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Eurydice
I love him with precision.
The way he blinks his eyes as though in prayer. The way he hides behind the curtain of his hair. The delicacy of his fingers on the strings of his guitar-- As delicate as his fingers on the strings of my heart. The chortle of his laugh—an ugly, snorting sound That rumbles from his belly. The veins on his arm. And yet, for all and none of these together: For the way he gazes on me through moth-fringed lashes; The tender fierceness of his touch—and yet, Still I speak too shallowly! I grope for words... For his kindness towards his neighbor; his patience, too-- Yet many men possess these traits; for how he… He doubts himself. For his presence sometimes; For his silences as well. I love him-- Cannot that be cause and reason both enough?... Request the full soliloquy
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From: Act III of The Seduction of Adonis by Emily C. A. Snyder
Length: 19 lines, ~1 minute About the scene: Eurydice, once the High Priestess of Aphrodite, the goddess of Lust, has since left her mistress' service to seek out something more. She finds it in the musician Orpheus. This speech comes as a response to Adonis' jaded question: "How do you love him?" About the verse: Of all the verse speeches here, this may be the most modern. Feel free to approach this with hesitancy proceeding bursts of thought. Punctuation will be your friend here. But make sure you're still thinking on the line. It's a fairly short monologue and should not run much longer than a minute. |
PsycheThere was—one moment—wordless
Where touch, and sound, and smell, shape, form, taste-- And touch again, were one; all things that I Have in a cage of well-wrought words ensnared, Yea, mocked! And thought all things of sense My senseless slaves. But in this sightless cell With touch made manifest; not touching, no-- But to be touched; tasting without tongues, Yet there were tongues, aye, and two of them!, That had no use for words; yet there were words That in their groaning pealed out like a prayer And all that holy prayer was only: “He, …and I, and he, and I, and He.” I should hate him. Sith!, I have cause, Reason That cries out for his blood, and were I man I should have borne a breastplate on my heart, Not bared my breasts for him to seize my heart; Ta’en up arms, not laid me down in his; Thrust through spear—and kept my legs well-crossed... Request the full soliloquy
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From: Act IV of Cupid and Psyche by Emily C. A. Snyder
Length: 26 lines, ~2 minutes About the scene: Psyche, a mortal woman who distrusts love, has finally surrendered herself to marry Love Himself, the god Cupid. Waking up for the first time in his Kingdom, she tries to reconcile what she experienced in the darkness with her deep doubts and misgivings about affection. About the verse: This begins, purposely, as a slow soliloquy. Although Cupid is beside her, sleeping and in shadow, Psyche speaks to us alone. Don't be afraid to sit in the humor of the piece as well: Psyche generally laughs at the world. The sensual languor of it is new and terrifying for her. In this speech, antitheses are your friends. |
PersephoneLooked I like this when I lay in my Husband’s bed?
All tousled hair and blushing cheeks? Careless legs Cast carelessly upon sheet and skin alike—? It cannot last. It cannot last, O sweet, It cannot ever last. This moment will give way unto the morrow That brings with it a soiled sheet, a dirty shame, The pockmarks and the palsy that thou must surely Suffer—today, tomorrow, and all the days to come… And where is your Love then? When you are aged, when you have lost your lustre To Time’s indifferent hand. The marital monotony Of quarreling over coffee cups! O—! I have known the blush of Cupid’s gentlest breath That stroked us both asleep beneath the new-made stars Who shook their iridescent showers at our bliss-- And I thought… Heed me, mortal! I beg you, girl: awake! I have known his Happiness: unsoilt, sweet, and chaste; Have known what ‘tis to be belovèd, aye!-- Belovèd and by that Love betrayed, as all The Fools who’ve been deceived by that Bastard’s Sweet Intoxication have quickly come, Lamenting, that ever Love provoked them. Thou art as Happy as ever thou shalt be. No more... Request the full soliloquy
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From: Act III of The Seduction of Adonis by Emily C. A. Snyder
Length: 30 lines, ~2 minutes About the scene: Persephone, the fallen goddess of the Spring, now imprisoned half the year by her husband Death, sits by the marriage bed of Eurydice and Orpheus, contemplating her own bleak marriage, as well as the romance she once had with the young and capricious god of Love, Cupid. By the end of the soliloquy, Persephone - becoming the goddess of Death - smothers out the life of the young bride Eurydice. About the verse: Persephone is not in her right mind here. Her verse is all over the place, with half-finished lines, interrupting her own thoughts as she fills with jealousy and sorrow. Her "O's" are still in full effect, and you are welcome to vocalize on those sounds as you like. As always, keep an eye on line endings and white spaces. |
Aphrodite
‘Tis a scratch.
Cerberus was hungry, and though I’m starved, Having no worshippers left to worship me…! I am so lonely, Adonis. My son I cannot find. Nor did you come, you tease!, Though I languished in my bed for thee--thou Didst never come to me. There was a mouse That kept me company, nibbling through my bedsheets, ‘Til it grew starved, and lay him down, and died; I watched his bones creep through his mouldering fur, ‘Til even those sharp bones turned then to dust, And then that dust—I sneezed!, and he was gone. He was the last that kept me company: For all the world is walking corpses now; Weary ghosts still haunting their own bodies. I cannot remember what an infant is. ‘Tis ages since I’ve seen a child of twelve. And all of those whom I have cause to love March on to their graves, and cannot be dissuaded. Then here am I! Who should, perhaps, surrender... Request the full soliloquy
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From: Act IV of Cupid and Psyche by Emily C. A. Snyder
Length: 21 lines, ~1-2 minutes About the scene: Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, in rags and losing power, travels to the Gates of Hell to find her dead lover, Adonis. Since she set her son Cupid to kill Psyche (whom he married instead), the world has turned upside-down, leaving Aphrodite out in the cold. About the verse: This is actually a fairly measured speech from Aphrodite, and perhaps the most vulnerable we ever see her. The central image requires that the actor really envisage all that Aphrodite describes: of the world slowly sinking towards Death. |