Shakespeare · Soliloquies & Solo Speeches
Production Notes
Ophelia reports to her father what she has just witnessed: Hamlet appearing in her chamber wild-eyed and disheveled, holding her, studying her face, sighing, and leaving without a word. She is not performing grief — she is trying to accurately describe something she cannot yet interpret, and underneath the report, her own distress is unmistakable.
The speech is unique in Shakespeare’s soliloquy canon: it is a witness report. Ophelia is a careful observer, and the accuracy of her description is itself a form of expression. Players who honor the specificity — exactly how Hamlet held her, exactly how he sighed — will find the grief already in the detail.
Script
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced, No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, Ungartèred, and down-gyvèd to his ankle, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosèd out of hell To speak of horrors — he comes before me.
…
He took me by the wrist and held me hard. Then goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. Long stayed he so. At last, a little shaking of mine arm, And thrice his head thus waving up and down, He raised a sigh so piteous and profound As it did seem to shatter all his bulk And end his being. That done, he lets me go, And, with his head over his shoulder turned, He seemed to find his way without his eyes, For out o’ doors he went without their helps And to the last bended their light on me.
Facilitator Notes
Warm-up: Ask Players to describe, with complete accuracy, a small physical interaction they have recently observed — not what it meant, just what happened. Then approach the speech.
Debrief prompts:
- Ophelia uses the word “piteous” twice. Why does she keep reaching for that word?
- The speech ends with Hamlet looking back at her “to the last.” What does Ophelia feel in that final look — and how does the Player convey what Ophelia does not say?
- This speech is addressed to Polonius — someone who will immediately use it as information. How does that listener change what Ophelia can and cannot express?
- Where in the speech does Ophelia stop reporting and start feeling? Or does she?