Editing Soliloquy (section)

=== English Renaissance and neoclassical reaction ===
[[File:Benjamin Jonson by Abraham van Blyenberch.jpg|left|thumb|Circa 1617 portrait of [[Ben Jonson]]|alt=painting of a man with a short beard and curly hair]]
The soliloquy achieved its greatest formal refinement during the [[English Renaissance theatre|English Renaissance]], particularly between the 1580s and the early 1620s.<ref name=":4" /> Playwrights such as [[Christopher Marlowe]], [[Thomas Kyd]], and [[Ben Jonson]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Loxley |first=James |title=Ben Jonson’s Roman Soliloquies |date=2018 |work=Shakespeare and the Soliloquy in Early Modern English Drama |pages=139–152 |editor-last=Cousins |editor-first=A. D. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/shakespeare-and-the-soliloquy-in-early-modern-english-drama/ben-jonsons-roman-soliloquies/585BE49FD5A61CAFEA123A6207485961 |access-date=2025-04-29 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-17254-8 |editor2-last=Derrin |editor2-first=Daniel}}</ref> employed extended solo speeches to reveal hidden motives, advance intricate plots, and heighten dramatic irony. William Shakespeare's works exemplify the period's mastery of the form.<ref name=":4" /> In his [[Richard II (play)|Richard II]], the king's soliloquies articulate the psychological toll of political upheaval,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Further Reading: Richard II {{!}} Folger Shakespeare Library |url=https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/richard-ii/further-reading/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.folger.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> whereas in Macbeth, the [[Macbeth (character)|title character's]] "If it were done when ’tis done" speech dramatizes his moral hesitation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-12-02 |title=A Summary and Analysis of Macbeth’s ‘If it were done when ’tis done’ Soliloquy |url=https://interestingliterature.com/2019/12/a-short-analysis-of-macbeths-if-it-were-done-when-tis-done-soliloquy/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Interesting Literature |language=en-US}}</ref> Shakespeare's versatility extended the soliloquy into comedic contexts as well, as in As You Like It, where [[Rosalind (As You Like It)|Rosalind's]] disguised reflections deepen themes of identity and love.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-04-29 |title=Gender and Identity in ‘As You Like It’ |url=https://thefablesoup.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/gender-and-identity-in-as-you-like-it/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=O Captain! My Captain! |language=en}}</ref>

From the mid-seventeenth century onward, [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]] criticism—a movement striving for realism which was rooted in renewed readings of [[Poetics (Aristotle)|Aristotle's Poetics]]—began to challenge the dramatic conventions of the Renaissance stage.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-23 |title=Literary criticism - Neoclassicism, Decline {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/literary-criticism/Neoclassicism-and-its-decline |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> French and English theorists advocated for the unities of time, place, and action, and insisted upon decorum in presenting characters’ speech. Direct addresses to the audience were deemed artificial intrusions that threatened the believability of the dramatic illusion. As a consequence, playwrights during the [[Restoration comedy|Restoration]] and early eighteenth century largely abandoned traditional soliloquy, instead employing confidants, [[aside]]s, or narrative exposition to convey interiority.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Selleck |first=Nancy |date=2021-01-01 |title=Interpersonal Soliloquy: Self and Audience in Shakespeare and Augustine |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711602 |journal=English Literary Renaissance |language=en |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=63–95 |doi=10.1086/711602 |issn=0013-8312|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Despite critical censure, the influence of the Renaissance-style soliloquy endured in modified forms. Actors continued to experiment with discreet asides and [[voice-over]] techniques, and writers retained the strategy of revealing character thoughts through creative staging or epistolary devices.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knickerbocker |first=William S. |date=1937 |title=Asides and Soliloquies |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27535292 |journal=The Sewanee Review |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |issn=0037-3052}}</ref> By the late eighteenth century, the growing interest in individual psychology in both drama and the emerging novel helped rehabilitate the soliloquy's central function: providing audiences with direct access to a character's inner life, even as its classical form remained in abeyance.<ref name=":4" />