The Actor’s Book of Monologues for Women

General IntroductionPART I: WITNESS1. Mirrors to NatureIntroductionLinda Hogan—From WalkingAphra Behn—From OroonokoMary Botham Howitt—The Sea FowlerFrances Moore Brooke—To the Chase, to the Chase!Emily Pfeiffer—To a Moth that Drinketh of the Ripe OctoberJane Welsh Carlyle—To a Swallow Building Under Our EavesEmily Dickinson—Dear March—Come inClarissa Scott Delany—SolaceSarah Orne Jewett—From A White HeronSoge Track—From The Clearing in the Valley2. Commentaries and Character StudiesIntroductionAnne Finch—The Atheist and the AcornMrs. Leicester—The Mock HeroElizabeth Trefusis—The Boy and ButterflyCarolyn Wells—To a MilkmaidPhoebe Cary—When Lovely WomenJosephine Dodge Daskam Bacon—The Woman Who Used Her TheoryJane Austen—From SanditonMrs. Johnson to Lady SusanTabith Gilman Tenney—From Female QuixotismMark Twain—From Eve's DiaryFanny Fern (Sara Willis Parton)—Aunt Hetty on MatrimonyFrances Miriam Berry Whitcher—Hezekiah BedottKate F. Ellis—A Sunday Morning InterviewOn the Servant Girl QuestionThe Last Breakfast at the MountainsEmily Post—Fad FollowersGlovesSmoking Don'tsEve Merriam—TrystMaura Stanton—From NijinskyRhoda Lerman—From The Girl that He MarriesFrom God's EarAlice Kahn—The Brie Generation3. Journeys in HistoryIntroductionFanny Burney—Pursued by the KingLady Augusta Stanley—The Duke of Wellington's FuneralQueen Victoria in MourningLady Mary Wortley Montagu—Overlooking ConstantinopleEllen Terry—AmericaElizabeth Barrett Browning—ItalySusan Hale—To Miss Mary B. DinsmoorSylvia Ashton-Warner—From I Passed This WayIsadora Duncan—D'AnnunzioFanny Kemble—From The Journal of Frances Anne ButlerKate Ryan—From Old Boston Museum DaysBillie Burke—From With a Feather on My NoseUmm Kulthum—From The Umm Kulthum Nobody Knows4. Witnesses to WarIntroductionMargaret Hill Morris—From her DiaryElizabeth Sandwith Drinker—A Day of Great ConfusionThe Blazing FleetDeborah Sampson Gannett—An Address Delivered at the Federal-Street Theatre, BostonMargaret E. Breckenridge—From The Princeton Standard, 1862Eliza Frances Andrews—From The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-65Emma Adair—Fred Brown's BodyMrs. John Harris—From LettersMrs. A. H. Hoge—From Ladies' Address at the Packer Institute, Brooklyn, Spring, 1865Mrs. Belle Reynolds—From her DiaryMay Sinclair—Field Ambulance in Retreat (Via Dolorosa, Via Sacra)Anaïs Nin—The Grounded AviatorDiana Barnato Walker—Holding the Line, Britain, 1939-1945Ida Dobrzanska Kasprzak—Uprising, Poland, 1939-1945Dellie Hahne—Forty Years LaterLynn Bower—Twilight Zone, Vietnam, 1965-72Nellie Bianchi—The KidnappingsDaisy Zamora—Trapped in the Cross-FirePART II: ACTOR5. PolemicsIntroductionQueen Hatshepsut—Monument to AmunJoan of Arc—StatementsQueen Anne Boleyn—Defiled Is My Name Full SoreAnne Askewe—Like as the Armed KnightQueen Elizabeth I—Oh Fortune!Lady Mary Wortley Montagu—Thoughts on EducationElizabeth Barrett Browning—An Englishwoman's EducationMiss Wentworth—From Life's LessonsMary Wollstonecraft—From A Vindication of the Rights of WomanMaria W. Stewart—From What If I Am a Woman?Susan B. Anthony—On Woman's Right to SuffrageMerle Woo—Whenever You're Cornered, the Only Way Out Is to Fight6. ChoicesIntroductionLoi Yau—An Agreement to Assist a Young GirlJane Johnson—Affidavit and TestimonyMarjory Fleming—From Daily Diary, 1810Susan Hale—School-DaysKate Ryan—The Little Red ShoesHelen Ward Brandreth—"I have determined to keep a journal…"Mrs. Mary Robinson—A Propensity to IntoxicationJane Welsh Carlyle—Letter to John SterlingS.N. Hoisington—Wolves at the DoorAnnette Lecleve Botkin—An Undependable Sort of BirdLavina Gates Chapman—Blow the Building DownMartha Martin—The Sea OtterDonna Redmond—I'm Proud to Be a HillbillyRoberta Victor—HookerCarolyn Nearmyer—Family FarmerJean Gump—Swords into PlowsharesDr. Jane Hodgson—On ProbationZahrah Muhammad—From My Life, An Extended Interview by Susan S. DavisCarmen Prado—If We Stay