(hold the room.)

Dramatic monologues for men, under two minutes

Two minutes is enough to turn a room if the piece is built for it. These are. Length is estimated at a spoken pace, so trust it within ten seconds either way.

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1
Eumelus from Alcestis
Euripides · play · dramatic · 1:08 min
Ah! Misery! Mother has gone, Gone to the Underworld! She lives no more, O my Father, In the sunlight. O sad one, You have left us To live motherless! See, Oh, see her eyelids And…
2
Hamlet from Hamlet
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:50 min
To be, or not to be--that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by…
3
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…
4
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…
5
King Henry II from The Lion in Winter
Anthony Harvey · film · dramatic · 0:52 min
6
Mark Antony from Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:31 min
All is lost; This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me: My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder They cast their caps up and carouse together Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd…
7
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…
8
Jacques from As You Like It
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:48 min
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.…
9
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:46 min
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief That…
10
Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:04 min
Nay, I’ll conjure too. Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh, Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied; Cry but ‘Ah me!’ Pronounce but Love…
11
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:32 min
’Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog, And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in heaven and may look on her, But Romeo…
12
Capulet from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:54 min
When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew; But for the sunset of my brother’s son It rains downright. How now? A conduit, girl? What, still in tears? Evermore showering? In one…
13
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:42 min
No matter. Get thee gone, And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight. (Exit Balthasar.) Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. Let’s see for means. O mischief thou art…
14
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:12 min
Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light; upon thy life I charge…
15
Soldier from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:49 min
Doubtful it stood; As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald (Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villainies of…
16
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:05 min
(Aside.) Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen.— (Aside.) This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be…
17
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:52 min
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly. If th’ assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this…
18
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 0:56 min
Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most, I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’ th’ time, The moment on’t; for’t must…
19
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:58 min
We have scorch’d the snake, not kill’d it. She’ll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. But let the frame of things disjoint, Both…
20
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:06 min
Pr’ythee, see there! Behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.— If charnel houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our…
21
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:58 min
I do forget.— Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends. I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing To those that know me. Come, love and health to all; Then I’ll sit down.—Give…
22
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:19 min
It will have blood, they say, blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augurs, and understood relations, have By magot-pies, and choughs, and…
23
Lennox from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:39 min
My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther: only, I say, Thing’s have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth:—marry, he…
24
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:00 min
Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs:—and thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former.—Filthy…
25
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:09 min
Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn’d all those that trust them!—I did hear The galloping of horse: who was’t came by? (LENNOX: ’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring…
26
Malcolm from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:13 min
Be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash Is added to her wounds. I think,…
27
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:56 min
Take thy face hence. (Exit Servant.) Seyton!—I am sick at heart, When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push Will cheer me ever or disseat me now. I have liv’d long enough: my way of…
28
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:19 min
Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious…
29
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:02 min
If thou speak’st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.— I pull in resolution;…
30
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:44 min
O, sir, content you. I follow him to serve my turn upon him: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow’d. You shall mark Many a duteous and knee-crooking…

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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