Last Friday two friends and I got a cab driver that wanted to impress us with his literary knowledge by quoting Shakespeare. Which he proceeded to do, accent and all.
However, as I pointed out once we were out of the cab, if he were really trying to impress us, he wouldn’t have picked the most obvious, often quoted soliloquy ever: to be or not to be.
What are your favorite lesser-known or overlooked bard speeches? Why? Let’s skip Iago and Mercutio and Lady Macbeth.
Henry VIII - Cardinal Wolsey’s final soliloquy -
I like the Duke of Burgundy’s entreaty to the Kings of France and England(Henry V). He wants to know why, now that they are meeting, they can’t resolve the war which has been so devastating to the quality of life, how children are growing up wild “in this best garden of the world”
If I taught Shakespeare and I got a student that said he was not relevant to today, I’d hand them that speech.
Oh, good choice, Leechboy – I just read Henry VIII recently, and Wolsey’s last scene was the best thing about it.
Are we just doing soliloquies (i.e. speeches made by a character who’s alone onstage, or believes himself to be), or any big set speech? I don’t think it counts as lesser-known, but I’ve always loved Richard II’s soliloquy (well, okay, all his speeches, really ;)).
Same play, less publicized – the speech where the Bishop of Carlisle speaks out against the deposition of Richard kicks ass. Likewise (while we’re talking about firebrand Shakespearean bishops), the Archbishop of York’s speeches in 2 Henry IV are terrific:
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl’st to find it. What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard lived, would have him die,
Are now become enamour’d on his grave…
And later on…
We are all diseased,
And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
And we must bleed for it; of which disease
Our late King Richard, being infected, died.
To go a bit more obscure, I’m fond of the speech from 3 Henry VI where Margaret taunts the captive Duke of York with a handkerchief stained in the blood of his youngest son:
Look, York: I stained this napkin with the blood
That valiant Clifford, with his rapier’s point,
Made issue from the bosom of the boy;
And if thine eyes can water for his death,
I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal.
The Henry VIs are full of terrific bits of speechifying, really.
And to show that I do read plays that aren’t the histories, a couple from Coriolanus – the speech where Coriolanus seeks the help of his old enemy Aufidius to avenge himself on the city of Rome is terrific, and Aufidius’ response is equally good.
This is a great idea for a thread!
Well, these are both famous, but you didn’t exclude them. 
from The Tempest: Prospero, Act IV, Scene I
You do look, my son, in a mov’d sort,
As if you were dismay’d: be cheerful, sir:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.—Sir, I am vex’d:
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturb’d with my infirmity.
If you be pleas’d, retire into my cell
And there repose: a turn or two I’ll walk,
To still my beating mind.
And from Macbeth, V.5:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
What I can’t get over about the Macbeth speech is just how full of despair it is, and how much it says in so little space.
I’ve always liked this speech by Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
I’m partial to this one, by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice:
Oh, and Marley23, I really like that Prospero speech too 
Well, maybe this is an ‘obvious’ one, but Branaugh’s movie of Henry V is one of my favorite, and I cry every time at the St. Crispin’s Day speach.
Also, shortly after, when the herald comes and says:
I shall King Harry, and so fare thee well. Thou shalt never hear herald any more.
That gets me too.
Thanks, Journeyman.
I like the one you posted as well. I think it encapsulates the show very nicely: people ignore the last line or two and think it’s a plea for understanding, and miss that (while that side of it exists) it’s also a justification for Shylock’s revenge.
Jeez, where to even begin? Guess I’ll start small. Just about any of the speeches in the courtroom scene of Merchant of Venice I find fascinating. The revelation of the Ghost to Hamlet as to the true nature of his demise I’ve always found particularly chilling, and I often wonder what that revelation is like to someone who would be hearing it for the first time and -not- knowing it beforehand. Also, I find myself quoting Friar Lawrence’s first monologue in Romeo and Juliette (“The grey-eyed morn smiles at frowning night…”) a lot, mainly because it was the first monologue I ever memorized, and it’s just kinda stuck.
I’m sure I’ll come up with half-a-million more within the next half hour.
Oh, and slight hijack- Ever seen a production of Shakespeare in which one -little- thing is changed, but it alters the entire show (for good or bad)?
Changes, not so much, but I’ve seen two Othello’s where very short Iago’s were used, and it made it very hard to take his domination of Roderigo and Othello seriously.
What I like is that Wolsey up until that point had been the villain of the piece, (And the major catalyst for plot movement which is why the play pretty much dies once he disappears.) and this one scene not only goes through a major re-evaluation of himself, but also manages to get the audience feeling sorry for him.
In Much Ado just after the company has duped Benedick into thinking Beatrice is in love with him he has this soliliquey describing his change of heart. It is one of my favorite comedic speaches from old Billy.
conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of
this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it
seems her affections have their full bent. Love me!
why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured:
they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive
the love come from her; they say too that she will
rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy
are they that hear their detractions and can put
them to mending. They say the lady is fair; 'tis a
truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; 'tis
so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving
me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor
no great argument of her folly, for I will be
horribly in love with her. I may chance have some
odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,
because I have railed so long against marriage: but
doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?
No, the world must be peopled. 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.
King Lear Kent to Oswald the Steward at the beginning of Act II, Scene ii:
Steward: What does thou know me for?
Kent: A Knave, a Rascal, and Eater of broken Meats;
a Base, Proud, Shallow, Beggarly, Three-suited,
Hundred-pound, Filthy Woosted-stocking Knave;
a Lily-livered, Action-taking, Whoreson, Glass-
glazing Super-serviceable, Finical Rogue; one
Trunk-inheriting Slave; one that wouldst be a Bawd
in a way of good Service, and art nothing
but the Composition of a Knave, Beggar, Coward,
Pandar, and the Son and Heir of a Mungril
Bitch; one whom I will beat into Clamours
Whining if thou deni’st the least Syllable
of thy Addition.
Yep that’s worthy of the Pit!
Yeah. I love it when Shakespeare pulls out the rug like that… 
More obscure Shakespeare – King John has some fun speeches, particularly those of the Bastard Faulconbridge:
Well, now can I make any Joan a lady.
‘Good den, Sir Richard!’–‘God-a-mercy, fellow!’–
And if his name be George, I’ll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men’s names;
'Tis too respective and too sociable
For your conversion. Now your traveller,
He and his toothpick at my worship’s mess,
And when my knightly stomach is sufficed,
Why then I suck my teeth and catechise
My picked man of countries: ‘My dear sir,’
Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,
‘I shall beseech you’–that is question now;
And then comes answer like an Absey book:
‘O sir,’ says answer, ‘at your best command;
At your employment; at your service, sir;’
‘No, sir,’ says question, ‘I, sweet sir, at yours:’
And so, ere answer knows what question would,
Saving in dialogue of compliment,
And talking of the Alps and Apennines,
The Pyrenean and the river Po,
It draws toward supper in conclusion so.
That’s just fun…