Sir Ian McKellen's appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night involved more than promoting his current works and discussing fan-favorite performances of his being soon reprised, such as Gandalf (from The Lord of the Rings films) and Magneto (from the X-Men movies and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday).
The legendary actor of stage and screen was also asked to deliver a Shakespearean monologue that he originated/premiered as an actor — of Sir Thomas Moore, Act II, Scene 4 — which centers on the story of a Tudor lawyer sentenced to death for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church in England.
McKellen first originated this role in the 1970s, though it was written by Shakespeare c. 1593, and delivered it as a powerful monologue that, sadly, still resonates just as loudly in February 2026.
Watch the Sir Thomas Moore monologue below, and follow along its transcript, in full, following the video.
"Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise
Hath chid down all the majesty of England;
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs with their poor luggage,
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation,
And that you sit as kings in your desires,
Authority quite silenced by your brawl,
And you in rough of your opinions clothed;
What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught
How insolence and strong hand should prevail,
How order should be quelled; and by this pattern
Not one of you should live an aged man,
For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes
Would feed on one another.
O, desperate as you are,
Wash your foul minds with tears, and those same hands,
That you like rebels lift against the peace,
Lift up for peace, and your unreverent knees,
Make them your feet to kneel to be forgiven!
You'll put down strangers,
Kill them, cut their throats, possess their houses,
And lead the majesty of law in liom,
To slip him like a hound. Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th' offender mourn)
Should so much come to short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whether would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, any where that not adheres to England,—
Why, you must needs be strangers: Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the claimants
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? this is the strangers case;
And this your mountainish inhumanity."
An emotional Stephen Colbert thanks Sir Ian McKellen for this powerful performance on The Late Show.
Scott Kowalchyk, 2026, for CBS
As expected, the crowd roared with applause, and The Late Show host Stephen Colbert thanked McKellen for such generosity and inspiration during a much-needed time.
The Ark, starring Ian McKellen, is now playing at The Shed in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit TheShed.org.
