A Noble Mind O’erthrown
A drama monologue from Hamlet by William Shakespeare. About 1 min.
Ophelia, left alone after Hamlet turns on her, mourns the man he used to be.
- Ophelia
- late teens to 20s. In love with a prince who has just cast her off
Hamlet has just told her to get to a nunnery, and gone.
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,
Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th’observ’d of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck’d the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh,
That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy.
O woe is me,
T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see.
Ready to put it on camera?
Record it in Sides with your lines on screen, free.
Public domain, William Shakespeare, 1603. Text from Project Gutenberg #1524.
More scenes to rehearse
- A Man Must WorkDrama · 1 min · IrinaFrom Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. On the morning she turns twenty, the youngest sister wakes up sure she knows how to live.
- Friends, Romans, CountrymenDrama · 2 min · Mark AntonyFrom Julius Caesar. At Caesar’s funeral, Mark Antony turns the crowd against the men who killed him.
- Grief Fills the RoomDrama · 1 min · ConstanceFrom King John. Constance, whose young son Arthur has been taken prisoner, answers a king who calls her too fond of grief.