Internet Shakespeare Editions

Toolbox




Jump to line
Through Line Number
Help on texts
About this text
Print this page

About this text

  • Title: Shake-speares Sonnets (Quarto 1, 1609)
  • Editors: Hardy M. Cook, Ian Lancashire

    • Copyright Hardy M. Cook and Ian Lancashire. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editors: Hardy M. Cook, Ian Lancashire
    Peer Reviewed

    Shake-speares Sonnets (Quarto 1, 1609)

    SHAKE-SPEARES

    To trust those tables that receaue thee more,
    To keepe an adiunckt to remember thee,
    1830Were to import forgetfulnesse in mee.

    I23

    NO! Time, thou shalt not bost that I doe change,
    Thy pyramyds buylt vp with newer might
    To me are nothing nouell, nothing strange,
    1835They are but dressings of a former sight:
    Our dates are breefe, and therefor we admire,
    What thou dost foyst vpon vs that is ould,
    And rather make them borne to our desire,
    Then thinke that we before haue heard them tould:
    1840Thy registers and thee I both defie,
    Not wondring at the present, nor the past,
    For thy records, and what we see doth lye,
    Made more or les by thy continuall hast:
    This I doe vow and this shall euer be,
    1845I will be true dispight thy syeth and thee.

    I24

    YF my deare loue were but the childe of state,
    It might for fortunes basterd be vnfathered,
    As subiect to times loue, or to times hate,
    1850Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gatherd.
    No it was buylded far from accident,
    It suffers not in smilinge pomp, nor falls
    Vnder the blow of thralled discontent,
    Whereto th'inuiting time our fashion calls:
    1855It feares not policy that Heriticke,
    Which workes on leases of short numbred howers,
    But all alone stands hugely pollitick,
    That it nor growes with heat, nor drownes with showres.
    To this I witnes call the foles of time,
    1860Which die for goodnes, who haue liu'd for crime.

    I25

    WEr't ought to me I bore the canopy,
    With my extern the outward honoring,
    Or
    About
    Contact us
    Content quality
    Site guide
    © Internet Shakespeare Editions
    Copyright details
    Privacy policy
    This site is supported by:
    University of Victoria
    Friends of the ISE
    SSHRC