Understand Shakespeare's language with this sonnet followed by a modern translation where Shakespeare discusses the trials and tribulations of being an actor.
This is the first of two sonnets where the love of the Fair Youth makes up for the opinions the public has about Shakespeare. Sonnets 111-112 can be performed as a pair.
As I'm in lockdown, I'm using this time to learn all of Shakespeare's sonnets. I hope you find the modern translation afterwards entertaining. 111 down 43 to go!
This poem is both part of the Fair Youth Sonnets & part of the sequence from 87-126 known as the Fickle Youth Sonnets.
Sonnet 111 full text:
O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means which public manners breeds.
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand.
Pity me then, and wish I were renewed,
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.
Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye
Even that your pity is enough to cure me.
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This is a lovely sonnet - • Shakespeare Locked Dow...
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Intro music composed & recorded by Joel Goodman.
/ @eppingmusicschool