(the best lines.)

Villain monologues

The villain gets the best speeches and knows it. Iago, Richard and Edmund set the pattern; the film and television villains below learned from them. Dark by tone, from every era, listed by how well they stand alone.

Search all of them Start rehearsing

1
Friar Lawrence from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:08 min
Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow; Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone, Let not thy Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber. Take…
2
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:43 min
No matter. Get thee gone, And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight. (Exit Balthasar.) Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. Let’s see for means. O mischief thou art…
3
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:12 min
Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light; upon thy life I charge…
4
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:11 min
(Aside.) Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen.— (Aside.) This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill; cannot be…
5
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:29 min
“They met me in the day of success; and I have learned by the perfect’st report they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further,…
6
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:27 min
Give him tending. He brings great news. (Exit Messenger.) The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on…
7
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:36 min
Good repose the while! (BANQUO: Thanks, sir: the like to you.) Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. (Exit Servant.) Is this a…
8
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 3:20 min
Bring them before us. (Exit Servant.) To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature Reigns that which would be fear’d:…
9
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:07 min
Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most, I will advise you where to plant yourselves, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o’ th’ time, The moment on’t; for’t must…
10
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:14 min
Pr’ythee, see there! Behold! look! lo! how say you? Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.— If charnel houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our…
11
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:31 min
It will have blood, they say, blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augurs, and understood relations, have By magot-pies, and choughs, and…
12
Hecate from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:05 min
Have I not reason, beldams as you are, Saucy and overbold? How did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death; And I, the mistress of your charms,…
13
Lennox from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:43 min
My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, Which can interpret farther: only, I say, Thing’s have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan Was pitied of Macbeth:—marry, he…
14
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:00 min
Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo. Down! Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs:—and thy hair, Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. A third is like the former.—Filthy…
15
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:21 min
Infected be the air whereon they ride; And damn’d all those that trust them!—I did hear The galloping of horse: who was’t came by? (LENNOX: ’Tis two or three, my lord, that bring…
16
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:32 min
Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious…
17
Macbeth from Macbeth
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:03 min
If thou speak’st false, Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth, I care not if thou dost for me as much.— I pull in resolution;…
18
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:44 min
O, sir, content you. I follow him to serve my turn upon him: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow’d. You shall mark Many a duteous and knee-crooking…
19
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:12 min
Farewell; for I must leave you: It seems not meet nor wholesome to my place To be produc’d, as if I stay I shall, Against the Moor. For I do know the state, However this may gall…
20
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:15 min
It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit…
21
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:37 min
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse. For I mine own gain’d knowledge should profane If I would time expend with such a snipe But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor, And it…
22
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 2:12 min
Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging, and telling her fantastical lies. And will she love him…
23
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:02 min
Lechery, by this hand. An index and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their lips that their breaths embrac’d together. Villainous…
24
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:52 min
That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it; That she loves him, ’tis apt, and of great credit: The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not, Is of a constant, loving, noble nature;…
25
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:07 min
If I can fasten but one cup upon him, With that which he hath drunk tonight already, He’ll be as full of quarrel and offence As my young mistress’ dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo,…
26
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:06 min
You, or any man living, may be drunk at a time, man. I’ll tell you what you shall do. Our general’s wife is now the general; I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted…
27
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:50 min
And what’s he then, that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest, Probal to thinking, and indeed the course To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy…
28
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:22 min
How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Thou know’st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft, And wit depends on dilatory time. Does’t not…
29
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 0:54 min
I am glad of it, for now I shall have reason To show the love and duty that I bear you With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound, Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof.…
30
Iago from Othello
William Shakespeare · play · dark · 1:02 min
Be not acknown on’t, I have use for it. Go, leave me. (Exit Emilia.) I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin, And let him find it. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous…

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.

Not the one yet?

Describe the piece the way you would to a coach and the search reads the whole corpus, not this shelf. Free to start, no credit card.

Search the corpus Start rehearsing