ULTIMATE SHAKESPEARE PLAY TOURNAMENT

shakepeare polls & tourney; main @vampiremotif

[bardtournament]

best soliloquy tournament

best soliloquy

Now might I do it pat (Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 3)

The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse (Spoken by Juliet, Act 2 Scene 5

Voting ended onMay 21, 2025

vote on the soliloquy itself, not based on performances linked. the performances are meant to serve as examples of the soliloquy spoken aloud!

full soliloquies in plain text under the read more

Now Might I Do It Pat’, Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought, ‘Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season’d for his passage? No! Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; At gaming, swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in’t; Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn’d and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

The Clock Struck Nine When I Did Send The Nurse’, Spoken by Juliet, Act 2 Scene 5

The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promised to return. Perchance she cannot meet him: that’s not so. O, she is lame! love’s heralds should be thoughts, Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams, Driving back shadows over louring hills: Therefore do nimble-pinion’d doves draw love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. Now is the sun upon the highmost hill Of this day’s journey, and from nine till twelve Is three long hours, yet she is not come. Had she affections and warm youthful blood, She would be as swift in motion as a ball; My words would bandy her to my sweet love, And his to me: But old folks, many feign as they were dead; Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.

[bardtournament]

best soliloquy tournament

best soliloquy

Now might I do it pat (Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 3)

The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse (Spoken by Juliet, Act 2 Scene 5

Voting ended onMay 21, 2025

vote on the soliloquy itself, not based on performances linked. the performances are meant to serve as examples of the soliloquy spoken aloud!

full soliloquies in plain text under the read more

Now Might I Do It Pat’, Spoken by Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? But in our circumstance and course of thought, ‘Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season’d for his passage? No! Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; At gaming, swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in’t; Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, And that his soul may be as damn’d and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

The Clock Struck Nine When I Did Send The Nurse’, Spoken by Juliet, Act 2 Scene 5

The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promised to return. Perchance she cannot meet him: that’s not so. O, she is lame! love’s heralds should be thoughts, Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams, Driving back shadows over louring hills: Therefore do nimble-pinion’d doves draw love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. Now is the sun upon the highmost hill Of this day’s journey, and from nine till twelve Is three long hours, yet she is not come. Had she affections and warm youthful blood, She would be as swift in motion as a ball; My words would bandy her to my sweet love, And his to me: But old folks, many feign as they were dead; Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.

[bardtournament]

need a soliloquy from a comparatively obscure play to win against an known one to convince me that ppl aren’t just voting for the known play…

[bardtournament]

best soliloquy tournament

best soliloquy

Full of vexation come I, with complaint, Egeus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1.1)

If It Were Done When ‘Tis Done’, Macbeth in Macbeth (1.7)

Voting ended onMay 6, 2025

vote on the soliloquy itself, not based on performances linked. the performances are meant to serve as examples of the soliloquy spoken aloud!

full soliloquies in plain text under the read more

Full of vexation come I, with complaint, Egeus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1. Scene 1

Full of vexation come I, with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia. Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her. Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke, This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child; Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes, And interchanged love-tokens with my child: Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, With feigning voice verses of feigning love, And stolen the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth: With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart, Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me, To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke, Be it so she; will not here before your grace Consent to marry with Demetrius, I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, As she is mine, I may dispose of her: Which shall be either to this gentleman Or to her death, according to our law Immediately provided in that case.

If It Were Done When ‘Tis Done’, Macbeth in Macbeth, Act 1. Scene 7

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly: if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We’ld jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust; First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other.

[bardtournament]

best soliloquy tournament

best soliloquy

Ye Elves of Hills, Prospero in The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1

How All Occasions Do Inform Against Me, Hamlet in Hamlet, Act 4. Scene 4

Voting ended onApr 29, 2025

vote on the soliloquy itself, not based on performances linked. the performances are meant to serve as examples of the soliloquy spoken aloud!

full soliloquies in plain text under the read more

Ye Elves of Hills, Prospero in The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves, And ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him When he comes back; you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm’d The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds, And ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck’d up The pine and cedar: graves at my command Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em forth By my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure, and, when I have required Some heavenly music, which even now I do, To work mine end upon their senses that This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.

