ANNE OF GREEN GABLESFrom the book, young Anne talking to herself in her bedroom mirror.
THE HAPPY PRINCE
From the Oscar Wilde fairy tale about a statue of a former prince
Boy, Age 8 to 14
Oh Uncle Wesley, why didn’t you tell me? You should have seen me among them at that school. I was a picture! They’ll never forget me. No, they won’t get a chance, for they’ll see the same things tomorrow, if I can go back. And if I don’t go back, all of them will know it’s not because of my clothes. They will know it’s because I am so poor I can’t buy my books. It’s books and tuition. Over twenty dollars in all. Oh, how can I get it, Uncle Wesley?
No. I wouldn’t touch a penny from you, unless I really could earn it. Hand me money because you find me crying for it! I owe you and Aunt Margaret for all the home life and love I’ve ever known, and I’ll not take your money. I’m going home, and I’ll try mother for the money. It’s just possible I could find second-hand books, and perhaps all the tuition need not be paid at once. Maybe they would accept it quarterly. But, oh, Uncle Wesley, you and Aunt Margaret, you keep on loving me.
Girl, Age 6 to 10
It’s all right. It’s all right. I’ve come back. Why, haven’t you all been wondering where I was? I’ve been away for hours and hours. It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe, and I’ve been away for hours, and had tea, and all sorts of things have happened. No, Peter. I’m not just making up a story for fun. I was in the wardrobe. It’s - it’s a magic wardrobe. There’s a wood inside it, and it’s snowing , and there’s a Faun and a Witch and it’s called Narnia; come and see. There! Go in and see for yourselves. But - but where has it all gone? No. It wasn’t a hoax, I promise. Really and truly. It was all different a moment ago. Honestly it was.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Girl, age 14 to 16
Lydia has runaway with Mr Wickham. She believes they’re going to get married and hasn’t thought at all about how her choices will negatively affect her family or her friend Harriet Forster.
Dear Harriet,
You will laugh when you know where I am gone, and I cannot help laughing myself at your surprise to-morrow morning, as soon as I am missed. I am going to Gretna Green, and if you cannot guess with who, I shall think you a simpleton, for there is but one man in the world I love, and he is an angel. I should never be happy without him, so think it no harm to be off. You need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater when I write to them, and sign my name Lydia Wickham. What a good joke it will be! I can hardly write for laughing. Pray make my excuses to Pratt for not keeping my engagement, and dancing with him to-night. Tell him I hope he will excuse me when he knows all, and tell him I will dance with him at the next ball we meet with great pleasure. I shall send for my clothes when I get to Longbourn; but I wish you would tell Sally to mend a great slit in my worked muslin gown before the are packed up. Goodbye. Give my love to Colonel Forster. I hope you will drink to our good journey.
Your Affectionate Friend,
Lydia Bennet
LORD OF THE FLIES
PIGGY
I expect there’s a lot more of us scattered about. You haven’t seen any others, have you? I’d run and have a look about with you, but my auntie told me not to run, on account of my asthma. Can’t catch me breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma. And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three. I expect when we find the others, we ought to have a meeting. And we’ll want to know all their names, and make a list. I don’t care what they call me, so long as they don’t call me what they used to call me at school. They used to call me ‘Piggy.’ No. Please! I said I didn’t want to be called --” Oh. Oh fine. Just so long as you don’t tell the others.”
ANNE FRANK
THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
This monologue is taken directly from part of the book’s Friday, 5 February, 1943 entry
THE SECRET GARDEN
ANNE: Now I’m going to imagine things into this room so that they’ll always stay imagined. This is a couch all heaped with gorgeous silken cushions, pink and blue and crimson and gold, and I am reclining gracefully on it. I can see my reflection in that splendid big mirror hanging on the wall. I am tall and regal, clad in a gown or trailing white lace, with a pearl cross on my breast and pearls in my hair. My name is Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald. No, it isn’t - I can’t make that seem real.
You’re only Anne of Green Gables, and I see you, just as you are looking now, whenever I try to imagine I’m the Lady Cordelia. But it’s a million times nicer to be Anne of Green Gables than Anne of nowhere in particular, isn’t it?
You’re only Anne of Green Gables, and I see you, just as you are looking now, whenever I try to imagine I’m the Lady Cordelia. But it’s a million times nicer to be Anne of Green Gables than Anne of nowhere in particular, isn’t it?
THE HAPPY PRINCE
From the Oscar Wilde fairy tale about a statue of a former prince
Boy, Age 8 to 14
PRINCE: Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, far away across the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. He has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint. Alas! I no longer have rubies to give him. My eyes are all that I have now. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He will sell it to the jeweler, and buy firewood, and finish his play. Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, do not weep so. Do as I command you and pluck out my eye.
A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST
ElnoraGirl, Ages 12 to 14
ElnoraGirl, Ages 12 to 14
Oh Uncle Wesley, why didn’t you tell me? You should have seen me among them at that school. I was a picture! They’ll never forget me. No, they won’t get a chance, for they’ll see the same things tomorrow, if I can go back. And if I don’t go back, all of them will know it’s not because of my clothes. They will know it’s because I am so poor I can’t buy my books. It’s books and tuition. Over twenty dollars in all. Oh, how can I get it, Uncle Wesley?
