Opening Soliloquy

Playwright:

     Let the round globe listen!  And enter in

     To my play of light and shadowed passions,

     Drawn forth from the silences of my heart.

     Here as I stand alone so have I stood:

     Seeing the delicate flowers’ blossoms

     Cup in most suitable magnificence

     The far array of sunlight’s dawn and dusk;

     Hearing the whispered confessions of youth

     Echo the pure marbled architecture

     Of Olympus; and knowing, forlornly,

     The distilled dictates of wisdom portend

     A bitter death to prophets: yet, no less

     Than the glorious sun dies to reflect

     Peace at night with the vast panoply of stars.

     Let your darkling natures be mused in my

     Sympathetic orb: I shared my spirit

     Many times amid characters at odds,

     But the dew of reconciliation

     Must touch my eye.  If the tender mallards

     Of my unidle words approach your pools

     Of conscious affection, welcome them and

     The gently drawn lines in which they paddle:

     I have no need of thanks, and I begin.

     Thee first, Romeo!

                                 Enter Romeo