Richard: “Now is the winter of our discontent”

What is happening, what every line means, how to perform it, and how to use it in an audition, with the full text.

The Offbook team

Oct 8, 2026

What is happening

These are the first lines of Richard III. The Wars of the Roses, the long civil war between the royal houses of York and Lancaster, are over, and York has won. Richard’s eldest brother is now King Edward IV. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is the youngest of the three brothers, a fierce soldier in the wars. Between him and the crown stand King Edward, Edward’s two young sons, and the middle brother, George, Duke of Clarence. The play follows on from Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays and assumes the audience knows them.

Richard comes on alone and talks straight to the audience. Everyone else is enjoying peace; he says he was born deformed and cannot play the lover, so he will play the villain instead. He reveals that he has already started: he has spread rumours, prophecies and slanders to turn the king against Clarence, including a prophecy that “G” will murder the king’s heirs.

In line 41 he sees Clarence coming, under armed guard on his way to the Tower. Lines 42 and 43 are Richard greeting him, all brotherly concern. Clarence explains that the king has been told by a wizard that someone whose name begins with G will disinherit his children, and George begins with G. The prophecy could just as easily mean Gloucester.

Lines: 41
Words: 306
At 150 wpm: 2.0 min
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 8 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–4 · Winter into summer

1Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

In plain English The winter of our unhappiness has now been turned into glorious summer by this sun of York, my brother King Edward, and all the clouds that hung over our family are buried deep in the ocean.

Acting note The sentence runs on from line 1 to line 2. “Now is the winter” does not mean it is winter now; it means the winter has been made summer. StageMilk points out the pun on sun and son.

Lines 5–8 · Peacetime

5Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

In plain English Now our heads are crowned with victory wreaths, our battered armour hangs on the wall as decoration, our harsh calls to battle have become parties, and our fearful marches have become graceful dances.

Acting note Four lines built on the same pattern, war turned into play. StageMilk notes how the repetition shows the strength of his feeling. Let the contempt grow with each one.

Lines 9–13 · War goes dancing

9Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front;
10And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

In plain English Grim-faced war has smoothed out his frown, and now, instead of mounting armoured warhorses to terrify his enemies, he skips about in a lady’s bedroom to the sexy sound of a lute.

Acting note War becomes a soldier turned ladies’ man. Richard despises him, and possibly envies him too.

Lines 14–23 · But I

14But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
15Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
20Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;

In plain English But I, who am not built for love games, or for admiring myself in a mirror; I, who am roughly made and lack the good looks to strut in front of some flirtatious girl; I, who have been cut short of a fair shape, cheated of good looks by lying Nature, deformed, unfinished, sent into this living world before my time, barely half made, and so lame and unfashionable that dogs bark at me as I limp past them;

Acting note StageMilk calls “But I” the big turning point. Three times he starts “I, that am” and the sentence still has no main verb. Keep it suspended and climbing; it does not land until line 25.

Lines 24–27 · Nothing to do

24Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
25Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:

In plain English I, in this feeble, piping time of peace, have no pleasure to pass the time, except to look at my shadow in the sun and make up variations on my own deformity.

Acting note The verb finally arrives: “Have no delight.” “Descant” is a musical word, so he mocks the world of lutes and dances by turning his own body into a tune.

Lines 28–31 · Determined to prove a villain

28And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
30I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.── 90-second cut ends here ──

In plain English And so, since I cannot be a lover to enjoy these fine, polite days, I am determined to be a villain and to hate the lazy pleasures of these days.

Acting note The decision. Lover and villain are set side by side, and he chooses. The 90-second cut on this page ends at line 31.

Lines 32–40 · Plots have I laid

32Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
35In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew’d up,
About a prophecy, which says that G
40Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.

In plain English I have laid plots and dangerous first moves, using drunken prophecies, slanders and dreams, to set my brother Clarence and the king in deadly hatred of each other. And if King Edward is as honest and fair as I am cunning, false and treacherous, then this very day Clarence will be locked up, because of a prophecy that says “G” will be the murderer of Edward’s heirs.

Acting note Now the audience are his accomplices. “Subtle, false and treacherous” is a boast. Keep this section active: he is showing off a scheme already in motion, not listing facts.

Lines 41–41 · Here Clarence comes

41Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence comes.

In plain English Sink down into my soul, thoughts: here comes Clarence.