Together They Can't Hurt Us7. Friends, Lovers and WivesIntroductionGareth Owen—FriendsSei Shonagon—On PartingHeloise—To AbelardAphra Behn—In Imitation of HoraceElizabeth Tollet—Winter SongMirra Lokhvitskaya—Tsarina of the UnderworldAdelaide Anne Procter—A Woman's QuestionEllen Mary Patrick Downing—Were I but His Own WifeAnonymous—Grief of a Girl's HeartAnne Bradstreet—A Letter to Her HusbandLynne Yamaguchi Fletcher—After Delivering Your LunchRhoda Lerman—From EleanorMary Shelley—My Beloved ShelleyLady Catherine Dyer—Epitaph on the Monument of Sir William Dyer at Colmworth, 1641Christina Rossetti—The First Day8. Daughters, Sisters and MothersIntroductionEmily Dickinson—Father Does Not Live with Us NowThe Last Afternoon That My Father LivedAnonymous—Oral Testimony of a Former SlaveLucille Clifton—From Generations: A MemoirAnna Lee Walters—From The WarriorsMarian Yee—WintermelonsKaren Dale Wolman—From Telling MomKate Douglas Wiggins and Nora Archibald Smith, Editors—From Pinafore PalaceI had a little ponySix little mice sat down to spinBobby Shaftoe's gone to seaI'll tell you a storySolomon GrundyThree children sliding on the iceThe man in the wilderness asked meIf all the world were apple-pieI had a little nut treeIf you sneeze on MondayWhen the wind is in the eastGirls and boys, come out to playHundreds of stars in the pretty skyChristina Rossetti—Who Has Seen the Wind?Abbie Farwell Brown—Learning to PlayEliza Lee Follen—The New MoonDinah Maria Mulock Craik—Philip, My KingMirra Lokhvitskaya—My SkyJane Cannary Hickok—From Calamity Jane's Letters to Her DaughterPART III: DREAMER9. Intimate VisionsQueen Elizabeth I—I Grieve and Dare Not Show My DiscontentOrinda (Katherine Fowler Philips)—Ode Against PleasureChristina Rossetti—Passing and Glassing EchoEmily Brontë—RemembranceFrom Wuthering HeightsAnna Kingsford—The Child on the CliffThe Laboratory UndergroundEmily Dickinson—Going to Heaven!There's Been a DeathI Cannot Live with YouNathaniel Hawthorne—From The Scarlet LetterCharlotte Perkins Gilman—From The Yellow WallpaperMargaret Atwood—A Night in the Royal Ontario MuseumGareth Owen—The ParkSappho—NoPierre Louys—From Chansons de Bilitisiii. Maternal Advicevii. The Passer-byxxix. The Pan-pipexci. Funeral Songxcii. Hymn to Astartexciii. Hymn to the NightThe Tomb of Bilitis: First Epitaph10. Epics and GothicsIntroductionSappho—The Homecoming of Hector and AndromacheMarie de France—From The Lay of Sir LaunfalLady Charlotte Elliot—The Wife of LokiMrs. Darmesteter (A. Mary F. Robinson)—A Ballad of Orleans, 1429Esperanza (Lady Wilde)—A Wicked SpellA Woman's CurseMary C. G. Byron—The Fairy ThrallThe Tryst of the NightChristina Rossetti—From Goblin MarketNazik al-Mala'ikah—From The ViperAnn Radcliffe—From The Romance of the ForestFrom The Mysteries of UdolphoElizabeth Gaskell—From The Old Nurse's StoryLanoe Falconer—Cecilia's GospelMary E. Braddon—From The Cold EmbraceCharlotte Brontë—From Jane EyreBram Stoker—Mina Murray's JournalRobert W. Chambers—Mary ReadFredric Brown—Too Far11. Revelations and TransformationsIntroductionPhilo-Philippa—From To the Excellent OrindaAnne Killigrew—On a Picture Painted by Her Self…Phillis Wheatley—On ImaginationAlice Meynell—The Modern Poet: A Song of DerivationsMary Shelley—From the 1831 introduction to FrankensteinElizabeth Melville—From Ane Godlie DreameRebecca Cox Jackson—From Gifts of PowerLidiya Zinovyeva-Annibal—From The WolvesAnaïs Nin—From Diary, Volume 2Dahlia Ravikovitch—Tirzah and the Wide WorldFurugh Farrukhzad—Divine RebellionPatricia Geary—From Strange ToysHaniel Long—From MalincheMarion Zimmer Bradley—From The Mists of AvalonUrsula K. LeGuin—From Tehanu: The Last Book of EarthseaZenna Henderson—From PilgrimageRhoda Lerman—Dawn Is Far AwayThe Vestments He WoveA Spool of Golden ThreadRuth Whitman—July 4, 1846, at Fort LaramieSeptember 6, 1846, in the DesertMarch 15, 1847, by Alder CreekWhere Is the WestEmily Dickinson—Go Thy Great Way!Select Bibliography