No. I wouldn’t touch a penny from you, unless I really could earn it. Hand me money because you find me crying for it! I owe you and Aunt Margaret for all the home life and love I’ve ever known, and I’ll not take your money. I’m going home, and I’ll try mother for the money. It’s just possible I could find second-hand books, and perhaps all the tuition need not be paid at once. Maybe they would accept it quarterly. But, oh, Uncle Wesley, you and Aunt Margaret, you keep on loving me.
THE LION, THE WITCH, & THE WARDROBE
LUCYGirl, Age 6 to 10
It’s all right. It’s all right. I’ve come back. Why, haven’t you all been wondering where I was? I’ve been away for hours and hours. It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe, and I’ve been away for hours, and had tea, and all sorts of things have happened. No, Peter. I’m not just making up a story for fun. I was in the wardrobe. It’s - it’s a magic wardrobe. There’s a wood inside it, and it’s snowing , and there’s a Faun and a Witch and it’s called Narnia; come and see. There! Go in and see for yourselves. But - but where has it all gone? No. It wasn’t a hoax, I promise. Really and truly. It was all different a moment ago. Honestly it was.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Girl, age 14 to 16
Lydia has runaway with Mr Wickham. She believes they’re going to get married and hasn’t thought at all about how her choices will negatively affect her family or her friend Harriet Forster.
Dear Harriet,
You will laugh when you know where I am gone, and I cannot help laughing myself at your surprise to-morrow morning, as soon as I am missed. I am going to Gretna Green, and if you cannot guess with who, I shall think you a simpleton, for there is but one man in the world I love, and he is an angel. I should never be happy without him, so think it no harm to be off. You need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater when I write to them, and sign my name Lydia Wickham. What a good joke it will be! I can hardly write for laughing. Pray make my excuses to Pratt for not keeping my engagement, and dancing with him to-night. Tell him I hope he will excuse me when he knows all, and tell him I will dance with him at the next ball we meet with great pleasure. I shall send for my clothes when I get to Longbourn; but I wish you would tell Sally to mend a great slit in my worked muslin gown before the are packed up. Goodbye. Give my love to Colonel Forster. I hope you will drink to our good journey.
Your Affectionate Friend,
Lydia Bennet
LORD OF THE FLIES
PIGGY
I expect there’s a lot more of us scattered about. You haven’t seen any others, have you? I’d run and have a look about with you, but my auntie told me not to run, on account of my asthma. Can’t catch me breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma. And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three. I expect when we find the others, we ought to have a meeting. And we’ll want to know all their names, and make a list. I don’t care what they call me, so long as they don’t call me what they used to call me at school. They used to call me ‘Piggy.’ No. Please! I said I didn’t want to be called --” Oh. Oh fine. Just so long as you don’t tell the others.”
ANNE FRANK
THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
This monologue is taken directly from part of the book’s Friday, 5 February, 1943 entry
Dear Kitty,
Just recently Mrs. Van Daan came out with some perfect nonsense. She was recalling the past, how well she and her father got on together and what a flirt she was. “And do you know,” she went on, “if a man gets a bit aggressive, my father used to say, then you must say to him, ‘Mr. So and So, remember I am a lady!’ and he will know what you mean.” We thought that was a good joke and burst out laughing. Peter too, although usually so quiet, sometimes gives cause for mirth. He is blessed with a passion for foreign words, although he does not always know their meaning. One afternoon we couldn’t go to the lavatory because there were visitors in the office; however, Peter had to pay an urgent call. So he didn’t pull the plug. He put a notice up on the lavatory door to warm us, with “S.V.P. gas” on it. Of course he meant to put “Beware of gas”; but he thought the other looked more genteel. He hadn’t got the faintest notion it meant “if you please.”
Yours,
Anne
Just recently Mrs. Van Daan came out with some perfect nonsense. She was recalling the past, how well she and her father got on together and what a flirt she was. “And do you know,” she went on, “if a man gets a bit aggressive, my father used to say, then you must say to him, ‘Mr. So and So, remember I am a lady!’ and he will know what you mean.” We thought that was a good joke and burst out laughing. Peter too, although usually so quiet, sometimes gives cause for mirth. He is blessed with a passion for foreign words, although he does not always know their meaning. One afternoon we couldn’t go to the lavatory because there were visitors in the office; however, Peter had to pay an urgent call. So he didn’t pull the plug. He put a notice up on the lavatory door to warm us, with “S.V.P. gas” on it. Of course he meant to put “Beware of gas”; but he thought the other looked more genteel. He hadn’t got the faintest notion it meant “if you please.”
Yours,
Anne
THE SECRET GARDEN
Mary is 8 to 10 years old in this scene
THE SECRET GARDEN Colin is a boy age 8 to 12 who has been bedridden his entire life.
COLIN: The springtime. I was thinking that I’ve really never seen it before. I scarcely ever went out, and when I did go I never looked at it. I didn’t even think about it. That morning when you ran in and said ‘It’s come! It’s come!’ you made me feel quite queer. It sounded as if things were coming with a great procession and big bursts and wafts of music. I’ve a picture like it in one of my books - crowds of lovely people and children with garlands and branches with blossoms on them, everyone laughing and dancing and crowding and playing on pipes. That’s why I said, ‘Perhaps we shall hear golden trumpets’ and told you to throw open the window.
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