(what is left.)

Monologues about grief and loss

A death, a leaving, the thing that cannot be got back. The hardest pieces to do well and the ones most often asked for in a dramatic slot. Tagged grief or loss in the library; the public-domain ones print in full.

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1
Nurse from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 2:29 min
Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen. Susan and she,—God rest all Christian souls!— Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God; She…
2
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…
3
Nurse from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:22 min
Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she. Why, lamb, why, lady, fie, you slug-abed! Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride! What, not a word? You take…
4
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:02 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…
5
Titania from A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare · play · defiant · 1:08 min
Set your heart at rest; The fairyland buys not the child of me. His mother was a vot’ress of my order, And in the spicèd Indian air, by night, Full often hath she gossip’d by my…
6
Portia from Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:21 min
Nor for yours neither. Y’ have ungently, Brutus, Stole from my bed; and yesternight at supper, You suddenly arose, and walk’d about, Musing and sighing, with your arms across; And…
7
Antony from Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:57 min
I doubt not of your wisdom. Let each man render me his bloody hand. First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you; Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand. Now, Decius Brutus,…
8
Antony from Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:37 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-turned…
9
Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare · play · dramatic · 1:12 min
I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony. O, such another sleep, that I might see But such another man! (DOLABELLA: If it might please you—) His face was as the heavens, and therein…
10
Anne from Richard III
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 2:10 min
Set down, set down your honourable load, If honour may be shrouded in a hearse, Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament Th’ untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster. Poor key-cold figure…
11
Duchess from Richard III
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:02 min
Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow As I had title in thy noble husband. I have bewept a worthy husband’s death, And lived by looking on his images; But now two mirrors of…
12
Anne from Richard III
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:34 min
No? Why? When he that is my husband now Came to me as I followed Henry’s corse, When scarce the blood was well washed from his hands Which issued from my other angel husband, And…
13
Queen Margaret from Richard III
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 2:28 min
I called thee then, vain flourish of my fortune; I called thee then, poor shadow, painted queen, The presentation of but what I was, The flattering index of a direful pageant; One…
14
Queen Elizabeth from Richard III
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:53 min
Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers, A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave “Edward” and “York.” Then haply will she weep. Therefore present to her—as sometimes…
15
Leonato from Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 2:21 min
I pray thee, cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve: give not me counsel; Nor let no comforter delight mine ear But such a one whose…
16
Viola from Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 1:23 min
Too well what love women to men may owe. In faith, they are as true of heart as we. My father had a daughter loved a man, As it might be perhaps, were I a woman, I should your…
17
Salarino from The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 1:16 min
My wind cooling my broth Would blow me to an ague when I thought What harm a wind too great might do at sea. I should not see the sandy hour-glass run But I should think of…
18
Prince Of Morocco from The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:00 min
O hell! what have we here? A carrion Death, within whose empty eye There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing. All that glisters is not gold, Often have you heard that told.…
19
Shylock from The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:07 min
Why there, there, there, there! A diamond gone cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our nation till now, I never felt it till now. Two thousand…
20
Bassanio from The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:26 min
O sweet Portia, Here are a few of the unpleasant’st words That ever blotted paper. Gentle lady, When I did first impart my love to you, I freely told you all the wealth I had Ran…
21
Duchess from Richard II
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:12 min
Yet one word more. Grief boundeth where it falls, Not with the empty hollowness, but weight. I take my leave before I have begun, For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done. Commend…
22
Gaunt from Richard II
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 0:52 min
O, but they say the tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony. Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their…
23
York from Richard II
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:32 min
How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong? Not Gloucester’s death, nor Hereford’s banishment, Nor Gaunt’s rebukes, nor England’s private…
24
Bushy from Richard II
William Shakespeare · play · philosophical · 0:56 min
Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, Which shows like grief itself, but is not so; For sorrow’s eye, glazed with blinding tears, Divides one thing entire to many…
25
Gardener from Richard II
William Shakespeare · play · contemplative · 1:45 min
Hold thy peace. He that hath suffered this disordered spring Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf. The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter, That seemed in…
26
King Richard from Richard II
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:06 min
A king of beasts, indeed! If aught but beasts, I had been still a happy king of men. Good sometimes queen, prepare thee hence for France. Think I am dead, and that even here thou…
27
Titus from Titus Andronicus
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:42 min
Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds! Lo, as the bark that hath discharged her fraught Returns with precious lading to the bay From whence at first she weighed her…
28
Titus from Titus Andronicus
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 0:55 min
A better head her glorious body fits Than his that shakes for age and feebleness. What, should I don this robe and trouble you? Be chosen with proclamations today, Tomorrow yield…
29
Titus from Titus Andronicus
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:58 min
Hear me, grave fathers; noble tribunes, stay! For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent In dangerous wars whilst you securely slept; For all my blood in Rome’s great quarrel…
30
Titus from Titus Andronicus
William Shakespeare · play · anguished · 1:07 min
Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her. Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand Hath made thee handless in thy father’s sight? What fool hath added water to the sea, Or brought a…

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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