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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

I. The Poet Laments to a Friend His Profession as an Actor

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

O, FOR my sake do you with Fortune chide,

The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,

That did not better for my life provide

Than public means, which public manners breeds.

Thence comes it that my name receives a brand,

And almost thence my nature is subdued

To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand.

Pity me then, and wish I were renewed;

Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink

Potions of eysell ’gainst my strong infection:

No bitterness that I will bitter think,

Nor double penance, to correct correction.

Pity me then, dear friend, and I assure ye,

Even that your pity is enough to cure me.