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WHEN LOVE SPEAKSClick on Alan's image below to view a short film about RADA's When Love Speaks CD 
Below is a selection of eight sonnets taken from RADA's Audio CD: 'When Love Speaks'. Each sonnet is performed by alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Click on the appropriate title in order to jump to the desired sonnet. Press the 'play' button beside each sonnet to listen. If you want to purchase 'When Love Speaks' you can do so by emailing the RADA box office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time
Sonnet 12: Performed by Martin Jarvis "When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls, all silver'd o'er with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves, Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summer's green all girded up in sheaves, Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard; Then of thy beauty do I question make, That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake, And die as fast as they see others grow; And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence." Sonnet 17: Performed by Richard Attenborough "Who will believe my verse in time to come If it were filled with your most high deserts? Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts: If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say, "This poet lies, Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces." So should my papers, yellowed with their age, Be scorned like old men of less truth than tongue, And your true rights be termed a poet's rage, And stretchèd metre of an antique song. But were some child of yours alive that time, You should live twice, in it and in my rhyme." Sonnet 57: Performed by Janet McTeer "Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require. Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour, Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you, Nor think the bitterness of absence sour When you have bid your servant once adieu. Nor dare I question with my jealous thought Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, But, like a sad slave, stay and think of naught Save where you are, how happy you make those. So true a fool is love that in your will, Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill." Sonnet 116: Performed by Thelma Holt "Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved." Sonnet 129: Performed by Ralph Fiennes "The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad: Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell." Sonnet 130: Performed by Alan Rickman "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare." Sonnet 138: Performed by Richard Johnson "When my love swears that she is made of truth I do believe her, though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutor'd youth, Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue: On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O, love's best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told: Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be." Sonnet 145: Performed by John Hurt "Those lips that Love's own hand did make Breathed forth the sound that said "I hate" To me that languished for her sake; But when she saw my woeful state, Straight in her heart did mercy come, Chiding that tongue that ever sweet Was used in giving gentle doom, And taught it thus anew to greet: "I hate" she altered with an end, That followed it as gentle day Doth follow night, who like a fiend From heaven to hell is flown away. "I hate" from hate away she threw, And saved my life, saying "not you."" Please click here to return to the Watch and Listen page • Public Courses • In-House Courses • Senior Executive Training Courses • Local Authority Training Courses |