# Shakespeare's Sonnets (1883)

154 pieces of poetry by Shakespeare, first published in 1609
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
EDITED BY
WILLIAM J. ROLFE.
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
Edited, with Notes,
BY
WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M., FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
WITH ENGRAVINGS.
NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1883.
ENGLISH CLASSICS.
Edited by WM. J. ROLFE, A.M.
Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, 56 cents per volume; Paper, 40 cents per volume.
Shakespeare's Works.
| Othello. Julius Cæsar. The Merchant of Venice. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Macbeth. Hamlet. Much Ado about Nothing. Romeo and Juliet. As You Like It. The Tempest. Twelfth Night. The Winter's Tale. King John. Richard II. Henry IV. Part I. Henry IV. Part II. Henry V. Richard III. Henry VIII. | King Lear. The Taming of the Shrew. All's Well that Ends Well. Coriolanus. The Comedy of Errors. Cymbeline. Antony and Cleopatra. Measure for Measure. Merry Wives of Windsor. Love's Labour's Lost. Two Gentlemen of Verona. Timon of Athens. Troilus and Cressida. Henry VI. Part I. Henry VI. Part II. Henry VI. Part III. Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The Two Noble Kinsmen. Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, etc. |
| Sonnets. ||
Goldsmith's Select Poems. Gray's Select Poems.
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
☞ Any of the above works will he sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price.
Copyright, 1883, by Harper & Brothers.
PREFACE.
In this volume, as almost every page of the Introduction and the Notes bears witness, I have been under special obligations to Professor Dowden's excellent editions of the Sonnets. I have not, however, drawn at all from Part II. of the Introduction to his larger edition (see the footnote on p. 11), which condenses into some seventy-five pages the entire literature of the Sonnets. For the critical student this careful résumé answers a double purpose: as a bibliography of the subject, directing him to the many books and papers that have been written upon the Sonnets, if he is moved to read any or all of them; and as a compact and convenient substitute for these books and papers, if he wants to know their gist and substance without the drudgery of wading through them. I doubt not that the majority of students will be thankful that Professor Dowden has relieved them of this drudgery by compressing many a dull volume or magazine article into a page or a paragraph.
I have said on page 11 that I am not fully satisfied with the theory that the Sonnets are all autobiographical, and that 1–126 form a regular series: but the more I study them the more I am inclined to that theory. The work I have done since the Introduction was sent to the printer, in revising the Notes and seeing them through the press, has steadily forced me towards an agreement with Dowden and the many poets and critics (see page 22) who believe that Shakespeare "unlocked his heart" in the Sonnets. But I still see difficulties in this theory, and still doubt whether Shakespeare had anything to do with bringing out the edition of 1609. If "Mr. W. H." was the person who collected and arranged the poems for the press, he seems to have known enough of their origin and their meaning to enable him to get them nearly in their proper order; but I suspect that if Shakespeare had read the proof-sheets, he might have made some transpositions. If he could only have prefixed the "argument" of them, as in the case of the Lucrece!
I will only add that the text of the Sonnets, like that of the Poems, is given without omission or expurgation.
Cambridge, March 1, 1883.
in her maiden hand
The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd (Sonn. 154).
CONTENTS.
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 (Sonn. 132).
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
TO . THE . ONLIE . BEGETTER . OF .
THESE . INSVING . SONNETS .
M$^r$ . W. H. ALL . HAPPINESSE .
AND . THAT . ETERNITIE .
PROMISED .
BY .
OVR . EVER-LIVING . POET .
WISHETH .
THE . WELL-WISHING .
ADVENTVRER . IN .
SETTING .
FORTH .
T. T.

## Sonnets 1–10

* Sonnet 1 – From fairest creatures we desire increase
* Sonnet 2 – When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
* Sonnet 3 – Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
* Sonnet 4 – Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
* Sonnet 5 – Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
* Sonnet 6 – Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
* Sonnet 7 – Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
* Sonnet 8 – Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
* Sonnet 9 – Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
* Sonnet 10 – For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any

## Sonnets 11–20

* Sonnet 11 – As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
* Sonnet 12 – When I do count the clock that tells the time
* Sonnet 13 – O! that you were your self; but, love you are
* Sonnet 14 – Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck
* Sonnet 15 – When I consider every thing that grows
* Sonnet 16 – But wherefore do not you a mightier way
* Sonnet 17 – Who will believe my verse in time to come
* Sonnet 18 – Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
* Sonnet 19 – Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws
* Sonnet 20 – A woman's face with nature's own hand painted

## Sonnets 21–30

* Sonnet 21 – So is it not with me as with that Muse
* Sonnet 22 – My glass shall not persuade me I am old
* Sonnet 23 – As an unperfect actor on the stage
* Sonnet 24 – Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath steel'd
* Sonnet 25 – Let those who are in favour with their stars
* Sonnet 26 – Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
* Sonnet 27 – Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
* Sonnet 28 – How can I then return in happy plight
* Sonnet 29 – When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
* Sonnet 30 – When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

## Sonnets 31–40

* Sonnet 31 – Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
* Sonnet 32 – If thou survive my well-contented day
* Sonnet 33 – Full many a glorious morning have I seen
* Sonnet 34 – Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
* Sonnet 35 – No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done
* Sonnet 36 – Let me confess that we two must be twain
* Sonnet 37 – As a decrepit father takes delight
* Sonnet 38 – How can my muse want subject to invent
* Sonnet 39 – O! how thy worth with manners may I sing
* Sonnet 40 – Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all

