Really, I don't know either! Were I an abler man, my fate might perhaps seem more pitiable to me. Poor as I am, I only tremble at the moment when those iron doors shall protect me no longer, when those barred windows shall prevent them reaching me, when I shall stand again among people with whom I have no mutual understanding and from whose activities I am excluded more than ever by the sentence of the law.----If you only knew how painlessly this solitude heals the gaping wounds of the soul. The judge thought he was adding to my punishment when he sentenced me to solitary confinement. How deeply I have thanked him that I do not have to live here in association with other men! (ALMA: Lord God in Heaven! Then you don't want to see me here again!) (Caressingly.) I repay your sacrifice with discontent and ill humor. Thoughts become heavy and sluggish when a man continues talking to himself day in and day out.----Only this I ask of you; when freedom is restored to me, leave me to my fate--not forever, only until I show myself worthy of your greatness of soul.

The King Monologue from Such is Life: A Play in Five Acts

Rehearse The King's monologue