classic theatre

classic theatre

By Sanio Kurtesevic / Duse ProductionsArtsPerforming Arts
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classic theatre episodes

  • Sonnet 19 (Shakespeare)

    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609. 


    #19

    Synopsis:

    The “war with Time” announced in Sonnet 15 is here engaged in earnest as the poet, allowing Time its usual predations, forbids it to attack the young man. Should this command fail to be effective, however, the poet claims that the young man will in any case remain always young in the poet’s verse.


     

    Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws

    And make the Earth devour her own sweet brood;

    Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s ⌜jaws,⌝

    And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;

    Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st

    And do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,

    To the wide world and all her fading sweets.

    But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:

    O, carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow,

    Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;

    Him in thy course untainted do allow

    For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men.

     Yet do thy worst, old Time; despite thy wrong,

     My love shall in my verse ever live young.


    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)

    2 min
  • Sonnet 18 (Shakespeare)

    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609. 


    #18

    Synopsis:

    In a radical departure from the previous sonnets, the young man’s beauty, here more perfect even than a day in summer, is not threatened by Time or Death, since he will live in perfection forever in the poet’s verses.


     

    Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

    Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

    And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

    And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

    And every fair from fair sometime declines,

    By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

    But thy eternal summer shall not fade

    Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

    Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

    When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

     So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.


    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)

    2 min
  • Sonnet 17 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #17
    Synopsis:
    As further argument against mere poetic immortality, the poet insists that if his verse displays the young man’s qualities in their true splendor, later ages will assume that the poems are lies. However, if the young man leaves behind a child, he will remain doubly alive—in verse and in his offspring.
     
    Who will believe my verse in time to come
    If it were filled with your most high deserts?
    Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
    Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
    If I could write the beauty of your eyes
    And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
    The age to come would say “This poet lies;
    Such heavenly touches ne’er touched earthly faces.”
    So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
    Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
    And your true rights be termed a poet’s rage
    And stretchèd meter of an antique song.
     But were some child of yours alive that time,
     You should live twice—in it and in my rhyme.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    2 min
  • Sonnet 16 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #16
    Synopsis:
    Continuing the thought of s. 15, the poet argues that procreation is a “mightier way” than poetry for the young man to stay alive, since the poet’s pen cannot present him as a living being.
     
    But wherefore do not you a mightier way
    Make war upon this bloody tyrant Time,
    And fortify yourself in your decay
    With means more blessèd than my barren rhyme?
    Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
    And many maiden gardens, yet unset,
    With virtuous wish would bear your living flowers,
    Much liker than your painted counterfeit.
    So should the lines of life that life repair
    Which this time’s pencil or my pupil pen
    Neither in inward worth nor outward fair
    Can make you live yourself in eyes of men.
     To give away yourself keeps yourself still,
     And you must live, drawn by your own sweet skill.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    1 min
  • Sonnet 15 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #15
    Synopsis:
    In the first of two linked sonnets, the poet once again examines the evidence that beauty and splendor exist only for a moment before they are destroyed by Time. Here the poet suggests—through wordplay on engraft—that the young man can be kept alive not only through procreation but also in the poet’s verse.
     
    When I consider everything that grows
    Holds in perfection but a little moment,
    That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
    Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
    When I perceive that men as plants increase,
    Cheerèd and checked even by the selfsame sky,
    Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
    And wear their brave state out of memory;
    Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
    Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
    Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay
    To change your day of youth to sullied night;
     And, all in war with Time for love of you,
     As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    1 min
  • Sonnet 14 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #14
    Synopsis:
    As astrologers predict the future from the stars, so the poet reads the future in the “constant stars” of the young man’s eyes, where he sees that if the young man breeds a son, truth and beauty will survive; if not, they die when the young man dies.
     
    Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
    And yet methinks I have astronomy—
    But not to tell of good or evil luck,
    Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
    Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
    Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
    Or say with princes if it shall go well
    By oft predict that I in heaven find.
    But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
    And, constant stars, in them I read such art
    As truth and beauty shall together thrive
    If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
     Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
     Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    2 min
  • Sonnet 13 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #13
    Synopsis:
    The poet argues that the young man, in refusing to prepare for old age and death by producing a child, is like a spendthrift who fails to care for his family mansion, allowing it to be destroyed by the wind and the cold of winter.
     
    O, that you were your self! But, love, you are
    No longer yours than you yourself here live;
    Against this coming end you should prepare,
    And your sweet semblance to some other give.
    So should that beauty which you hold in lease
    Find no determination; then you were
    ⌜Your⌝ self again after yourself’s decease
    When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
    Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
    Which husbandry in honor might uphold
    Against the stormy gusts of winter’s day
    And barren rage of death’s eternal cold?
     O, none but unthrifts, dear my love, you know.
     You had a father; let your son say so.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    1 min
  • Sonnet 12 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #12
    Synopsis:
    As he observes the motion of the clock and the movement of all living things toward death and decay, the poet faces the fact that the young man’s beauty will be destroyed by Time. Nothing besides offspring, he argues, can defy Time’s scythe.
     
    When I do count the clock that tells the time
    And see the brave day sunk in hideous night,
    When I behold the violet past prime
    And sable curls ⌜all⌝ silvered o’er with white;
    When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
    Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
    And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves
    Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard;
    Then of thy beauty do I question make
    That thou among the wastes of time must go,
    Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
    And die as fast as they see others grow;
     And nothing ’gainst Time’s scythe can make defense
     Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    1 min
  • Sonnet 11 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #11
    Synopsis:
    The poet once again urges the young man to choose a future in which his offspring carry his vitality forward instead of one in which his natural gifts will be coldly buried. The very exceptionality of the young man’s beauty obliges him to cherish and wisely perpetuate that gift.
     
    As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st
    In one of thine, from that which thou departest;
    And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow’st
    Thou mayst call thine when thou from youth convertest.
    Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase;
    Without this, folly, age, and cold decay.
    If all were minded so, the times should cease,
    And threescore year would make the world away.
    Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
    Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish;
    Look whom she best endowed she gave the more,
    Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish.
     She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby
     Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    2 min
  • Sonnet 10 (Shakespeare)
    A Sonnet (or short poem) from a collection written by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
    #10
    Synopsis:
    This sonnet, expanding the couplet that closes s. 9, accuses the young man of a murderous hatred against himself and his family line and urges him to so transform himself that his inner being corresponds to his outer graciousness and kindness.
     
    For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any,
    Who for thyself art so unprovident.
    Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
    But that thou none lov’st is most evident.
    For thou art so possessed with murd’rous hate
    That ’gainst thyself thou stick’st not to conspire,
    Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
    Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
    O, change thy thought, that I may change my mind.
    Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
    Be as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
    Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove.
     Make thee another self for love of me,
     That beauty still may live in thine or thee.
    (Project Gutenberg, Public Domain)
    2 min

About classic theatre

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The Classic Theatre is a podcast hosted by Sanio Kurtesevic, a New York–based actor. In each episode, I read and revisit classic works by playwrights and writers whose voices continue to shape theatre today. This podcast is a way to keep the language, the ideas, and the craft alive through direct engagement with the text.