## Sonnets 41–50

* Sonnet 41 – Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
* Sonnet 42 – That thou hast her it is not all my grief
* Sonnet 43 – When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
* Sonnet 44 – If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
* Sonnet 45 – The other two, slight air, and purging fire
* Sonnet 46 – Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
* Sonnet 47 – Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
* Sonnet 48 – How careful was I when I took my way
* Sonnet 49 – Against that time, if ever that time come
* Sonnet 50 – How heavy do I journey on the way

## Sonnets 51–60

* Sonnet 51 – Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
* Sonnet 52 – So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
* Sonnet 53 – What is your substance, whereof are you made
* Sonnet 54 – O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
* Sonnet 55 – Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
* Sonnet 56 – Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
* Sonnet 57 – Being your slave what should I do but tend
* Sonnet 58 – That god forbid, that made me first your slave
* Sonnet 59 – If there be nothing new, but that which is
* Sonnet 60 – Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

## Sonnets 61–70

* Sonnet 61 – Is it thy will, thy image should keep open
* Sonnet 62 – Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
* Sonnet 63 – Against my love shall be as I am now
* Sonnet 64 – When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd
* Sonnet 65 – Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
* Sonnet 66 – Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
* Sonnet 67 – Ah! wherefore with infection should he live
* Sonnet 68 – Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
* Sonnet 69 – Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
* Sonnet 70 – That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect

## Sonnets 71–80

* Sonnet 71 – No longer mourn for me when I am dead
* Sonnet 72 – O! lest the world should task you to recite
* Sonnet 73 – That time of year thou mayst in me behold
* Sonnet 74 – But be contented: when that fell arrest
* Sonnet 75 – So are you to my thoughts as food to life
* Sonnet 76 – Why is my verse so barren of new pride
* Sonnet 77 – Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
* Sonnet 78 – So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
* Sonnet 79 – Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
* Sonnet 80 – O! how I faint when I of you do write

## Sonnets 81–90

* Sonnet 81 – Or I shall live your epitaph to make
* Sonnet 82 – I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
* Sonnet 83 – I never saw that you did painting need
* Sonnet 84 – Who is it that says most, which can say more
* Sonnet 85 – My tongue–tied Muse in manners holds her still
* Sonnet 86 – Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
* Sonnet 87 – Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
* Sonnet 88 – When thou shalt be dispos'd to set me light
* Sonnet 89 – Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
* Sonnet 90 – Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now

## Sonnets 91–100

* Sonnet 91 – Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
* Sonnet 92 – But do thy worst to steal thyself away
* Sonnet 93 – So shall I live, supposing thou art true
* Sonnet 94 – They that have power to hurt, and will do none
* Sonnet 95 – How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
* Sonnet 96 – Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
* Sonnet 97 – How like a winter hath my absence been
* Sonnet 98 – From you have I been absent in the spring
* Sonnet 99 – The forward violet thus did I chide
* Sonnet 100 – Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long

## Sonnets 101–110

* Sonnet 101 – O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
* Sonnet 102 – My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming
* Sonnet 103 – Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth
* Sonnet 104 – To me, fair friend, you never can be old
* Sonnet 105 – Let not my love be call'd idolatry
* Sonnet 106 – When in the chronicle of wasted time
* Sonnet 107 – Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
* Sonnet 108 – What's in the brain, that ink may character
* Sonnet 109 – O! never say that I was false of heart
* Sonnet 110 – Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there

## Sonnets 111–120

* Sonnet 111 – O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide
* Sonnet 112 – Your love and pity doth the impression fill
* Sonnet 113 – Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
* Sonnet 114 – Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you
* Sonnet 115 – Those lines that I before have writ do lie
* Sonnet 116 – Let me not to the marriage of true minds
* Sonnet 117 – Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
* Sonnet 118 – Like as, to make our appetite more keen
* Sonnet 119 – What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
* Sonnet 120 – That you were once unkind befriends me now

## Sonnets 121–130

* Sonnet 121 – 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd
* Sonnet 122 – Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
* Sonnet 123 – No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
* Sonnet 124 – If my dear love were but the child of state
* Sonnet 125 – Were't aught to me I bore the canopy
* Sonnet 126 – O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
* Sonnet 127 – In the old age black was not counted fair
* Sonnet 128 – How oft when thou, my music, music play'st
* Sonnet 129 – The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
* Sonnet 130 – My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

## Sonnets 131–140

* Sonnet 131 – Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
* Sonnet 132 – Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
* Sonnet 133 – Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
* Sonnet 134 – So, now I have confess'd that he is thine
* Sonnet 135 – Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will'
* Sonnet 136 – If thy soul check thee that I come so near
* Sonnet 137 – Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
* Sonnet 138 – When my love swears that she is made of truth
* Sonnet 139 – O! call not me to justify the wrong
* Sonnet 140 – Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press

## Sonnets 141–150

* Sonnet 141 – In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes
* Sonnet 142 – Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
* Sonnet 143 – Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
* Sonnet 144 – Two loves I have of comfort and despair
* Sonnet 145 – Those lips that Love's own hand did make
* Sonnet 146 – Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
* Sonnet 147 – My love is as a fever longing still
* Sonnet 148 – O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head
* Sonnet 149 – Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not
* Sonnet 150 – O! from what power hast thou this powerful might

## Sonnets 151–154

* Sonnet 151 – Love is too young to know what conscience is
* Sonnet 152 – In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn
* Sonnet 153 – Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
* Sonnet 154 – The little Love-god lying once asleep
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end (Sonn. 60).
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse