Monologue

Doyle Monologue from John Bull's Other Island

From John Bull's Other Island by Bernard Shaw

male · contemplative · 1:20 min

I was seventeen. So was she: if she'd been older she'd have had more sense than to stay with us. We were together for 18 months before I went up to Dublin to study. When I went home for Christmas and Easter, she was there: I suppose it used to be something of an event for her, though of course I never thought of that then. (BROADBENT: Were you at all hard hit?) Not really. I had only two ideas at that time, first, to learn to do something; and then to get out of Ireland and have a chance of doing it. She didn't count. I was romantic about her, just as I was romantic about Byron's heroines or the old Round Tower of Rosscullen; but she didn't count any more than they did. I've never crossed St George's Channel since for her sake--never even landed at Queenstown and come back to London through Ireland. (BROADBENT: But did you ever say anything that would justify her in waiting for you?) No, never. But she IS waiting for me.

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