A Midsummer Night's Dream · Act 2, Scene 2
Helena monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Play
- William Shakespeare
- Women
- Playing age Teens–30s
- About 1:00
- Classical · verse
Helena’s monologue from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (Act 2, Scene 2). A classical piece for women with a playing age of teens–30s, running about 1:00.
The full speech. Read it out loud twice before you start working it.
Helena’s monologue
O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
Public domain text.
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About A Midsummer Night's Dream
- The play is set in Athens and an enchanted wood ruled by the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania.
- A group of workmen known as the Mechanicals rehearse and perform the play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe.
All 12 monologues from A Midsummer Night's Dream All 135 William Shakespeare monologues
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