The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered.

  No, it was builded far from accident;

  It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls

  Under the blow of thralled discontent,

  Whereto th’inviting time our fashion calls:

  It fears not policy, that heretic,

  Which works on leases of short-numbered hours,

  But all alone stands hugely politic,

  That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers.

  To this I witness call the fools of time,

  Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.

  125

  Were’t ought to me I bore the canopy,

  With my extern the outward honouring,

  Or laid great bases for eternity,

  Which proves more short than waste or ruining?

  Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour

  Lose all, and more, by paying too much rent,

  For compound sweet forgoing simple savour,

  Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent?

  No, let me be obsequious in thy heart,

  And take thou my oblation, poor but free,

  Which is not mixed with seconds, knows no art,

  But mutual render, only me for thee.

  Hence, thou suborned informer, a true soul

  When most impeached, stands least in thy control.

  126

  O thou my lovely Boy, who in thy power

  Dost hold time’s fickle glass, his sickle hour,

  Who hast by waning grown, and therein show’st

  Thy lover’s withering, as thy sweet self grow’st;

  If nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,

  As thou goest onwards still will pluck thee back,

  She keeps thee to this purpose: that her skill

  May time disgrace, and wretched minute kill.

  Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure:

  She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure!

  Her audit, though delayed, answered must be,

  And her quietus is to render thee.

  ( )

  ( )

  127

  In the old age black was not counted fair,

  Or if it were, it bore not beauty’s name;

  But now is black beauty’s successive heir,

  And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:

  For since each hand hath put on nature’s power,

  Fairing the foul with art’s false borrowed face,

  Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,

  But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.

  Therefore my mistress’ eyes are raven black,

  Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem

  At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,

  Sland’ring creation with a false esteem;

  Yet so they mourn, becoming of their woe,

  That every tongue says beauty should look so.

  128

  How oft when thou, my music, music play’st

  Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds

  With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’st

  The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,

  Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap,

  To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,

  Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,

  At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand?

  To be so tickled they would change their state

  And situation with those dancing chips,

  O’er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,

  Making dead wood more blessed than living lips.

  Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,

  Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

  129

  Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame

  Is lust in action; and till action, lust

  Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,

  Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

  Enjoyed 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.

  130

  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 damasked, 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.

  131

  Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,

  As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel;

  For well thou knowst, to my dear doting heart

  Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.

  Yet in good faith some say, that thee behold,

  Thy face hath not the power to make love groan;

  To say they err, I dare not be so bold,

  Although I swear it to myself alone;

  And to be sure that is not false, I swear

  A thousand groans but thinking on thy face;

  One on another’s neck do witness bear

  Thy black is fairest in my judgement’s place.

  In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,

  And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds.

  132

  Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,

  Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,

  Have put on black, and loving mourners be,

  Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain;

  And truly, not the morning sun of heaven

  Better becomes the grey cheeks of the East,

  Nor that full star that ushers in the even

  Doth half that glory to the sober West

  As those two mourning eyes become thy face:

  O let it then as well beseem thy heart

  To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,

  And suit thy pity like in every part:

  Then will I swear beauty herself is black,

  And all they foul that thy complexion lack.

  133

  Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan

  For that deep wound it gives my friend and me;

  Is’t not enough to torture me alone,

  But slave to slavery my sweet’st friend must be?

  Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,

  And my next self thou harder hast engrossed:

  Of him, myself and thee I am forsaken,

  A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed.

  Prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward;

  But then my friend’s heart let my poor heart bail.

  Whoe’er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;

  Thou canst not then use rigour in my jail.

  And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee,

  Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.

  134

  So now I have confessed that he is thine,

  And I myself am mortgaged to thy will,

  Myself I’ll forfeit, so that other mine

  Thou wilt restore to be my comf
ort still;

  But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,

  For thou art covetous, and he is kind;

  He learned but surety-like to write for me,

  Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.

  The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,

  Thou usurer, that put’st forth all to use,

  And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake:

  So him I lose through my unkind abuse.

  Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me;

  He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.

  135

  Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,

  And Will to boot, and Will in overplus;

  More than enough am I, that vex thee still,

  To thy sweet will making addition thus.

  Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,

  Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?

  Shall will in others seem right gracious,

  And in my will no fair acceptance shine?

  The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,

  And in abundance addeth to his store;

  So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will

  One will of mine, to make thy large Will more:

  Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill;

  Think all but one, and me in that one Will.

  136

  If thy soul check thee that I come so near,

  Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will,

  And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;

  Thus far for love my love-suit sweet fulfil.

  Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love,

  Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one;

  In things of great receipt with ease we prove

  Among a number one is reckoned none.

  Then in the number let me pass untold,

  Though in thy store’s account I one must be.

  For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold

  That nothing, me, a something sweet to thee.

  Make but my name thy love, and love that still;

  And then thou lov’st me, for my name is Will.

  137

  Thou blind fool love, what dost thou to mine eyes,

  That they behold, and see not what they see?

  They know what beauty is, see where it lies,

  Yet what the best is, take the worst to be.

  If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks,

  Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,

  Why of eyes’ falsehood hast thou forged hooks,

  Whereto the judgement of my heart is tied?

  Why should my heart think that a several plot

  Which my heart knows the wide world’s common place?

  Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,

  To put fair truth upon so foul a face?

  In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,

  And to this false plague are they now transferred.

  138

  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 untutored 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 suppressed.

  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 t’ have years told:

  Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,

  And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

  139

  O call not me to justify the wrong

  That thy unkindness lays upon my heart;

  Wound me not with thine eye, but with thy tongue;

  Use power with power, and slay me not by art.

  Tell me thou lov’st elsewhere; but in my sight,

  Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside.

  What need’st thou wound with cunning, when thy might

  Is more than my o’er-pressed defence can bide?

  Let me excuse thee: ah, my love well knows

  Her pretty looks have been mine enemies,

  And therefore from my face she turns my foes

  That they elsewhere might dart their injuries.

  Yet do not so, but since I am near slain,

  Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.

  140

  Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press

  My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain,

  Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express

  The manner of my pity-wanting pain.

  If I might teach thee wit, better it were,

  Though not to love, yet love to tell me so,

  As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,

  No news but health from their physicians know:

  For if I should despair, I should grow mad,

  And in my madness might speak ill of thee;

  Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,

  Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.

  That I may not be so, nor thou belied,

  Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.

  141

  In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,

  For they in thee a thousand errors note;

  But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,

  Who in despite of view is pleased to dote.

  Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,

  Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,

  Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited

  To any sensual feast with thee alone:

  But my five wits, nor my five senses, can

  Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,

  Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,

  Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be:

  Only my plague thus far I count my gain,

  That she that makes me sin, awards me pain.

  142

  Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,

  Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving;

  O but with mine compare thou thine own state,

  And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;

  Or if it do, not from those lips of thine,

  That have profaned their scarlet ornaments,

  And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine,

  Robbed others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.

  Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov’st those

  Whom thine eyes woo, as mine importune thee,