Acting note The switch is instant: the confessor becomes the loving brother as Clarence walks on under guard. The audience now knows everything Clarence does not. The speech ends here; Richard’s next words are a greeting to his brother.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
sun of York	2	King Edward, Richard’s brother (with a pun on son)
lour’d	3	frowned, threatened
bruised arms	6	battered armour and weapons
alarums	7	calls to battle
measures	8	stately dances
front	9	forehead, face
barbed steeds	10	warhorses covered in armour
capers	12	skips, dances
lascivious	13	lustful, sexy
sportive tricks	14	flirting, love games
rudely stamp’d	16	roughly made
want	16	lack
wanton ambling nymph	17	a flirtatious young woman who walks in an affected way
curtail’d	18	cut short
dissembling	19	deceiving, false
halt	23	limp
piping	24	shrill, like pipes playing; feeble
descant	27	make variations on a theme, as in music; comment
inductions	32	first steps, opening moves
libels	33	slanders, scandalous leaflets
mew’d up	38	shut up, caged

How to perform it

Make the audience your partner. Wikipedia describes how Richard treats the audience as co-conspirators, so that they enjoy his wit while being appalled by what he does. Pick out real people and let them in on the secret. He wants them on his side.
Find the three movements: the public picture of peace (lines 1 to 13), the private “But I” (lines 14 to 27), and the decision and the plot (lines 28 to 41), ending on the switch as Clarence arrives. Ian McKellen’s 1995 film split the speech in two, with the first part as a public speech and the second as a private monologue, which shows how strong that change can be.
Hold the long sentence. Lines 14 to 27 are one sentence, and its main verb, “Have no delight,” arrives only in line 25. Breathe at the commas and semicolons, but keep the thought rising so each new “I, that am” builds on the last instead of starting from zero.
Let him be funny. The dancing war god, the mirror, the barking dogs and the polite “well-spoken days” are jokes, and the audience should laugh before they are shocked. Bitter self-pity from start to finish loses that.
Choose the body carefully. Richard says he is deformed and limps. Decide on something specific that you can sustain without choking your voice or breath; a small, exact choice says more than a heavy hunch.
Common mistakes: pausing after “discontent” so the first line seems to say it is winter now; announcing the famous opening; and treating lines 32 to 40 as dull plot. Backstage’s complaint is that the speech is exposition, so make every fact a move in a game you are winning.

Using it in an audition

Use this one with care. Backstage lists it among the most overdone Shakespeare audition speeches, arguing that an opening speech has to deliver exposition rather than a complete dramatic moment, and suggests Richard’s “Was ever woman in this humour wooed?” from the next scene instead. It has been an audition speech for a long time: Wikipedia notes that in one of the Parnassus plays, written between 1598 and 1602, two characters audition for Richard Burbage and Will Kemp of Shakespeare’s company, and one of them performs this speech. The speech runs about two minutes at 150 words a minute. It stops at line 41, “here Clarence comes”; the greeting to Clarence that follows belongs to the scene, not the monologue. The 90-second cut on this page ends at line 31, “And hate the idle pleasures of these days,” which keeps the decision but loses the plot. There is no clean one-minute cut, because lines 14 to 27 are a single sentence. The play does not state Richard’s age. As a contrast, pair it with a comic verse piece such as Petruchio’s “Thus have I politicly begun my reign” from The Taming of the Shrew.

Richard, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 1. William Shakespeare. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	2.4 minutes
Conversational	150	2.0 minutes
Brisk	170	1.8 minutes

These are speech times before pauses. To time your own run, paste the text into the monologue timer. The cut marks in the text stop at a full sentence near 90 seconds (line 31).

Practice it: first-letter version

Each word is cut to its first letter. Say the whole line from the letters, then check the text. Make cues from any script with the first-letter memorizer.

N i t w o o d

M g s b t s o Y;

A a t c t l u o h

I t d b o t o b.

N a o b b w v w;

O b a h u f m;

O s a c t m m,

O d m t d m.

G-v w h s h w f;

A n, i o m b s

T f t s o f a,

H c n i a l c

T t l p o a l.

B I, t a n s f s t,

N m t c a a l-g;

I, t a r s, a w l m

T s b a w a n;

I, t a c o t f p,

C o f b d n,

D, u, s b m t

I t b w, s h m u,

A t s l a u

T d b a m a I h b t;

W, I, i t w p t o p,

H n d t p a t t,

U t s m s i t s

A d o m o d:

A t, s I c p a l,

T e t f w-s d,

I a d t p a v

A h t i p o t d.

P h I l, i d,

B d p, l a d,

T s m b C a t k

I d h t o a t o:

A i K E b a t a j

A I a s, f a t,

T d s C c b m u,

A a p, w s t G

O E h t m s b.

D, t, d t m s: h C c.

More lists: Shakespeare monologues, Monologues for men, Dramatic monologues.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Richard’s Now is the winter of our discontent speech?

41 lines and 306 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 2.0 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 2.4 minutes. Pauses add time, so time a full run out loud.

Is it a good audition monologue?

What is the fastest way to memorize it?

Learn it in sense units, not line by line: say each thought out loud until you can do it without looking, then add the next. The first-letter version below keeps the shape of every line in view while you test yourself.