Play Sonnet 115
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer:
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
But reckoning Time, whose million’d accidents
Creep in ‘twixt vows, and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp’st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
Alas! why, fearing of Time’s tyranny,
Might I not then say, ‘Now I love you best,’
When I was certain o’er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
Love is a babe, then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow?
Analysis
Sonnet 115 sees the poet claim his love can only grow.
Everything Will wrote before this are lies! He once said he could not love the youth more. At the time he didn’t understand that his love could burn even more intensely in future. He had assumed time would blunt it. Fearing this, he said that he loved the youth most powerfully then. But now Will knows: love is a baby, so might he not ascribe full size to one that’s still growing?
Will’s Wordplay
“Love is a babe” brings to mind Cupid, always depicted as a child alongside Venus. It may be that, in chronicling the change in his love for the youth, and noticing its continuous growth, he decides that it must be because ‘love is a babe’ and as such is bound to grow. The mystery is that it always remains a baby, yet always growing, as he indicates in the following line. It is eternally youthful.
Abingdon Square Park, Manhattan
“Abingdon Square Park shares its lineage with some of Greenwich Village’s earliest European landowners and social figures. Sir Peter Warren entered the British Navy as a volunteer in 1717 and rose to the rank of vice-admiral after an impressive tour of duty in such locales as the African coast, the Baltic Sea, the West Indies, and North America, where he fought in the French and Indian War. By 1744 he had purchased a three hundred acre farm in the area known as Greenwich—extending along the Hudson River from what is now Christopher Street north to about West 21st Street and bounded on the east by Minetta Brook and Bowery Lane (now Broadway). Sir Peter and his wife Susannah De Lancey lived in a manor house with a large formal garden in the area now bounded by West 4th, Bleecker, Charles, and Perry Streets.
Their eldest daughter Charlotte married Willoughby Bertie, the Fourth Earl of Abingdon, and a share of the Warren estate was part of her dowry. Her portion included the land that came to be known as Abingdon Square. In 1794 the City Council changed the designation of streets and places with British names in order to reflect American independence. Nonetheless, the name of Abingdon Square was preserved, because the Earl and his wife had sympathized with the American patriots, and he had argued in Parliament against British policy in the colonies. The Goodrich Plan of Manhattan drawn in 1827 depicts Abingdon Square as a trapezoidal parcel between Eighth Avenue and Bank, Hudson, and Troy (later West 12th) Streets.
On March 4, 1831 the Common Council resolved that the ground called Abingdon Square should be “enclosed as a public park” and appropriated $3000 “for the expense thereof.” The City acquired the parcel on April 22 and enclosed it with a cast iron fence in 1836. About fifty years later, Mayor Abram S. Hewitt promoted a citywide effort to improve public access to green spaces. Parks superintendent Samuel Parsons Jr. and consulting architect Calvert Vaux collaborated on a new design for Abingdon Square. The iron gateposts at the West 12th Street entrance may have been introduced at this time. “Abingdon Square has been so long crowded with fine trees that a winding walk ending in a little plaza, and bordered by a few shrubs and little bedding was all that could be satisfactorily done,” wrote Parsons in 1892, “Shrubs and flowers would not thrive in such deep shade.”
Nonetheless, school children planted a garden plot at Abingdon Square Park in 1913 and “took entire charge of the garden, raising the flower from seed.” In 1921, twenty thousand spectators gathered in and around the small park to hear former and future Governor Alfred E. Smith present the Abingdon Square Memorial (also known as the Abingdon Doughboy) in memory of local men who fought in World War I. Created by sculptor Philip Martiny, this monument was restored by Parks’ monument crew in 1993. The flagstaff was dedicated by the Private Michael J. Lynch Post No. 831 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1933.” [1]
References
ACTOR – Joseph Mitchell Parks
Joseph Mitchell Parks will be playing Lucius in Titus Andronicus with New York Shakespeare Exchange this season. Other New York Theatre credits include: Short Life Of Trouble, The Seagull, Othello (Wandering Bark Theatre Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Secret Theatre), King Lear, Henry IV, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare NYC), The Soldier Dreams (Theatre East). U/S National Tour of Romeo & Juliet (The Acting Company). Selected Film and Television credits include: Gossip Girl, Blood Night and North Crossing. Co-Artistic Director of Wandering Bark Theatre Company. Company Member of Theatre East and Shakespeare NYC. Producing Associate for The Acting Company.
DIRECTOR – Marella Martin
Marella Martin is a director from Los Angeles. At the age of eighteen she graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies. Her work has been seen at Botanicum Seedlings, Theatre of NOTE, The Vagrancy, California Institute of the Arts Coffeehouse Theatre, and Rogue Machine Theatre. With Theatre Mab Town Hall, she conceived and directed Hamlet/The Stones, a four-minute ensemble rendition of Hamlet set to The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black,” which was presented at the California International Theatre Festival. For three years, she worked as the assistant to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Haskell Wexler. She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing with a fellowship at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her writing spans a colorful spectrum of characters and themes, from the unfathomable universe to Humpty Dumpty.
EDITOR – Nick Golding
Nick Golding is a Los Angeles native and a second-generation film editor. Literally growing up in an edit bay, he understood early on that film-making was in his blood. After studying film at San Francisco State University, he moved back home to L.A. and was hired as an editor on FORTY DEUCE, a reality series being made by Golden Globe nominee Zalman King. Over the course of the project, the two developed a strong working relationship. Nick would go on to edit all of King’s subsequent projects, most notably the feature films DANCE WITH THE DEVIL and PLEASURE OR PAIN, and 12 episodes of his Showtime series BODY LANGUAGE. The strong sense of story and aesthetic for which King’s works are famous would help shape Nick’s own eye for creating a compelling narrative. Beginning in 2005 Nick met and had the privilege of working with Emmy Award winning filmmaker Shane Stanley of Visual Arts Entertainment. He edited Stanley’s feature film MY TRIP BACK TO THE DARK SIDE, a gritty crime thriller which premiered at the 2013 Marché du Films at Cannes. Nick has had the honor of working with Oscar winning filmmaker Haskell Wexler. Under Wexler’s direction and guidance, Nick’s work has broadened to encompass themes of advocacy and social justice. The two collaborated on the documentaries FOUR DAYS IN CHICAGO and MEDIUM COOL REVISITED, as well as a re-edit of Wexler’s iconic 1965 film THE BUS for Time Magazine’s 50th anniversary commemoration of the March On Washington. Most recently, Nick has become an important part of the team at CBS Interactive, thriving in their fast-paced and creative atmosphere. His work for CBS has earned awards, including a 2014 Telly Award for editing. Nick’s credits include work that has aired on Showtime, VH1, The Speed Channel, E! Entertainment, Bravo, Bloomberg, CBS.com, Time.com, Cinemax, and Spike. His films have screened around the world at festivals such as SXSW, Chicago International, Cannes, Woodstock, and Camerimage. Link to IMDB.
COMPOSER – Aleksandra Weil
Aleksandra Weil was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where she attended a specialized music program studying classical piano, theory and voice. During this time, she also took lessons from Dmitri Yanov-Yanovski and began writing her first songs and composing short pieces for the piano. At the age of 14, she moved to Seattle, WA where she eventually met lyricist Eloise Govedare. Together they founded Scarlet Room; a theatre rock band that blended their passion for theatre and music, mixing a variety of musical genres including classical, cabaret, gypsy punk, rock and pop. Scarlet Room released three EP’s, toured the West Coast and collaborated with a number of local artists in order to stage high-energy, spectacle-driven performances. Weil has studied composition with Byron Au Yong and film scoring with Pat Irwin. She is currently earning her M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.