Now, a Shakespearean Moment

William Shakespeare created some of the most influential and enduring works in history. Though he died nearly four hundred years ago, he remains the most widely performed playwright in the world.

But for many readers it is Shakepseare's sonnets that speak most directly to the heart and mind.

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Alfred Molina reads Sonnet 94.

This Shakespearean Moment was created by the National Endowment for the Arts.