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Cymbeline has everything you love from Shakespeare

Cymbeline has everything you love from Shakespeare...

+ a British king and a scheming queen
+ a princess, a potion and prophecies
+ a goofy suitor and a faithless husband
+ a scheming seducer and a stealer of children
+ a Roman ambassador and a soothsayer
+ ghosts and gods
+ bets and banishments
+ long-lost siblings and forbidden love
+ disguised journeys into the woods and parent-child reunions
AND a revelation-filled ending (this one goes to eleven)!

Contact FireMuse Shakespeare for details on how to book your FREE private performance!

. Sonnet 52 So am I as the rich, whose blessed key

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Sonnet 52
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
Since, seldom coming, in the long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
So is the time that keeps you as my chest,
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,
To make some special instant special blest,
By new unfolding his imprison’d pride.
Blessed are you, whose worthiness gives scope,
Being had, to triumph, being lack’d, to hope.

performed by actor, director and educator Bill Walthall

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follow Bill at billwalthall.com and @billwalthall on Instagram

full video at
https://youtu.be/9RYtSLReO-E

So, here we are... a third of the way through the

So, here we are... a third of the way through the year, and thus a third of the way through the Sonnet Project. Thus far, the 51 sonnets have been viewed over 1650 times....
Thanks to all who have (and will) contributed... your creations have been wonderful!

. Sonnet 51 Thus can my love excuse the slow offen

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Sonnet 51
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
Of my dull bearer when from thee I speed:
From where thou art why should I haste me thence?
Till I return, of posting is no need.
O! what excuse will my poor beast then find,
When swift extremity can seem but slow?
Then should I spur, though mounted on the wind,
In winged speed no motion shall I know,
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace.
Therefore desire, (of perfect'st love being made)
Shall neigh, no dull flesh, in his fiery race;
But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade-
Since from thee going, he went wilful-slow,
Towards thee I'll run, and give him leave to go.

performed by queer burlesque performer, hostess, storyteller, and actress Mercury Troy

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follow Mercury at @mercurytroy on Instagram and Twitter, as well as #showgirlinexile

full video at
https://youtu.be/2G51VvIQtfM

. Sonnet 50 How heavy do I journey on the way, Whe

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Sonnet 50
How heavy do I journey on the way,
When what I seek, my weary travel's end,
Doth teach that ease and that repose to say,
'Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!'
The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,
Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,
As if by some instinct the wretch did know
His rider lov'd not speed being made from thee.
The bloody spur cannot provoke him on,
That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide,
Which heavily he answers with a groan,
More sharp to me than spurring to his side;
For that same groan doth put this in my mind,
My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.

performed by actress Sarah Ely

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full video at
https://youtu.be/pxCuLYAuWz4

In the lab today... "With his own sword, Which he

In the lab today...
"With his own sword,
Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
His head from him"
#7playerCymbeline

. Sonnet 49 Against that time, if ever that time c

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Sonnet 49
Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Called to that audit by advis’d respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass,
And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity;
Against that time do I ensconce me here,
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand, against my self uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.

performed by Sophia Aldous

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follow Sophia at @gladrags4 on Instagram

full video at
https://youtu.be/3bvLXbBLgkc

. Sonnet 48 How careful was I when I took my way,

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Sonnet 48
How careful was I when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou best of dearest, and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not locked up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
And even thence thou wilt be stol’n I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.

performed by actress and singer Lauren Rachel

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follow Lauren at @lo_ray89 on Instagram and themoore_u_know
on TikTok

full video at
https://youtu.be/jQyml3RIEEc

Today's work: weapons off war, and their consequen

Today's work: weapons off war, and their consequences...
#7playerCymbeline

I hear the spirits of the dead calling on and call

I hear the spirits of the dead calling on and calling out Jupiter for Posthumus...
#7playerCymbeline

. Sonnet 47 Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is

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Sonnet 47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
And each doth good turns now unto the other:
When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,
Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,
With my love's picture then my eye doth feast,
And to the painted banquet bids my heart;
Another time mine eye is my heart's guest,
And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:
So, either by thy picture or my love,
Thy self away, art present still with me;
For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,
And I am still with them, and they with thee;
Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight
Awakes my heart, to heart's and eyes' delight.

performed by actress Mary Comstock

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full video at
https://youtu.be/_TZzEJMrrUk

. Sonnet 46 Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war

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Sonnet 46
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 impaneled
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 thy outward part,
And my heart’s right thy inward love of heart.

performed by Jack Walthall

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full video at
https://youtu.be/NicCNyri0Y8

In the lab again... #7playerCymbeline

In the lab again...
#7playerCymbeline

. Sonnet 45 The other two, slight air and purging

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Sonnet 45
The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present-absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life, being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy;
Until life's composition be recured
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assured
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:
This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.

performed by actress Kelsey Risher

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follow Kelsey at kelseyrisher.com & @kelseyrisher on Instagram

full video at
https://youtu.be/nchSri2mJ1U

. Sonnet 44 If the dull substance of my flesh were

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Sonnet 44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that, so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
Receiving nought by elements so slow
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.

performed by actress Deven Streeton

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follow Deven Streeton at @devenstreeton on Instagram

full video at
https://youtu.be/M1kWhMumNYk

. Sonnet 43 When most I wink, then do mine eyes be

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Sonnet 43
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

performed by Ben Thurman

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full video at
https://youtu.be/O-9_LC5eoWo

What's he building in there?

What's he building in there?

In the lab... #DrivewayTour2021

In the lab...
#DrivewayTour2021

From the armory...

From the armory...

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