Daughter: “Why should I love this gentleman?” (the Gaoler’s Daughter)

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

The Two Noble Kinsmen, written by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare around 1613 to 1614, retells Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. Theseus, Duke of Athens, has defeated Thebes. Two cousins and best friends from Thebes, Palamon and Arcite, nephews of the Theban king, were found badly wounded on the battlefield. Theseus had them nursed back to health and locked in his prison.

The Gaoler’s Daughter is the playwrights’ own addition to the story. Her father keeps that prison and is arranging for her to marry a young man known only as the Wooer. She has been looking after the two princes and admiring them. Then, from their prison window, the cousins saw Emilia, the sister of the Duke’s bride, and both fell in love with her, so their friendship turned to rivalry. Arcite has now been released and banished. Palamon is still locked up, and has been moved away from the window.

Now the Daughter is alone, speaking to the audience. In this short scene she admits she has fallen for Palamon and makes up her mind to set him free. The next time we see her, she has done it. It goes badly: he is not where she left him in the woods, and she loses her wits searching for him.

Lines: 33
Words: 286
At 150 wpm: 1.9 min
Form: Verse

The speech, beat by beat

The full text in 5 beats. Under each beat: what it means in plain English, and a note for playing it.

Lines 1–5 · Why love him?

1Why should I love this gentleman? ’tis odds
He never will affect me: I am base,
My father the mean keeper of his prison,
And he a prince: to marry him is hopeless,
5To be his whore is witless. Out upon’t!

In plain English Why should I love this gentleman? He will almost certainly never love me back. I am low-born, my father is only the keeper of his prison, and he is a prince. Marrying him is hopeless; being his mistress would be stupid. Enough of that!

Acting note She starts by trying to talk herself out of it, and gives up within five lines. “Out upon’t!” is her shaking the thought off, and failing.

Lines 6–15 · First, next, then

6What pushes are we wenches driven to,
When fifteen once has found us! First, I saw him;
I, seeing, thought he was a goodly man;
He has as much to please a woman in him—
10If he please to bestow it so—as ever
These eyes yet look’d on: next I pitied him;
And so would any young wench, o’ my conscience,
That ever dream’d, or vow’d her maidenhead
To a young handsome man: then I lov’d him,
15Extremely lov’d him, infinitely lov’d him;

In plain English The things we girls are driven to once we turn fifteen! First I saw him, and thought he was a fine-looking man, as attractive as any I have ever set eyes on, if he chose to use it that way. Next I pitied him, as any young girl would who had ever dreamed of giving herself to a handsome young man. Then I loved him: extremely, infinitely.

Acting note “First,” “next,” “then” is a ladder, and each rung is bigger. Let the third one run away with her: “lov’d him, / Extremely lov’d him, infinitely lov’d him.”

Lines 16–19 · Palamon, not his cousin

16And yet he had a cousin, fair as he too;
But in my heart was Palamon, and there,
Lord, what a coil he keeps! To hear him
Sing in an evening, what a heaven it is!── 60-second cut ends here ──

In plain English He had a cousin just as handsome, but it was Palamon in my heart, and what a commotion he makes in there! To hear him sing in the evening is heaven.

Acting note Arcite is gone, so he gets one line and the past tense. The singing is a memory to hear again, not to describe. Let the short line 18 hold a breath before it.

Lines 20–28 · The mornings, and the kiss

20And yet his songs are sad ones. Fairer spoken
Was never gentleman: when I come in
To bring him water in a morning, first
He bows his noble body, then salutes me thus,
“Fair, gentle maid, good morrow: may thy goodness
25Get thee a happy husband!” Once he kiss’d me;
I lov’d my lips the better ten days after:
Would he would do so every day! He grieves much,
And me as much to see his misery:

In plain English His songs are sad ones, though. No gentleman ever spoke more beautifully. When I bring him water in the morning, he bows and greets me: “Good morning, lovely kind girl; may your goodness win you a happy husband!” He kissed me once, and I loved my own lips more for ten days afterward. I wish he would do it every day! He is very unhappy, and it makes me just as unhappy to see him suffer.

Acting note She acts out his greeting, so let us hear his courtly voice inside hers. The joke she misses: he wishes her a happy husband, plainly not himself. Play the kiss lines with total sincerity; the laugh comes from how much she means them.

Lines 29–33 · The plan

29What should I do, to make him know I love him?── 90-second cut ends here ──
30For I would fain enjoy him say I ventur’d
To set him free? what says the law, then? Thus much
For law, or kindred! I will do it;
And this night or to-morrow he shall love me.

