At Least Patrick Stewart Still Reads Us Sonnets.
It may seem like there isn’t much to celebrate: we can’t have birthday or wedding parties, or even go to the movies on Friday nights. Our kids haven’t been less than six feet from their friends for five months, sport is weird, and there’s a long dark winter ahead of us. But! Patrick Stewart still reads sonnets on Instagram and Twitter .
Sir Patrick first published a video in which he recites William Shakespeare’s 116 sonnets back on March 21st (remember March?). It was an instant hit – now it has almost 500,000 views and 4,000 comments, most of which read something like, “Thank you sir, you touched my heart, bless you, I absolutely adore you.” So, the very next day he returned to us with such sweet words:
I was delighted with the response to my publication of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116.
This prompted me to take the following steps. When I was a child, in the 1940s, my mother cut pieces of fruit for me (there weren’t many of them) and, placing them in front of me, she would say, “One apple a day does not allow the doctor.” What about “A Sonnet a Day Saves the Doctor”? So … let’s start: Sonnet 1.
You might think Captain Picard reading poetry on social media would be old in a week or two, but you were wrong. And when he “did what followed,” his fans (as far as I can tell from the comments and feelings deep in my soul) only loved him more.
It’s not even the sonnets themselves. This is his calming behavior. Its different styles of glasses. His sweaters. His biceps poke out from under his T-shirts ( including this one , which is apparently his favorite because it appears in multiple readings). I even remember one reading in which he showed us the fire he was sitting next to, and we could catch a glimpse of his slippers – people liked it.
This one where he sits outside wearing a hat with pink and red ribbons. It belongs to his wife, who creates these videos alone. “Oh, I hope the hat isn’t too distracting,” he says before reading Sonnet 50. “This is Sunny’s hat … and I’m in the sun. Ha ha ha ha.
We also can’t forget this one in which we “catch him” peeling cranberry beans: “Oh, hello!” he exclaims in false surprise. “You caught me in the kitchen! You see, I don’t know how to cook, so I just do things like that. ” (He then tells us how “delicious” those beans are in a salad or stew, and we believe him.)
And then – then – this one , in which he surprises us with an invited reader. Right; Number One himself appears (socially distanced at the opposite end of the long table) to recite sonnet 57 while Sir Patrick sits down and sips a glass of white wine.
What is especially touching about them is that if there is one sonnet that is too difficult to read or doesn’t like it very much, it skips it. If he stumbles in his words, he begs us for forgiveness and starts again. He doesn’t try to be perfect, but he tries to entertain us as much as possible by sitting in different places around his house and yard – the other day he even read sonnet 111 while standing : “Hello! Um, I – I don’t think I have written a single sonnet while standing, ”he explains. “So that’s why I’m leaning against the doorframe here; because I don’t know, I thought it might inspire me to do something else. “
We have less than 40 sonnets left before it ends. I’m not sure what he’s going to do after that, but if he just wants to start over from the beginning, that’s fine with me.