Main Menu
Plays
Sonnets
Poems
Notes
Index
Sonnet CXXI
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
1
When not to be receives reproach of being,
2
And the just pleasure lost which is so deem'd
3
Not by our feeling but by others' seeing:
4
For why should others false adulterate eyes
5
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
6
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
7
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
8
No, I am that I am, and they that level
9
At my abuses reckon up their own:
10
I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel;
11
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown;
12
Unless this general evil they maintain,
13
All men are bad, and in their badness reign.
14