Sonnet XXX.
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear times’ waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.
Happy birthday, Shakespeare! (There is some historical doubt as to the exact date, but it’s usually celebrated April 23, St. George’s Day.) After work, I went to the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. The place was packed. D.C.-based Shakespeare Theatre and the U.K.‘s Royal Shakespeare Company (currently in residence at the Kennedy Center) performed scenes from Richard III, As You Like It, and The Tempest. It was great, and the directors of both companies gave insightful speeches on the Bard’s genius, and its impact on their personal and professional lives. Ah, the call of the stage.