Audiobook · read by volunteers
Shakespeare Monologues Collection vol. 01
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
Read by Kirsten Ferreri, Duan, Lizzie Driver, Shurtagal, Julian Jamison, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Squid Varilekova, Larysa Jaworski, Laurie Anne Walden, Karen Savage · 15 chapters · 27 min
About the book
Shakespeare's monologues are among the most famous speeches in the English language, and here fifteen of them are brought together in a short program. You will hear Portia on the quality of mercy in The Merchant of Venice, Lady Macbeth reading her husband's letter, and Macbeth himself at the vision of the dagger. Mercutio teases about the Prince of Cats, Juliet calls out from her balcony, and Puck asks the audience to forgive the shadows who have played before them. Hamlet advises the players, Prospero tells Ferdinand to be cheerful, and Richard II sits on the ground to talk of the death of kings. Each speech is read by a different LibriVox volunteer, so you can move through the plays one voice at a time. It lasts about half an hour, a sampler for lovers of drama and verse. A lively collection for students, actors and anyone who loves to hear great verse spoken, it is both an introduction and a pleasure, and a handy place to find a speech to learn.
Introduction
William Shakespeare (1564 to 1616) is regarded as the greatest playwright in the English language. He wrote tragedies, comedies, histories and romances, and the range of his characters, from kings to clowns, is unequalled. Many of his best known passages are speeches in which a single character thinks aloud, reveals a secret or tries to persuade another, and these monologues have been performed by actors for four centuries.
This collection is the first volume of a series. It offers fifteen speeches drawn from a wide range of plays. Among them are Portia's speech on mercy in The Merchant of Venice, Lady Macbeth's reading of her husband's letter and Macbeth's vision of the dagger, Mercutio's talk of the Prince of Cats in Romeo and Juliet, and Juliet's call from the balcony. The comedies are represented by Katherina's outburst in The Taming of the Shrew, Viola in Twelfth Night and the closing words of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the histories by the Chorus of Henry V, Constance in King John and Richard II.
A monologue is a good test of a reader, because it has to hold the listener's attention without the support of other voices. The volunteers who took part bring their own style and interpretation, from the serious to the playful. Listening to them one after another, it is easy to see how much a speech changes with every delivery.
The recording lasts about half an hour in all, and has fifteen short tracks. It is a pleasant introduction to Shakespeare for newcomers, and also a useful resource for students and for anyone who is looking for a speech to learn or to perform. The reading is not a performance on a stage but a voice speaking to you, and the best of the speeches work in precisely that way. Short tracks make it easy to repeat a favorite and to compare how the same passage might sound in another voice.
Public domain
William Shakespeare died in 1616: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text