Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love to tell me so;
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know;
For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee;
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
     That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
     Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.

Analysis

In sonnet 140, the poet asks his cheating mistress to put up a good front, and appear on the straight and narrow so he’s in the dark when she strays.

Billy warns his wandrin’ woman that the “tongue-tied” patience he has practiced thus far will give way to feelings of contempt, disgust, and hurt and he will lash out at her for causing him pain with her pitiless actions. Better to keep him unaware of her infidelities. He asks her to hide any evidence of her promiscuity, to lie to him as a doctor tells a dying man “you’ll be fine”. She must not speak of other men, nor look at them as they pass by or else he will go mad, and make her look like a terrible caretaker. In order to keep up this appearance she mustn’t put other men in her sights, though there may be many in her heart.
 

Will’s Wordplay

Love as a sickness is a major theme in many of the Dark Lady sonnets. Billy mentions pain, sick, death, health, physicians, madness, and ill. Later, in sonnet 147, Shakespeare medicates his affliction with “reason” as “the physician to [his] love”, i.e. his reason or common sense acts as his doctor, advising him on the proper course of action. Way to kick it to the curb, Will!

Notice the stress Will places on the word “be” to enhance his desire for the dark lady to control the relationship: “Be wise”, believed, belied, bear. It emphasizes the responsibility she holds for his behavior.

Atlas Statue, Rockefeller Center, Manhattan

An Objective work of art… Atlas is a bronze statue in front of Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, across Fifth Avenue from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The sculpture depicts the Ancient Greek Titan Atlas holding the heavens. It was created by sculptor Lee Lawrie with the help of Rene Paul Chambellan, and it was installed in 1937. Lawrie’s work is associated with some of America’s most noted buildings of the first half of the twentieth century. His stylistic approach evolved with building styles that ranged from Beaux-Arts to neo-Gothic to Art Deco. Many of his architectural sculptures were completed for buildings by Bertram Goodhue of Cram & Goodhue, including the chapel at West Point; the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.; the Nebraska State Capitol; the Los Angeles Public Library; St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York; and Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago. He completed numerous pieces in Washington, D.C., including the bronze doors of the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception south entrance portal, and the interior sculpture of George Washington at the National Cathedral.[1] Atlas is his most prominent work.

The sculpture is in the Art Deco style, as is the entire Rockefeller Center. Atlas in the sculpture is 15 feet tall, while the entire statue is 45 ft tall, as high as a four-story building. It weighs seven tons, and is the largest sculpture at Rockefeller Center. The North-South axis of the armillary sphere on his shoulders points towards the North Star as seen from New York City.[2] When Atlas was unveiled in 1937, some people protested, claiming that it looked like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Later, painter James Montgomery Flagg said that Atlas “looks too much as Mussolini thinks he looks”. [3]

The piece has since been associated with Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged (1957) and is often used as a symbol of the Objectivist movement, although the statue predates publication of the book by two decades. [4]

References

1. Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013
2. “Art: Rockefeller Atlas”. Time. 1937-01-11. Retrieved 2010-04-25
3. Dianne L. Durante. Outdoor monuments of Manhattan: a historical guide. p. 141.
4. “History of Atlas Shrugged”. Ayn Rand Institute. Retrieved January 14, 2013.

ACTOR – Zillah Glory

Zillah Glory is a New York based actress currently training at The Barrow Group. She is also a requested reader for Paul Michael’s The Network, Barden Schnee Casting, Tim Phillips, and Joseph J. Pearlman. Regional credits include: The Weir (Valerie) at San Jose Rep in CA; Eurydice (Eurydice) and The Misanthrope (Eliante) at The New Rep in MA, and two years as the wise-cracking Barbara DeMarco in Shear Madness, NC and MA respectively.
www.zillahglory.com

DIRECTOR – Axel Gimenez

Axel Gimenez is a commercial director and independent filmmaker based in New York City. Axel began his career in Los Angeles as a guitar player; touring professionally throughout North America for several years with the rock band Closure (TVT Records) that he co-founded. After leaving Los Angeles for New York City, Axel began working as an art director at one of New York’s top advertising agencies for brands including Emirates Airlines, Gillette, and Citi.

Axel currently divides his time between developing and directing his own projects alongside ongoing commercial work through his production company, AGBK Productions.