Want To Understand Shakespeare’s Soliloquys?

Shakespeare's famous Hamlet soliloquy

We’ve been busy here at NoSweatShakespeare over the bank holiday weekend! The past few days we’ve been beavering away to  translate many of Shakespeare’s soliloquies into modern English, and have now launched a new soliloquys section of the website to accommodate them. (This is of course a supplement to the ever growing Shakespeare quotes section!)

We’ve also put together a quick guide if you’re not sure what a soliloquy is. The short answer is that a soliloquy is a dramatic device where a character speaks their inner thoughts.

So here are the plays we’ve worked through to pull out the soliloquys and rewrite in modern English:

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream Soliloquies
• Hamlet Soliloquies
• Macbeth Soliloquies
• The Merchant of Venice Soliloquies
• Othello Soliloquies
• Romeo & Juliet Soliloquies
• The Tempest Soliloquies

Among them are some of Shakespeare’s absolute classic soliloquys, including:

• O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright
• What light through yonder window breaks?
• It is the East, and Juliet is the sun
• What’s in a name?
• To be or not to be
• Is this a dagger which I see before me?
• Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

• The feast of St Crispin
• Once more into the breach, dear friends

That’s it for now folks. Have a root around and let us know what you think. Is your favourite soliloquy there?