Shakespeares Sonnets

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 comfort 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 I am not free. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 134: So now I have confessed that he is thine appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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 my self thy cruel eye hath taken, And my next self thou harder hast engrossed; Of him, my self, 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. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 132: Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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 judgment’s place. In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds, And thence this slander, as I think, proceeds. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 131: Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action: and till action, lust Is perjur’d, 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 swallow’d 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 prov’d, a very woe; Before, a joy propos’d; behind a dream. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 129: The expense of spirit in a waste of shame appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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 bless’d than living lips. Since saucy jacks so happy are in this, Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 128: How oft when thou, my music, music play’st appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 127: In the old age black was not counted fair appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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 lovers 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 minutes 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. (        ) (        ) William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 126: O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

Were’t aught 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 mix’d with seconds, knows no art, But mutual render, only me for thee. Hence, thou suborned informer! a true soul When most impeach’d, stands least in thy control. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 125: Were’t aught to me I bore the canopy appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

If my dear love were but the child of state, It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfather’d, As subject to Time’s love or Time’s hate, Weeds amoung weeds, or flowers with flowers gather’d. 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 number’d hours, But all alone stands hugely politic, That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with the showers. To this I witness call the fools of Time, Which die for goodness,who have lived for crime William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing novel, nothing strange; They are but dressings of a former sight. Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire What thou dost foist upon us that is old, And rather make them born to our desire Than think that we before have heard them told. Thy registers and thee I both defy, Not wond’ring at the present nor the past, For thy records and what we see doth lie, Made more or less by thy continual haste. This I do vow and this shall ever be; I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 123: No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain Full character’d with lasting memory, Which shall above that idle rank remain, Beyond all date; even to eternity: Or, at the least, so long as brain and heart Have faculty by nature to subsist; Till each to raz’d oblivion yield his part Of thee, thy record never can be miss’d. That poor retention could not so much hold, Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score; Therefore to give them from me was I bold, To trust those tables that receive thee more: To keep an adjunct to remember thee Were to import forgetfulness in me. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 122: Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteem’d, When not to be receives reproach of being; And the just pleasure lost, which is so deem’d Not by our feeling, but by others’ seeing: For why should others’ false adulterate eyes Give salutation to my sportive blood? Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, Which in their wills count bad what I think good? No, I am that I am, and they that level At my abuses reckon up their own: I may be straight though they themselves be bevel; By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown; Unless this general evil they maintain, All men are bad and in their badness reign. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 121: ‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteem’d appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

That you were once unkind befriends me now, And for that sorrow, which I then did feel, Needs must I under my transgression bow, Unless my nerves were brass or hammer’d steel. For if you were by my unkindness shaken, As I by yours, you’ve pass’d a hell of time; And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken To weigh how once I suffer’d in your crime. O, that our night of woe might have remember’d My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, And soon to you, as you to me, then tender’d The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits! But that your trespass now becomes a fee; Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 120: That you were once unkind befriends me now appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distill’d from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw myself to win! What wretched errors hath my heart committed, Whilst it hath thought itself so blessed never! How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted, In the distraction of this madding fever, O benefit of ill, now I find true, That better is by evil still made better, And ruin’d love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater, So I return rebuked to my content, And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 119: What potions have I drunk of Siren tears appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

Like as, to make our appetites more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge, As, to prevent our maladies unseen, We sicken to shun sickness when we purge; Even so, being full or your ne’er-cloying sweetness, To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding; And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness To be diseas’d, ere that there was true needing. Thus policy in love, to anticipate The ills that were not, grew to faults assur’d, And brought to medicine a healthful state, Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur’d; But thence I learn, and find the lesson true, Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 118: Like as, to make our appetites more keen appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all, Wherein I should your great deserts repay, Forgot upon your dearest love to call, Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day; That I have frequent been with unknown minds, And given to time your own dear-purchas’d right; That I have hoisted sail to all the winds Which should transport me farthest from your sight. Book both my wilfulness and errors down, And on just proof surmise, accumulate; Bring me within the level of your frown, But shoot not at me in your waken’d hate; Since my appeal says I did strive to prove The constancy and virtue of your love. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 117: Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

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-fixèd 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. William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.

Those lines that I before have writ do lie, Even those that said I could not love you dearer: Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer. But reckoning Time, whose million’d accidents Creep in ‘twixt vows, and change decrees of kings, Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp’st intents, Divert strong minds to the course of altering things; Alas! why, fearing of Time’s tyranny, Might I not then say, ‘Now I love you best,’ When I was certain o’er incertainty, Crowning the present, doubting of the rest? Love is a babe, then might I not say so, To give full growth to that which still doth grow? William Shakespeare Presenters Mark Chatterley Thierry Heles The post Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie appeared first on In Ear Entertainment.