In plain English What can I do to make him know I love him? I would so gladly have him. What if I risked setting him free? What does the law say then? So much for the law, and for my family! I will do it, and tonight or tomorrow he will love me.

Acting note The idea arrives as a question, and she answers it herself in a rush. “Thus much / For law, or kindred!” is a snap of the fingers at her father’s job and the punishment. The last line is pure hope, and the audience can see it is not how love works.

Hard words

Word	Line	Meaning
’tis odds	1	it is likely, the odds are
affect	2	love, care for
base	2	low-born, of low rank
mean keeper	3	humble keeper (the jailer)
witless	5	stupid, senseless
Out upon’t!	5	enough of that! (shaking off a thought)
pushes	6	extremes, desperate situations
wenches	6	girls, young women
goodly	8	handsome, fine-looking
o’ my conscience	12	on my conscience; I swear
maidenhead	13	virginity
what a coil he keeps	18	what a commotion he makes
salutes	23	greets
fain	30	gladly
ventur’d	30	dared, risked
kindred	32	family

How to perform it

Play the objective. She wants Palamon to love her, and by the end she has a plan she believes will make it happen. The journey is from “Why should I?” to “I will do it.” If the decision does not land as a real change, the speech has no shape.
Talk to the audience. This is a soliloquy spoken straight out, and she treats the house as friends who will understand (“And so would any young wench”). Put real questions to them, especially “What should I do” and “what says the law, then?”, and wait a beat for the answer she does not get.
She is fifteen and has grown up working in a prison. Play her honesty and her quick mind, not her foolishness. The comedy comes from how completely she means every word, including the kiss.
Follow the sense through the verse. Her thoughts keep running over the line ends (“as ever / These eyes yet look’d on,” “To hear him / Sing,” “when I come in / To bring him water”). Breathe at the punctuation, not at the end of each line. Line 30 has no stop after “enjoy him” in this text; read it as if there were one, so the new thought, “say I ventur’d / To set him free?”, starts mid-line.
Pace the climb. The ladder of lines 6 to 15 should gather speed. Take a full breath before line 29, where the plan begins, and let lines 31 to 33 tumble out as she talks herself into it.
Common mistakes: playing her as already mad (that comes later, and it hits harder if she starts out sane); sending her up; and rushing the kiss for a laugh.

Using it in an audition

A strong choice for young women who want comedy and heart in one piece. The play is rarely staged, so panels are unlikely to have heard it many times, and the speech has a clear arc from doubt to decision. She is fifteen (she says so in line 7), so it suits teenagers and actors in their early twenties who can play young. The full speech runs a little under two minutes at a conversational pace. The 60-second cut marked in the text ends at line 19, “what a heaven it is!”, which is a happy, complete stop but loses the plan. The 90-second mark at line 29 ends on her question, “What should I do, to make him know I love him?”; that works only if you let it hang as the start of a decision. The full version is stronger. Pair it with something darker and still, such as Juliet’s potion speech or Constance’s “Grief fills the room up.”

Daughter, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act 2, Scene 4. William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Public domain text.

How long it runs

Pace	Words a minute	Run time
Deliberate	130	2.2 minutes
Conversational	150	1.9 minutes
Brisk	170	1.7 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 60 seconds (line 19) and 90 seconds (line 29).

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.

W s I l t g? ’t o

H n w a m: I a b,

M f t m k o h p,

A h a p: t m h i h,

T b h w i w. O u!

W p a w w d t,

W f o h f u! F, I s h;

I, s, t h w a g m;

H h a m t p a w i h—

I h p t b i s—a e

T e y l o: n I p h;

A s w a y w, o’ m c,

T e d, o v h m

T a y h m: t I l h,

E l h, i l h;

A y h h a c, f a h t;

B i m h w P, a t,

L, w a c h k! T h h

S i a e, w a h i i!

A y h s a s o. F s

W n g: w I c i

T b h w i a m, f

H b h n b, t s m t,

“F, g m, g m: m t g

G t a h h!” O h k m;

I l m l t b t d a:

W h w d s e d! H g m,

A m a m t s h m:

W s I d, t m h k I l h?

F I w f e h s I v

T s h f? w s t l, t? T m

F l, o k! I w d i;

A t n o t-m h s l m.

More lists: Monologues for women, Comedic monologues, Monologues for teens.

Sources

Questions actors ask

How long is Daughter’s Why should I love this gentleman? (the Gaoler’s Daughter) speech?

33 lines and 286 words. At 150 words a minute it runs about 1.9 minutes; a slower, more deliberate delivery at 130 takes about 2.2 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.