Monologue

Octavia Monologue from All for Love

From All for Love by John Dryden

female · anguished · 1:13 min

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Sweet Heaven compose it!-- Come, come, my lord, if I can pardon you, Methinks you should accept it. Look on these; Are they not yours? or stand they thus neglected, As they are mine? Go to him, children, go; Kneel to him, take him by the hand, speak to him; For you may speak, and he may own you too, Without a blush; and so he cannot all His children: go, I say, and pull him to me, And pull him to yourselves, from that bad woman. You, Agrippina, hang upon his arms; And you, Antonia, clasp about his waist: If he will shake you off, if he will dash you Against the pavement, you must bear it, children; For you are mine, and I was born to suffer. (Here the CHILDREN go to him, etc.)

About this piece

Octavia pleads with her children to approach their father, expressing her own pain and the struggle against a rival for his affection, revealing deep familial and emotional conflict.

30s · sadness · family · betrayal · suffering · power

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Run it out loud with a spotlight that follows your voice, line by line, until it's off the page. Free to start, no credit card.

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