# Lesser-Known Shakespeare Monologues for Men: Nine Speeches Off the Usual Lists > Nine uncommon Shakespeare speeches for men that stay off the published overdone lists we checked (Mowbray, Henry VI, Clarence, Posthumus, Timon, Aufidius, the Bastard, Ford, and Thersites), each with what just happened, what he wants, a run time, a cut, and where to read the full play. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/lesser-known-shakespeare-monologues-for-men - Published: 2026-11-11 - Last updated: 2026-11-11 You're sitting in the hallway before a festival call, and through the door you hear it: *Is this a dagger which I see before me*. Your own piece is Edmund's *Thou, Nature*, and you can feel the panel bracing for another famous speech. You'd like the room to lean in instead. The short version: go to the plays people skip, and the men who aren't the title role. Pick a speech with one listener, one want, and a turn. Below are nine, all public domain and off the published "most overdone" lists we checked, each with the situation, the want, a run time, and a cut. ## Check what the overdone lists really say A drama-school coaching blog, [Acting Coach Scotland](https://www.actingcoachscotland.co.uk/blog/most-over-done-shakespeare-monologues-drama-school-auditions), names what it calls the seven most popular men's speeches (its title says most overdone): Edmund's *Thou, Nature*, Launcelot Gobbo's conscience speech, Cassius on Caesar, Macbeth's dagger, Romeo's balcony speech and his banishment speech, and Puck reporting Titania's love for a monster. Shakespeare Geek's Duane Morin [reported](https://shakespearegeek.com/?p=7214) that a trade magazine's list of audition pieces to skip included *To be, or not to be*, *All the world’s a stage*, and Richard III's *winter of our discontent*. Even so, the coaching blog says popular speeches are popular because they're good. Juilliard's [monologue FAQ](https://apply.juilliard.edu/www/documents/Monologue%20FAQs.pdf) says it keeps no list of pieces to stay away from, and wants speeches you connect with, common or obscure. RADA's [2026 admissions procedure](https://www.rada.ac.uk/documents/1342/BA_acting_admissions_procedure_2026.pdf) lists, under "Don't," worrying about how original your choice is. So a lesser-known speech is an edge, not a rule: the panel hears the story fresh, and you have to tell it clearly enough that nobody needs the play. ## How we picked and timed these Every speech below is a man's true monologue from a Shakespeare play you can read free. We left out every speech named on the lists above, the eight speeches on our [monologues for men](https://www.offbook.com/monologues/for-men) page, and the men's speeches already in our other guides. The famous ones, with full text and cut points, are on our [Shakespeare monologues](https://www.offbook.com/monologues/shakespeare) list. Word counts and quotes come from the Project Gutenberg edition linked for each play; times assume 140 words a minute, the average pace in our [monologue timer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/monologue-timer). Then the clock. The [St. Louis Shakespeare Festival](https://stlshakes.org/auditions/) tells actors that 65 seconds is fine and two minutes is too long. The [Houston Shakespeare Festival's 2026 call](https://www.uh.edu/shakespeare/_files/hsf-auditioninfo-2026.pdf) asked for a comic and a serious Shakespeare speech totaling no more than two minutes. ## Men who have just lost everything ### Mowbray, "A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege" (*Richard II*) From [*Richard II*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/richard-ii), Act 1, Scene 3, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1512). Mowbray is armed to fight Bolingbroke in a trial by combat when King Richard stops it and banishes them both, Mowbray forever. About 155 words, roughly 1 minute 6 seconds. What he wants: for the king to understand what he has taken. Mowbray doesn't mourn his lands; he mourns his language. *The language I have learnt these forty years, / My native English, now I must forgo*. *Within my mouth you have engaoled my tongue*. Richard answers, *It boots thee not to be compassionate.* Play it as if the plea might work. ### King Henry, "This battle fares like to the morning’s war" (*Henry VI, Part 3*) From [*Henry VI, Part 3*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/henry-vi-part-iii), Act 2, Scene 5, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1502). His queen and Lord Clifford have chased him off the field, saying they fight best when he's gone. He sits alone: *Here on this molehill will I sit me down.* The full speech runs about 3 minutes (428 words). What he wants: one quiet life, which he'll never have. Cut from *O God! Methinks it were a happy life / To be no better than a homely swain;* to *Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.