Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Monologue or soliloquy?

Monologue or soliloquy?Monologue: noun - longspeech made by one person, either in company or conversation; discourse in thenature of a soliloquy; scene in a drama in which a person talks alone, adramatic composition for one voice; a dramatic entertainment performed by oneperson; form of dramatic scenes or compositions for one person; literarycomposition in the form of a soliloquy.
Soliloquy: noun - literaryrepresentation of an instance of talking to yourself regardless of an audience,part of a play involving this; action of making a soliloquy or monologue.
As is so often the case in English, there is little actualdifference between these terms, and any variations are subtle. It comes down toa matter of taste and, as always, consistency in choice is perhaps moreimportant than any other consideration. However, I'd tend to use 'monologue'for something comic or plain and 'soliloquy' for something literary or flowery.
So, I'd label the famous deliveries given by StanleyHolloway (The Lion & Albert), and I'd call the famous speech by Hamleta 'soliloquy' (To be or not to be).
Pic: Looking south east along Deep Dale