121
'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: 4
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? 8
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; 12
Unless this general evil they maintain,
All men are bad and in their badness reign.
122
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: 4
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. 8
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: 12
To keep an adjunct to remember thee
Were to import forgetfulness in me.
3, 4 Cf. n.
6 Give salutation to: greet (as if Shakespeare were one of them)
sportive: wanton
8 in their wills: as they please
11 bevel: oblique
1–14 Cf. n.
1 tables: memorandum book
3 idle rank: empty row of leaves
7 raz'd: empty
9 poor retention: book that contains little
10 tallies . . . score; cf. n.
12 those tables: my memory
13 adjunct: attendant
