How many monologues did William Shakespeare write?

Answer 1

A definition of a monologue is "a prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker, especially one dominating or monopolizing a conversation." I guess it would include soliloquys.

The problem is, characters in Shakespeare often speak at length, dominating conversations. This includes minor characters talking about unimportant matters. Consider Act 1 Scene 1. About half-way through, Marcellus asks, "Why are we preparing for war?" which takes him ten lines. Horatio's answer takes about 27 lines. Bernardo has a short remark and Horatio is off again for another 27 lines, many addressed to the ghost. After the ghost leaves, Horatio has a nine-line comment, then Marcellus has an eight-line comment about some myth about roosters crowing at night at Christmas, then Horatio has another nine-line remark about it being dawn. If we were counting monologues, should we count all of these?

The definition of a monologue is just too vague to be able to say with certainty that this speech is a monologue and that this other speech is not. As a result we cannot count them.