Personal Anthology of Shakespeare

Author(s)

• William Shakespeare

This personal anthology is my choice of speeches from Shakespeare that I enjoy reading (that I would like to have had by heart years ago!) and that seem to me to illustrate his unsurpassed use of language. He was a man who seemed to know everything about human nature and as Orson Welles said ‘he speaks to everyone and we all claim him’. I know that it has been said that ‘it is impossible to be a great Shakespearian actor without an idiosyncratic and extraordinary voice’ and this may be so, but that does not preclude ordinary mortals from reading, hearing and enjoying Shakespeare. (Summary by Martin Clifton)

1. As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7) : All the World’s a Stage
2. Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 3) : To Thine Own Self Be True
3. Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) : What a Piece of Work Is Man
4. Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1) : To Be or Not To Be
5. Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 2) : Speak the Speech
6. Julius Caesar (Act 1, Scene 2) : Bestrides the Narrow World
7. Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2) : If You Have Tears Prepare To Shed Them Now
8. Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2) : Friends, Romans, Countrymen
9. Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2) : Let Me Not Stir You Up
10. Julius Caesar (Act 5, Scene 5) : This Was the Noblest Roman of Them All
11. King Henry V (Act 3, Scene 1) : Once More Unto the Breach
12. King Henry V (Act 4, Scene 3) : This Day is Called the Feast of Crispian
13. King Richard III (Act 1, Scene 1) : Now is the Winter of Our Discontent
14. Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7) : If It Were Done
15. Macbeth (Act 2, Scene 1) : Is This a Dagger
16. The Merchant of Venice (Act 1, Scene 3) : Many a Time and Oft
17. The Merchant of Venice (Act 3, Scene 1) : If You Prick Us Do We Not Bleed
18. The Merchant of Venice (Act 4, Scene 1) : The Quality of Mercy
19. Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2) : What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
20. Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2) : Romeo, Romeo