ABSTRACT
The wide range of mood and atmosphere in Shakespeare's comedies and romances, varying from abandoned merriment, grotesque comedy and delicate irony to the seriousness of self-discovery, is matched by a corresponding diversity in the soliloquies. The passages presented here are a small selection only; they begin with the delightful scene between Launce and his dog in Two Gentlemen ofVerona and end with Angelo's great soliloquy in Measurefor Measure, in which he becomes devastatingly aware of his own true nature. Falstaff's speech on honour from Henry IV has already been found to have affinities with the typical monologues of the comedies, evoking an amused critical response, and encouraging the audience to laugh but also to think. The romances, Shakespeare's last plays, also contain soliloquies in a variety of styles and structures, yet they do not have the same impact or complexity as the soliloquies of the tragedies which preceded them. For this reason only one speech by Iachimo from Cymbeline and one by Prospero from The Tempest have been included. Two Gentlenten of Verona
Enter LAUNCE [with his dog Crab]. Lau. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done
weeping. All the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's court. I think Crab my dog be the 5 sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping; my father wailing; my sister crying; our maid howling; our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity; yet did not this cruelhearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a very 10 pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a
dog. A Jew would have wept to have seen our parting. Why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father. 15 No, this left shoe is my father; no, no, this left shoe is my mother; nay, that cannot be so neither. Yes, it is so, it is so: it hath the worser sole. This shoe with the hole in it is my mother; and this my father. A vengeance on't, there'tis . Now, sir, this staff is my 20 sister ; for, look you, she is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand. This hat is Nan our maid . I am the dog. No, the dog is himself, and I am the dog. 0 , the dog is me , and I am myself. Ay; so, so. Now come I to my father: 'Father, your blessing.' Now 25 should not the shoe speak a word for weeping; now should I kiss my father; well, he weeps on; now come I to my mother. ° that she could speak now, like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her. Why, there 'tis : here's my mother's breath up and down. Now go come I to my sister: mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear; nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.
