That thou hast her it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;
That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders thus I will excuse ye:
Thou dost love her, because thou know’st I love her;
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love’s gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross:
     But here’s the joy; my friend and I are one;
     Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.

Analysis

Sonnet 42 bemoans the poet’s loss of his best friend to his girlfriend and vice versa, but consoles himself in their gain of each other, and that she must see something of him in the man she’s left him for.

Shakespeare’s main complaint is not that the young man that you has taken his mistress, even though he loved her dearly; The loss that touches him more closely is that she has stolen the young man. He excuses his loving offenders, knowing that they love each other because he loves them both. To lose either of them means they will gain each other. They cause him this burden for his own sake. But there is one consolation in this thought: he and the young man are one; therefore she loves him.

Will’s Wordplay

The use of the term “loving offenders” in line 5 can have two meanings: that the offenders (the fair lord and the mistress) are in love; but it can also mean that they seem to enjoy their offense.

The exaltation “Sweet flattery!” at the end of the sonnet indicates sarcasm, since “flattery” usually indicates dishonest beauty.

Merchant Marine Memorial, Battery Park, Manhattan

Commissioned by the American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial, Inc., this memorial was conceived in 1976. In 1988, after an extensive competition, the artist Marisol Escobar (b. 1930), known as Marisol, was chosen to develop her design. Situated off-shore from the north end of Battery Park and just south of Pier A, the monument stands on a rebuilt stone breakwater in the harbor. The bronze figural group and boat are based on an actual historical event; during World War II, a Nazi U-boat attacked a merchant marine vessel, and while the mariners clung to their sinking vessel, the Germans photographed their victims. Marisol developed a series of studio sketches from this photograph, then fashioned a clay maquette as her winning design proposal for the monument. The work was dedicated on October 8, 1991.

Marisol was born in Paris, and spent most of her childhood in Venezuela. After studying art in Paris and Los Angeles she moved to Greenwich Village in the 1950s, where she was first influenced by abstract expressionism, and then developed a reputation for her highly stylized boxy sculptured figures. She was inspired by pre-Columbian and American folk art, as well as the growing pop-art movement, and by the 1960s, her style had evolved into satirical assemblages which commented on American society. Her diverse work defies simplistic classification, as she has explored particular themes and aesthetic criteria as they related to specific commissions.

In 1967, Marisol exhibited a piece entitled Three Figures in the group outdoor exhibition in the city’s parks entitled Sculpture in Environment. That work was minimalist and geometric. Since then, Marisol has exhibited in numerous public settings, often employing traditional figurative techniques, as in her designs for an unrealized monument to the Brooklyn Bridge’s engineers, the Roeblings, and in the American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial.

The American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial Inc., chaired by the president of the AFL-CIO, Lane Kirkland, sought to commemorate the thousands of merchant ships and crews pressed into military service since the Revolutionary War. In World War II alone it is estimated that 700 American merchant ships were lost, and 6,600 mariners gave their lives in this global conflict.

Marisol has captured an unsettling realism, drawn from the faded photograph, but also dependent on the ebb and flow of the harbor’s tides. One figure, struggling beside the boat, is submerged each tidal cycle, a technical motif that compounds the work’s emotional dynamic. Though specific in its imagery, the monument honors the thousands of merchant mariners who have died at sea in the course of our nation’s history. [1]

References

1. http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/battery-park/highlights/9745

ACTOR – Adam Patterson

Adam Patterson: NYC: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 12th Night (New Place Players), Island (New York Shakespeare Exchange), Eurydice (Otherside Productions), The Country Wife (Odyssey Productions). Other Credits: Tartuffe, To Kill a Mockingbird, and (Three Man) Tempest (Burning Coal Theatre), Elephants and Gold (Berkshire Fringe), Titus Andronicus, and The Crucible (Bare Theatre), Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, and Much Ado About Nothing (Plimoth Players). Adam was raised in Raleigh, NC and holds a BFA in acting from Emerson College in Boston, MA. He is a founding member of Manhattan’s New Place Players.
http://newplaceplayersnyc.com/
http://adam-patterson.net/

DIRECTOR – Gillian Fritzsche

Gillian is a writer/director who works in both film and theatre. She is wife to the talented Ryan Fritzsche and mommy to the spunky and smart Olivia. She is currently in post-production on a comedic short film called “Jerry & Diane.” Gillian also enjoys helping out as a First AD or Line Producer when necessary.

Inspired at a young age by her passion for directing both theatre and film, Gillian began in her teens, as a director and actor in community theatre in her hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. She also self-produced a variety of short video projects in high school and college. After completing a Bachelors degree in theatre and film performance and production, Gillian worked as a costume designer at the St. Lawrence Stage Company. Perceiving a need to understand business, Gillian paused to earn a Masters of Business Administration (with a focus in marketing), and transitioned into managing the acclaimed Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia. While there, she drew upon her undergraduate experience as a first assistant director, and reentered the independent film industry in this position on short independent projects in her spare time. Gillian maintained her position at Pacific Theatre until she reunited and fell in love with her college friend, Ryan. After getting engaged, she moved to Los Angeles (where he lived) and they married.

After several years there as a First AD, UPM, and Production Coordinator, Gillian was asked to join the feature comedy, “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher” as a Producer and Line Producer. Concurrently, she re-embraced a passion for writing, and wrote her first feature screenplays. After completion of principal photography on “Duncan Christopher” and after working on a few work-for-hire screenplay projects, Gillian also re-engaged with her desire to direct, and began to write a short film called ”Sonny” with the intent to direct it as well. Sonny was nominated at the ATTIC Film Festival 2013 for the Best Screenplay Award.

Projects that Gillian has directed and many that she has worked on have gone on to win awards. Favourite film projects include “Secret Millionaires” (for which she was Cinematographer and Consulting Producer) and the award-winning “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher” (which she co-produced) and “The Hitchhiker” (on which she served as First AD).

Favourite theatre projects that she has directed include “The View from the Q” written by Sharifa Williams which won Best of the Fest in Week 2 at the Players Theatre’s Short Play & Music Festival 2013 in New York City; “Less Ado About Nothing”, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” which was staged as part of the Stone’s Throw Productions at Pacific Theatre in 2006; and “The Most Massive Woman Wins”, a one-act play about eating disorders which was part of a showcase in 2001 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Gillian currently lives in New York City. Together with her family and their rambunctious kitty-cat, she enjoys the parks, the coffee, and the views of New Jersey.