't turn in every wind. You should see…
10
Duhring from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 2:14 min
Please! Please! Please! Maestro! I stand before you an old man, ready to fall on my knees before you; an old man who has never cared for anything in the world but his art. For…
11
Gerardo from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 2:00 min
What, then? Your love for me? That's what they all say. Whatever a woman has set her heart on winning is to her good; whatever crosses her plans is evil. It is the fault of our…
12
Gerardo from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 1:03 min
Helen, you said I should bear the consequences of my acts. Will you reproach for not refusing to receive you when you first came here, ostensibly to ask me to try your voice? What…
13
Duhring from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 1:44 min
No, you don't understand. You could not understand. How could you, the favorite of fortune, you understand what fifty years of bootless work means? But I will try to make you…
14
Gerardo from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 0:59 min
Helen, I will give you back your life. I will give you back what you have sacrificed for me. For God's sake take it. What does it come to, after all? Helen, how can a woman lower…
15
Mr from A Good Woman
Arnold Bennett · play · dark · 1:10 min
Brett, I repeat that that revolver is mine. It would be a serious breach of good manners if you used it without my consent, a social solecism of which I believe you, as a friend…
16
Nowt from Mary's Wedding
Gilbert Cannan · play · anguished · 1:23 min
There never was a son would give 'eed to 'is mother.... 'Tisn't for 'im I'm thinkin', but for t' children that she's bear 'im. I 'oped, and went on 'opin' till there was no 'ope…
17
Lezinsky from The Baby Carriage
Bosworth Crocker · play · anguished · 1:36 min
I should have a cutter not to lose my customers—and this woman—she would have a baby-carriage. I lose my eyes, but she would have a baby-carriage. Mrs. Lezinsky. But it costs only…
18
Joe from The Subjection of Kezia
Mrs. Havelock Ellis · play · anguished · 1:33 min
Well, I never! It was just the same thing in a way with me. I soaked the crusties in my tea this mornin' and threw 'em to the cat under the table, and I suppose I must 'ave put my…
19
Michael Miskell from The Workhouse Ward
Lady Gregory · play · anguished · 1:05 min
If you have pains within in your inside there is no one can see it or know of it the way they can see my own knees that are swelled up with the rheumatism, and my hands that are…
20
Michael Miskell from The Workhouse Ward
Lady Gregory · play · anguished · 1:09 min
I tell you but for the wheat that was to be sowed there would be more side cars and more common cars at my father's funeral than at any funeral ever left your own door. And as to…
21
Michael Miskell from The Workhouse Ward
Lady Gregory · play · anguished · 1:16 min
It is a pity the banshee not to be crying for yourself at this minute, and giving you a warning to quit your lies and your chat and your arguing and your contrary ways; for there…
22
Michael Miskell from The Workhouse Ward
Lady Gregory · play · anguished · 1:06 min
Ah, Mike, is it truth you are saying, you to go from me and to leave me with rude people and with townspeople, and with people of every parish in the union, and they having no…
23
Vennema from Louise
J. H. Speenhoff · play · anguished · 1:07 min
Then come back with me. Come back to us. You know my motive for coming. Won't you come back home with me? Everything is in perfect readiness for you: your little room, the…
24
Paolo from The Rights of the Soul
Giuseppe Giacosa · play · anguished · 0:31 min
Nonsense. That woman received word that her husband was killed in the mine and that the son wanted her to come to America, the day I left for Switzerland, a year ago yesterday or…
25
Paolo from The Rights of the Soul
Giuseppe Giacosa · play · anguished · 1:56 min
I do not know. It is that—I do not know. And I want to—I want to hear her shout it to my face. And she shall tell me.... Oh, I had the feeling the minute I had read the first…
26
Paolo from The Rights of the Soul
Giuseppe Giacosa · play · anguished · 1:43 min
Yes, there was. Yes. I did not want to. I was tempted not to tell you. Mario advised me not to. Then when I saw you—you filled me with tenderness! But what did you say, Anna? I…
27
Paolo from The Rights of the Soul
Giuseppe Giacosa · play · dramatic · 2:18 min
She understood, she asked me.... I could not deny it. Do me the favor of not judging me now. If you knew what I am thinking! Try it. Who knows? You understand her so well! She…
28
Florencio from His Widow's Husband
Jacinto Benevente · play · anguished · 1:26 min
Then perhaps you can explain to me what was the use of all this silence? Don't you see that what he has done now is to go and blurt the whole thing out to this rascal…
29
Gustav from The Creditor
August Strindberg · play · dark · 2:35 min
I just thought that was how it was. Children play at mother and father, but of course when they grow older they play at brother and sister—so as to conceal what requires…
30
Adolf from The Creditor
August Strindberg · play · anguished · 1:37 min
It was I who fed her up with praise, even when I thought her work was no good. It was I who introduced her into literary sets, and tried to make her feel herself in clover;…

Length is estimated at a spoken pace of about 150 words a minute. Public-domain pieces are printed in full on their own page; copyrighted ones list the character and the source.

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