* That's about 159 words, roughly 1 minute 8 seconds. Let his counting of hours and years slow him down. ### Clarence, "Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower" (*Richard III*) From [*Richard III*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/richard-iii), Act 1, Scene 4, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1503). Clarence is locked in the Tower. His brother Richard, who arranged his arrest, has just sent two murderers to kill him. The Keeper asks, *What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.* About 191 words, roughly 1 minute 22 seconds, with no interruptions. What he wants: for the Keeper to tell him it was only a dream. In it, his brother stumbles and knocks him overboard, and he sinks past *Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl*. We know who wants him dead; Clarence still trusts him. The speech ends on *And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.* Stop there rather than going on after the Keeper's question. Play a man trying to describe the terror accurately, not the terror. ## Rage with a target ### Posthumus, "Is there no way for men to be, but women" (*Cymbeline*) From [*Cymbeline*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/cymbeline), Act 2, Scene 5, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1538). Posthumus bet a stranger, Iachimo, that his wife Imogen would stay faithful. Iachimo is back with her bracelet and a description of her bedroom. Posthumus believes him; she's innocent. The full speech is about 283 words, roughly 2 minutes 1 second. What he wants: to tear her out of his heart. He swings from grief to *O, vengeance, vengeance!* and back to the memory of her *As chaste as unsunn’d snow*. A cut ending at *O, all the devils!* runs about 108 words, roughly 46 seconds, and keeps him mostly on her and stops before his tirade against all women. ### Timon, "Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall" (*Timon of Athens*) From [*Timon of Athens*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/timon-of-athens), Act 4, Scene 1, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1536). Timon gave his fortune away to his friends. When he went broke, every one of them refused to lend him money. Now he's outside the city walls, leaving for good. The full speech is about 303 words, roughly 2 minutes 10 seconds. What he wants: Athens destroyed. He curses it into chaos: *O thou wall / That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth / And fence not Athens!* Cut it at *And let confusion live!* for about 151 words, roughly 1 minute 5 seconds. Don't shout it all; find the generous man who can't believe what he's saying. ## Speeches that make a deal ### Aufidius, "O Martius, Martius" (*Coriolanus*) From [*Coriolanus*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/coriolanus), Act 4, Scene 5, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1535), which spells the name Martius. Rome has banished its greatest soldier. He walks into the house of Aufidius, his old enemy, and offers to fight Rome for him or have his throat cut. About 273 words to *Though not for Rome itself.*, roughly 1 minute 57 seconds. What he wants: to make this man his own. Aufidius opens with *Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart / A root of ancient envy.* He admits Martius has beaten him twelve times and that he dreams of it: *We have been down together in my sleep*. Stop at *And waked half dead with nothing.* for about 202 words, roughly 1 minute 27 seconds. Play the joy. ### The Bastard, "Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!" (*King John*) From [*King John*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/king-john), Act 2, Scene 1, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1511). England and France were about to go to war over young Arthur's claim to the throne; instead they've made a marriage deal, and France has dropped Arthur for profit. Philip Faulconbridge (knighted Sir Richard in Act 1), the late King Richard the Lionheart's illegitimate son, is left alone with us. About 285 words, roughly 2 minutes 2 seconds. What he wants: to make us see the hypocrisy, then to confess he'd take the bribe too. His name for the force is *Commodity, the bias of the world*, and the turn is honest: *And why rail I on this commodity? / But for because he hath not woo’d me yet.* The first section, ending at *To a most base and vile-concluded peace.*, runs about 186 words, roughly 1 minute 20 seconds. Talk straight to the audience. ## Two prose speeches for the comic slot Juilliard asks for classical pieces in verse, not prose, so check the call first. For a festival that wants a comic Shakespeare piece, these fit. The women's version is our list of [comedic Shakespeare monologues for women](https://www.offbook.com/blog/comedic-shakespeare-monologues-for-women). ### Ford, "What a damned epicurean rascal is this!" (*The Merry Wives of Windsor*) From [*The Merry Wives of Windsor*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-merry-wives-of-windsor), Act 2, Scene 2, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1517). Ford, a jealous husband, has posed as "Master Brook" and paid Falstaff to try to seduce his wife. Falstaff has just told him she's agreed to meet him between ten and eleven and has called Ford a cuckold to his face, not knowing who he is. About 241 words, roughly 1 minute 43 seconds. What he wants: to catch her. The joke is that he's thrilled to be right: *God be praised for my jealousy!