In the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it's up to us to do all we can to keep ourselves and the people around us safe! That includes washing your hands.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend washing your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds, especially if you have been around other people or are coughing or sneezing. 20 seconds can feel like a long time, though - how do you keep track?
The Summit Players are here to help with some 20-second Shakespeare monologues! Keep track of your hand washing, stay safe and add a little theatricality to your life by washing your hands along with the Bard's immortal words. Check out the text for everyone's monologues below!
For more guidance on how to keep yourself and others around you safe from COVID-19, follow advice on the CDC website.
Monologues:
Romeo and Juliet
Prologue 1
CHORUS
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The Comedy of Errors
Act 2, Scene 1
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
When I desired him to come home to dinner, He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold: 'Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he; 'My mistress, sir' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress! I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!'
So that my errand, due unto my tongue, I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.
The Taming of the Shrew
Act 2, Scene 1
PETRUCHIO
I'll attend her here,
And woo her with some spirit when she comes.
Say that she rail; why, then I'll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.
Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash'd with dew.
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week;
Troilus and Cressida
Act 3, Scene 2
CRESSIDA
Hard to seem won: but I was won, my lord,
With the first glance that ever—pardon me—
If I confess much, you will play the tyrant.
I love you now; but not, till now, so much
But I might master it: in faith, I lie;
My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown
Too headstrong for their mother. See, we fools!
Why have I blabb'd? who shall be true to us,
When we are so unsecret to ourselves?
Richard II
Act 5, Scene 5
RICHARD II
I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world:
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out.
Twelfth Night
Act 2, Scene 2
VIOLA
I left no ring with her: what means this lady?
Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her!
She made good view of me; indeed, so much,
That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue,
For she did speak in starts distractedly.
She loves me, sure;
How will this fadge? my master loves her dearly;
And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.
O time! thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me to untie!
Much Ado About Nothing
Act 2, Scene 3
BENEDICK
This can be no trick: the conference was sadly borne. Love me! why, it must be requited. I did never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy are they that hear their detractions and can put them to mending. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day! she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act 3, Scene 2
HELENA
O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
If you were civil and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls to mock me too?
If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so;
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act 5, Scene 1
PUCK
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act 3, Scene 2
HERMIA
Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
Comments