Friday, December 12, 2014

Sonnet 46, by NY Shakespeare Exchange


Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight;
Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes,
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To 'cide this title is impannelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part:
      As thus: mine eye's due is thine outward part,
      And my heart's right, thine inward love of heart.
Sonnet 46, from The Sonnet Project, by the New York Shakespeare Exchange.

Shakespeare plays out that mortal war quite deftly, and interestingly an adjudication is necessary to settle it.  In Freudian terms, the heart is the id (the repository of impulse and desire); the eye (perhaps) the ego (the executor between self and reality); and in the courts sits the superego (the overseer, the judge, the arbitrator).  It's delightful acting and recitation by pretty Sydney Lucas, whose smile has a sly look and tone to it, as if the object of both her eyes and heart is hers and will always be hers.

No comments:

Post a Comment