How All Occasions Do Inform Against Me, Hamlet in Hamlet, Act 4. Scene 4

How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and god-like reason To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;’ Sith I have cause and will and strength and means To do’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me: Witness this army of such mass and charge Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puff’d Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour’s at the stake. How stand I then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

[bardtournament]

FINALS !!!! 🚨‼️

ultimate shakespeare play

Much Ado About Nothing

Hamlet

Voting ended onDec 27, 2024

[bardtournament]

HAMLET WINS!!!!!!!

HAMLET IS THE ULTIMATE SHAKESPEARE PLAY

[bardtournament]

what should be my next shakespeare-themed poll tournament 👁️

best characters

best soliloquies

best film adaptions of x play

best sonnets

something else (say in tags)

see results/bald

Voting ended onDec 27, 2024

[bardtournament]

FINALS !!!! 🚨‼️

ultimate shakespeare play

Much Ado About Nothing

Hamlet

Voting ended onDec 27, 2024

[bardtournament]

FINAL POLL !!!! 🚨‼️

ultimate shakespeare play

Much Ado About Nothing

Hamlet

Voting ended onDec 27, 2024

[nojglisrenaissance]

Propaganda post for Much Ado

It is such a witty and lighthearted play at first glance, one with so many layers and such a wide range of characters. It was the first Shakespeare play I have ever seen and it is the one that made me realise that Shakespeare is not bad at all as an adult. Also the one I had seen the most, and in the most different productions. I just love it with all my heart and will never come not even close to any moral dilemma and demise of a family and whatnot.

The way it deals with women in society is fascinating. No matter how outspoken and loud and bold Beatrice is, when it really matters, there is nothing she can do. That monologue - i know it is technically part of a dialogue, but they are talking next to each other, not with each other - is one of my favourites of all time. And let's be real; threatening to eat someone's heart at the marketplace is so badass.

The way Benedick reacts to that; the way he's willing to change to step up, to do what would make his beloved happy. I am not immune to that. Especially in the Tennant-Tate production, where that is so highlighted both by Tennant's performance and the wardrobe choices. *chef's kiss*

And then there is the main romantic relationship between Benedick and Beatrice. The witty banter!!!! The jokes and comments they make at each other!!! It is just everything. I don't know what else to say, the dialogues speak for themselves.

[bardtournament]

what should be my next shakespeare-themed poll tournament 👁️

best characters

best soliloquies

best film adaptions of x play

best sonnets

something else (say in tags)

see results/bald

Voting ended onDec 27, 2024

[bardtournament]

FINALS !!!! 🚨‼️

ultimate shakespeare play

Much Ado About Nothing

Hamlet

Voting ended onDec 27, 2024

[bardtournament]

finals

ultimate shakespeare play

Richard III

Much Ado About Nothing

Voting ended onDec 13, 2024

[bardtournament]

semifinals

c4.1 ultimate shakespeare play

Much Ado About Nothing

Twelfth Night

Voting ended onNov 29, 2024

[bardtournament]

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING WINS FOR BEST COMEDY PLAY!

TBD who it goes up against for the ultimate shakespeare play

[bardtournament]

semifinals

c4.1 ultimate shakespeare play

Much Ado About Nothing

Twelfth Night

Voting ended onNov 29, 2024

[bardtournament]

semifinals

t4.1 ultimate shakespeare play

Hamlet

Macbeth

Voting ended onNov 18, 2024

[bardtournament]

HAMLET WINS FOR BEST TRAGEDY PLAY!

TBD who it goes up against for the ultimate shakespeare play

[bardtournament]

semifinals

t4.1 ultimate shakespeare play

Hamlet

Macbeth

Voting ended onNov 18, 2024

[bardtournament]

semifinals

c3.14 ultimate shakespeare play

As You Like It

Twelfth Night

Voting ended onNov 18, 2024