Monologue

Leonato Monologue from Much Ado About Nothing

From Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

male · anguished · 1:49 min

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Dost thou look up? (FRIAR: Yea; wherefore should she not?) Wherefore! Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny The story that is printed in her blood? Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes; For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die, Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, Strike at thy life. Griev’d I, I had but one? Chid I for that at frugal Nature’s frame? O! one too much by thee. Why had I one? Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes? Why had I not with charitable hand Took up a beggar’s issue at my gates, Who smirched thus, and mir’d with infamy, I might have said, ‘No part of it is mine; This shame derives itself from unknown loins?’ But mine, and mine I lov’d, and mine I prais’d, And mine that I was proud on, mine so much That I myself was to myself not mine, Valuing of her; why, she—O! she is fallen Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, And salt too little which may season give To her foul tainted flesh.

About this piece

Leonato mourns the perceived dishonor of his daughter Hero, grappling with feelings of betrayal and shame as he confronts the implications of her actions.

40s · despair · betrayal · shame · family · identity

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