Monologue

Larry Monologue from John Bull's Other Island

From John Bull's Other Island by Bernard Shaw

male · defiant · 2:00 min

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Industrious! That man's industry used to make me sick, even as a boy. I tell you, an Irish peasant's industry is not human: it's worse than the industry of a coral insect. An Englishman has some sense about working: he never does more than he can help--and hard enough to get him to do that without scamping it; but an Irishman will work as if he'd die the moment he stopped. That man Matthew Haffigan and his brother Andy made a farm out of a patch of stones on the hillside--cleared it and dug it with their own naked hands and bought their first spade out of their first crop of potatoes. Talk of making two blades of wheat grow where one grew before! those two men made a whole field of wheat grow where not even a furze bush had ever got its head up between the stones. (BROADBENT: That was magnificent, you know. Only a great race is capable of producing such men.) Such fools, you mean! What good was it to them? The moment they'd done it, the landlord put a rent of 5 pounds a year on them, and turned them out because they couldn't pay it. (AUNT JUDY: Why couldn't they pay as well as Billy Byrne that took it after them?) You know very well that Billy Byrne never paid it. He only offered it to get possession. He never paid it.

About this piece

30s · anger · struggle · inequality · hard work · exploitation

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