Richard III · Act 1, Scene 2
Anne monologue from Richard III
- Play
- William Shakespeare
- Women
- Playing age 20s–40s
- About 2:00
- Classical · verse
Anne’s monologue from the play Richard III by William Shakespeare (Act 1, Scene 2). A classical piece for women with a playing age of 20s–40s, running about 2:00.
The full speech. Read it out loud twice before you start working it.
Anne’s monologue
Set down, set down your honourable load,
If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,
Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
To hear the lamentations of Poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter'd son,
Stabb'd by the selfsame hand that made these wounds!
Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes!
Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness!
If ever he have wife, let her he made
A miserable by the death of him
As I am made by my poor lord and thee!
Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there;
And still, as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry's corse.
Public domain text.
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About Richard III
- Richard III is Shakespeare's second-longest play, after Hamlet.
- The real Richard III's remains were found under a car park in Leicester, England, in 2012.
All 9 monologues from Richard III All 135 William Shakespeare monologues
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