* Cut it at *The devil himself hath not such a name.* for about 116 words, roughly 50 seconds, or run it to the end on *Fie, fie, fie! Cuckold, cuckold, cuckold!* ### Thersites, "How now, Thersites! What, lost in the labyrinth of thy fury?" (*Troilus and Cressida*) From [*Troilus and Cressida*](https://www.offbook.com/plays/troilus-and-cressida), Act 2, Scene 3, in the [Gutenberg edition](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1528). Thersites, a foul-mouthed hanger-on in the Greek camp outside Troy, has been beaten by Ajax and is talking to himself outside Achilles' tent. About 197 words, roughly 1 minute 24 seconds. What he wants: revenge, and words are all he has. He knows how pathetic that is: *He beats me, and I rail at him. O worthy satisfaction!* He insults both heroes, curses the whole army, and ends on a cheerful call into the tent: a clean button. ## Match the pick to the time limit - **Under a minute:** Posthumus cut (46 seconds), Ford cut (50 seconds). - **About a minute:** Timon cut (1:05), Mowbray (1:06), Henry cut (1:08). - **A minute and a half:** the Bastard cut (1:20), Clarence (1:22), Thersites (1:24), Aufidius cut (1:27). - **Close to two minutes:** Ford in full (1:43), Aufidius in full (1:57), Posthumus in full (2:01), the Bastard in full (2:02). For a contrasting pair under Houston's two-minute total, try the Ford cut with Mowbray: comic panic next to quiet grief, about 1 minute 56 seconds together. Our guide to [choosing contrasting monologues](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-choose-contrasting-monologues) goes further, and [how to audition for a Shakespeare festival](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-audition-for-a-shakespeare-festival) covers reading the call and the verse work panels listen for. ## Know the play better than the panel does With a speech the room hasn't heard, context is your job. RADA asks you to imagine your listener and know the rest of the play; Juilliard says to read the whole play, not a monologue book. 1. Read the full play once for the story, then your scene three times. Write down what happened in the minute before your first line. 2. Name your listener and what you want them to do by the end: Richard should relent, the Keeper should comfort. 3. Paraphrase every line, and look up words like *engaoled* and *commodity* first. 4. Find the turn: the line where he changes tactic, like the Bastard's *And why rail I on this commodity?* 5. Time it standing up, at full volume, three times, and keep the slowest run. These plays are long, and you only need a few pages of each. In Offbook, you can drop a full-length play's PDF, pick only the pages with your scene, and rehearse just that scene, as the video below shows. The cue line before your speech is read aloud, and Offbook waits for you to finish before moving on. Video: [Pick pages from a long PDF](https://www.offbook.com/learn/pick-pages) (0:37) Then learn the words. Offbook can hide your lines while everyone else's stay visible, or swap your words for first-letter cues on the way to a blank page. Our free [first-letter memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer) does the cue step with any speech you paste in. ## Questions actors ask ### What are uncommon Shakespeare monologues for men? Mowbray in *Richard II*, King Henry on the molehill, Clarence's dream, Posthumus, Timon, Aufidius, the Bastard in *King John*, Ford, and Thersites all have strong speeches that aren't on the overdone lists we checked. ### What Shakespeare monologues are overdone for men? Acting Coach Scotland names Edmund, Launcelot Gobbo, Cassius, Macbeth's dagger, Romeo's balcony and banishment speeches, and Puck as the most popular (its title calls them the most overdone). Shakespeare Geek's report of a trade magazine's list adds Hamlet's *To be, or not to be*, Jaques, and Richard III's opening. Juilliard keeps no avoid list, so a famous speech done well still works. ### What is a fresh classical monologue for a man? One from a play panels rarely hear from, with a single listener and a clear turn. Aufidius welcoming his enemy and the Bastard confessing he'd take the bribe both have all three and both have cuts well under two minutes. ### What Shakespeare monologue should a man do for a festival audition? Read the call first. If it says 65 seconds is fine, as St. Louis does, pick the Timon cut (1:05), or Mowbray or the Henry cut (just over a minute). If the call asks for a comic piece, Ford or Thersites in prose works; every play here is free in our [play library](https://www.offbook.com/plays).