Monologue

Troilus Monologue from Troilus and Cressida

From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

male · anguished · 1:36 min

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This she? No; this is Diomed’s Cressida. If beauty have a soul, this is not she; If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies, If sanctimony be the god’s delight, If there be rule in unity itself, This was not she. O madness of discourse, That cause sets up with and against itself! Bi-fold authority! where reason can revolt Without perdition, and loss assume all reason Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid. Within my soul there doth conduce a fight Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate Divides more wider than the sky and earth; And yet the spacious breadth of this division Admits no orifice for a point as subtle As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter. Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto’s gates: Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven. Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself: The bonds of heaven are slipp’d, dissolv’d, and loos’d; And with another knot, five-finger-tied, The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics Of her o’er-eaten faith, are given to Diomed.

About this piece

Troilus grapples with his feelings of betrayal and confusion as he confronts the reality of Cressida's infidelity, expressing deep emotional turmoil and conflict within himself.

20s · despair · love · betrayal · identity · madness

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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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