Play Sonnet 134
So now I have confessed that he is thine,
And I my self am mortgaged to thy will,
Myself I’ll forfeit, so that other mine
Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still:
But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
He learned but surety-like to write for me,
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer, that put’st forth all to use,
And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me:
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.
Analysis
Sonnet 134 reflects on the situation that the poet and his friend find themselves in due to the entanglement with a dark lover, who it appears has infatuated both of them.
Bill has admitted that his lover is also keeping company with his friend, and that nonetheless he remains with her. Both of them are at her mercy, and Bill wishes that she would release his friend so he could have a shoulder to cry on. But he knows it will remain as it is because the lady is greedy and the friend naive. She uses her beauty like a weapon against everyone she meets, and that is how she claimed his friend who only wanted to free Bill from her clutches. Now Bill has lost his friend, she has gained another source of admiration, and Bill is still a prisoner.
Will’s Wordplay
A noticeable feature of the sonnet is the plethora of legal and financial metaphors, which combine to suggest that love is a mercenary and sordid transaction which binds the participants into a kind of slavery or indentured servitude. “Payment” and “freedom” are major themes.
Under Bruckner Expressway, the Bronx
The Bruckner Expressway is a freeway in The Bronx. It carries Interstate 278 (I-278) and I-95 (and formerly I-878) from the Triborough Bridge to the south end of the New England Thruway at the Pelham Parkway interchange. The highway follows a mostly northeast–southwest alignment through the southern portion of the borough, loosely paralleling the course of the East River. It connects to several major freeways, including the Bronx River Parkway, the Cross Bronx Expressway, and the Hutchinson River Parkway.
Exit 50 lets you off at The Hunts Point Cooperative Market, a wholesale food market located on 60 acres in South Bronx. It is the largest food distribution center in the world. Located at the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, which houses the Fulton Fish Market, a produce market and a meat market, the Hunts Point Cooperative Market is the source for approximately 60 percent of New York City’s produce. Built in 1972 as a 40-acre facility with six buildings, the Market now consists of seven large refrigerated/freezer buildings on 60 acres, with a total refrigerated space of approximately 700,000 square feet and is governed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The Bruckner Expressway was a project envisioned by developer Robert Moses, who steered the Bruckner through the Soundview section of the Bronx, further decimating the neighborhood Moses had uprooted with his 15-year construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway, which was completed in 1963. The Bruckner Expressway opened in 1973, making it one of the last roads of the New York City Expressway system to be built. It is named in honor of former Bronx Borough President and Congressman, Henry Bruckner (1871–1942), and was built on and over the roadway of Bruckner Boulevard.
Unlike the Cross Bronx Expressway, which cut through the existing street grid, the Bruckner Expressway was built along the Bruckner Boulevard alignment (except at its western end, where the Bruckner Expressway and Major Deegan Expressway meet). Between the Sheridan Expressway and the eastern end of the Bruckner Expressway, the Bruckner Boulevard is the service road, except at the I-95/278/295/678 junction, where Bruckner Boulevard passes underneath the flying junction. West of the Sheridan Expressway, Bruckner Boulevard is underneath the expressway, and extends past the expressway’s western terminus for about .5 miles, ending at the Third Avenue Bridge.
ACTOR – Christiane Seidel
Christiane Seidel is an American film, television, and theater actress, born in Wichita Falls, Texas, to a Danish mother and German father who served as a NATO fighter pilot and instructor.
Christiane’s childhood was spent traveling between three countries where acting followed as a passion from an early age. Although she graduated with a university degree in Marketing Communications, a semester abroad at a film school in South Africa was the tipping point for her love of acting.
Christiane then attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and was recognized for roles in independent theatre and award-winning short films that soon led to her television debut as a Guest Star on NBC Universal’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, 12th Season Premiere.
Christiane landed her second television role recurring as Sigrid, wife to rogue FBI agent, Nelson Van Alden, portrayed by Academy® Nominated Actor, Michael Shannon, in HBO’s award-winning series, Boardwalk Empire.
DIRECTOR – Eddie Shieh
Edward Shieh is a New York based advertising creative by day, and filmmaker at night as a writer, director, and sometimes producer.
His recent film, Tu & Eu (You & Me)(2010), is a 10x Finalist garnering awards for Best Direction and Best Ensemble Cast, and numerous nominations for Best Film, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Music, at Academy® Qualifying and international festivals. Eddie’s writing-directorial debut film, No Menus Please (2006), won the PBS Reel 13 Shorts Festival and the Golden Gate International Grand Jury Award for Best Direction, including several accolades for his other films. All completed works are distributed to network, cable, and online. Eddie’s first dramatic feature script sold in 2010 and he is a proud screenwriter of the Writer’s Guild of America & WGA Digital Caucus.
Eddie’s passion for filmmaking stems from a career creating award-winning advertising campaigns and content for worldwide brands such as IBM, GAP, P&G, Heineken, Pepsi, as well as Connecticut State under then-Governor M. Jodi Rells.
In 2007, Eddie founded the Red Rope® Screening and Red Rope® Playhouse, sponsored events that present prestigious international films and theater works to professional and creative networks. In 2008, the Red Rope® Playhouse featured short plays titled, Ex-Lovers, by Israel Horowitz and his NY Playwrights Lab, and selected as a top 40 event at #25 by New York Magazine.
Eddie is native New Yorker and currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife who is a film, television, and theatre actress.