OK, so new years eve my wife and I had a very entertaining dinner party, with 16 friends. we ate, drank, danced. but we also read some shakespeare for librivox.
around one am, we descended into the candle-lit cellar: it's a very unfinished stone-walled cellar with dirt floors etc. not quite romantic, what with storage boxes, skis, garden equipment etc etc...but with the candles, and the tiny space and the stone walls, well, it was very cozy. here are some pics (from today, not new yrs eve, unfortunately):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mackinaw/80912761/in/photostream/
so we stuffed about 10 people down there, and people took turns reading shakespeare's sonnets. some of them didn't work, but I'll edit them all together and fill in the gaps. But for you joy and entertainment, have a listen (the point of this post is the last one, sonnet28).
First we have adrian, doing a wonderful reading of sonnet 25:
http://www.westmountrugby.com/misc/sonnet25-adrian.mp3
And here is kimberley, reading a heartfelt rendition of sonnet142:
http://www.westmountrugby.com/misc/sonnet142-kimberley.mp3
so far so good. now, picture a group of ten people in a tiny cellar, lit by candles, after a fine meal and much wine, grappa, champagne, laughter and highjinx, who are all now reading shakespeare. now imagine that some people start giggling, quietly, during some of the readings, trying as best as they can to control their laughter. you've, no doubt, experienced this at some time in your life - probably in elementary school. now imagine that after a few sonnets the urge to stop giggling becomes uncontrollable, and all of a sudden the whole hilarity of the situation, along with the wine, the darkness, the seriousness all becomes too much. and further, imagine that it's the turn of the guy who has been laughing hardest to read next. He composes himself, comes up to the microphone. (Note we are reading by candle light, and it's hard to see the pages). Silence descends. Pin-drop quiet, flickering candles, the romance of Shakespeare in a stone cellar, by candle light. wine. more wine. some scotch. Perhaps he has pulled himself together, you might think, perhaps this will be the definative recording of Sonnet28, talked about for generations. Perhaps. Quiet everyone. And here, is anthony, in what can only be described as a feat of utter willpower - lesser men would have quit on line 2 - powering his way through sonnet 28 (read along with the text below, if you can):
http://www.westmountrugby.com/misc/sonnet28-anthony.mp3
I don't know about you, but to me the poem seems so much better when you end it with: "screamed slonger."XXVIII
How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarre'd the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eas'd by night,
But day by night and night by day oppress'd,
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me,
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please him thou art bright,
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer,
And night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger.
