An Actor’s Guide to “What studied torments” - Paulina fromThe Winter’s Tale
“What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me?
What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling?
In leads or oils? what old or newer torture
Must I receive, whose every word deserves
To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny
Together working with thy jealousies,
Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle
For girls of nine, O, think what they have done
And then run mad indeed, stark mad! for all
Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.
That thou betray’dst Polixenes,’twas nothing;
That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant
And damnable ingrateful: nor was’t much,
Thou wouldst have poison’d good Camillo’s honour,
To have him kill a king: poor trespasses,
More monstrous standing by: whereof I reckon
The casting forth to crows thy baby-daughter
To be or none or little; though a devil
Would have shed water out of fire ere done’t:
Nor is’t directly laid to thee, the death
Of the young prince, whose honourable thoughts,
Thoughts high for one so tender, cleft the heart
That could conceive a gross and foolish sire
Blemish’d his gracious dam: this is not, no,
Laid to thy answer: but the last,—O lords,
When I have said, cry ‘woe!’ the queen, the queen,
The sweet’st, dear’st creature’s dead,
and vengeance for’t
Not dropp’d down yet.”
Context
This monologue comes at a crucial point in the play. It’s very high intensity, so it’s important to thoroughly understand what has come before so you understand what is motivating Paulina.
Key points in the play so far:
Leontes (the King of Sicilia) has accused his wife, Hermione, of infidelity.
Hermione has been separated from their oldest son, Mamillius, and taken to prison.
She gives birth in prison, and then is called to trial by Leontes not long after she has given birth.
After defending her honour as best she can, Hermione hears the news that Mamillius has died. She faints, and is escorted away.
While she is off stage, Leontes realises the depth of torment he has caused and begins to show signs of remorse.
Paulina, a noblewoman and Hermione’s close friend, re-enters the stage and begins this monologue. The ultimate point of this monologue is to deliver the news: the Queen is dead.
Acting Prep
Scene practice
In your preparation, I recommend rehearsing Act 2, Scene 3 with a scene partner. In this earlier scene, Paulina visits Leontes while Hermione is in prison, and advocates for her innocence. Leontes responds with complete disdain, calling Paulina a “mankind witch”, “intelligencing bawd” and “gross hag”. Paulina gives as good as she gets, skirting around the edges of calling him a tyrant and refusing to leave when she is asked. In this scene we see how truly fierce she is, which we see again in this (“What studied torments”) monologue - so working with a partner on this scene will give you instant experience of her character, as well as giving you some insight into the relationship between her and Leontes.
Some context that’s important here: while there’s no exact time period given for this play, in Shakespeare’s day, going against a King meant you were a traitor to the throne - which was punishable by death! This gives you important information about Paulina as a character: she is not afraid to die. She values her integrity and her loyalty to the queen above her own life.
Divide the monologue into beats
This is a “snowball” monologue, which means it gets bigger and bigger, building to a massive climax at the end. In your preparation, it’s important to think about where there is a new section or thought changes, so you understand the exact points where your energy becomes more intense.
Think of it as a staircase. You need to decide on which line to take the next step.
(Side note - make sure you do a vocal warm up that really connects you to your breath and range, so you can use all your highs and lows. You’ll also need to do a physical warm up so you feel strong and grounded.)
Experiment with phrasing
For this monologue, I recommend using line-endings to help you phrase, rather than focusing on punctuation.
Punctuation in Shakespeare was put in (or amended) by editors so it not necessarily an indication of how the playwright actually wanted actors to shape the lines.
A common practice in verse-speaking technique is to emphasise the last one or two words on the end of each line. You can also experiment with only breathing at the ends of lines - it doesn’t have to be all line endings, but just try not to breathe in the middle of a line.
In this monologue, a lot of sentences end in the middle of a line - that means it might feel a bit weird to pause at the ends of lines rather than at the end of a sentence. But just give it a try and see what you find.
This practice often helps us to connect to breath and power, as well as creating a sense of flow in the verse. You don’t necessarily have to adhere to it in performance - just try it as an experiment and see how it feels. Keep what works and leave what doesn’t.
