My Top 10 Favourite Lines in Theatre

By Ralph Wainer

10. I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

(The Learned Ladies, Molière)

09. Hush a bye bacon, on the coal top,
Till I awaken, there you will stop,

(Cox and Box, Gilbert and Sullivan)

08. If I were a rich man,
ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum.
All day long I’d biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.

(Sheldon Harnick, Fiddler on the Roof)

07. A handbag?

(The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde)

06. All I can say, is that if father tries to kiss me, I shall kick him.

(Alice Sit-By-The-Fire, James Barrie)

05. The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.

(Salome, Oscar Wilde)

04. If the whole world I once could see
On free soil stand, with the people free
Then to the moment might I say,
Linger awhile. . .so fair thou art.

(Faust: Part I, Johann von Goethe)

03. Yes, it is her, the goddess,

who comes to unite us this day.

And, faithful to my promise,

I wish to cherish you like a brother!

It is her, the goddess,

who comes to unite us this day!

Yes, let us share the same fate,

let us be united until death!

(The Pearl Fishers, Georges Bizet)

02. That very time I saw (but thou couldst not)

Flying between the cold moon and the Earth,

Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took

At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,

And loosed his love shaft smartly from his bow

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.

But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft

Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon,

And the imperial votaress passèd on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.

(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare)

01. To die would be an awfully big adventure.

(Peter Pan, James Barrie)

Illustration: Jasmine Watkiss