每日一首Sonnet (10)

X

1. For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any,
2. Who for thy self art so unprovident.
3. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
4. But that thou none lov'st is most evident:
5. For thou art so possessed with murderous hate,
6. That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire,
7. Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate
8. Which to repair should be thy chief desire.
9. O! change thy thought, that I may change my mind:
10. Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love?
11. Be, as thy presence is, gracious and kind,
12. Or to thyself at least kind-hearted prove:
13. Make thee another self for love of me,
14. That beauty still may live in thine or thee.


NOTE:

1. For shame may have an exclamatory sense (shame on you!) and is printed with an exclamation mark in some editions. Otherwise the meaning is 'Prompted by feelings of shame you ought to admit that etc.' The word is also an echo from the last line of the previous sonnet. That on himself such murderous shame commits and the two sonnets are clearly linked by this line and line 5.

2. unprovident = failing to provide for the future, improvident. From the Latin providere 'to look ahead'. The modern usage is 'improvident'.

3. It may be an argument in your favour that you are loved by so many. Let us admit (if you desire to use that argument) that you are loved by many.

4. But it is evident that you yourself do not love anyone. (Therefore there is something seriously amiss). The line is further explained in the next quatrain.

5. murderous hate refers back to the murderous shame of the previous sonnet, with its concomitant double meanings. He is seeking to murder his posterity by not having children.

6. 'gainst = against;
thou stick'st not = you do not hesitate, you find no objection to (sticking point).

7. Being determined to destroy that lovely house. roof is symbolic of house, family, lineage, especially an aristocratic one.
ruinate = bring to ruin, destroy.

8. Which refers to the roof of the previous line. To repair which etc. Continuous repair is necessary to keep a building in sound order. To maintain his house (family) should be the youth's chief wish. The imagery recurs in Sonn.13:
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold etc.

9. Change your intention, your purpose, so that I may change my opinion (of your conduct). See introductory note.

10. Will you, who are the most fair of all creatures, be the house in which hate is lodged (whereas others, who are uglier, are yet capable of demonstrating love). lodged implies the residence of an idea in the mind, as in the previous sonnet, where sits is equivalent to is lodged.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murderous shame commits. 9.
The hatred referred to is that of refusing to procreate, hating posterity. See above, note to l.5.

11. Be as your behaviour indicates you to be, generous, noble, graceful. presence is indicative of stature, mien, bearing, presence of mind in company, and so on.

12. prove = turn out to be, become, i.e., by agreeing to produce children, thus taking pity on your 'house'.

13. Produce an heir, if not for the reasons stated already, at least do so for love of me.

14. That = so that;
still = always, continually;
thine = thy children. His beauty will be carried on in his children. beauty here refers to the youth's beauty, both in the individual sense that he as a beautiful youth must preserve himself, but also in that his beauty is the standard for the times, the essential essence of what it is to be beauteous.