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Giving him aid, my verse astonished. |
He, nor that affable familiar ghost |
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence |
As victors of my silence cannot boast; |
I was not sick of any fear from thence: |
But when your countenance fill'd up his line, |
Then lack'd I matter; that enfeebled mine. |
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, |
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate: |
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; |
My bonds in thee are all determinate. |
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? |
And for that riches where is my deserving? |
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, |
And so my patent back again is swerving. |
Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing, |
Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking; |
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, |
Comes home again, on better judgment making. |
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter, |
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter. |
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light, |
And place my merit in the eye of scorn, |
Upon thy side against myself I'll fight, |
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn. |
With mine own weakness being best acquainted, |
Upon thy part I can set down a story |
Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted, |
That thou in losing me shalt win much glory: |
And I by this will be a gainer too; |
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee, |
The injuries that to myself I do, |
Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. |
Such is my love, to thee I so belong, |
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong. |
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, |
And I will comment upon that offence; |
Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt, |
Against thy reasons making no defence. |
Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill, |
To set a form upon desired change, |
As I'll myself disgrace: knowing thy will, |
I will acquaintance strangle and look strange, |
Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue |
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell, |
Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong |
And haply of our old acquaintance tell. |
For thee against myself I'll vow debate, |
For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate. |
Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; |
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross, |
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow, |
And do not drop in for an after-loss: |
Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scoped this sorrow, |
Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe; |
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, |
To linger out a purposed overthrow. |
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last, |
When other petty griefs have done their spite |
But in the onset come; so shall I taste |
At first the very worst of fortune's might, |
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, |
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so. |
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, |
Some in their wealth, some in their bodies' force, |
Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill, |
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse; |
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure, |
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest: |
But these particulars are not my measure; |
All these I better in one general best. |
Thy love is better than high birth to me, |
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost, |
Of more delight than hawks or horses be; |
And having thee, of all men's pride I boast: |
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take |
All this away and me most wretched make. |
But do thy worst to steal thyself away, |
For term of life thou art assured mine, |
And life no longer than thy love will stay, |
For it depends upon that love of thine. |
Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs, |
When in the least of them my life hath end. |
I see a better state to me belongs |
Than that which on thy humour doth depend; |
Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind, |
Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie. |
O, what a happy title do I find, |
Happy to have thy love, happy to die! |
But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot? |
Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not. |
So shall I live, supposing thou art true, |
Like a deceived husband; so love's face |
May still seem love to me, though alter'd new; |
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place: |
For there can live no hatred in thine eye, |
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change. |
In many's looks the false heart's history |
Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange, |
But heaven in thy creation did decree |
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