The former post was off topic and was removed as it was a violation of our
Great Books spirit.

These forums are being phased out & replaced. Join us at our new
registration-only forums at:

jollyrogerwest.com Great Books forums,
Philosophy Forums,
and booksliterature.com Great Books forums.

Please respect that these are Great Books sites. We far prefer
discussions along the following
lines:

CLI



Love is too young to know what conscience is, 

Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?

Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,

Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:

For, thou betraying me, I do betray

My nobler part to my gross body\'s treason;

My soul doth tell my body that he may

Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,

But rising at thy name doth point out thee,

As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,

He is contented thy poor drudge to be,

To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.

  No want of conscience hold it that I call

  Her \'love,\' for whose dear love I rise and fall.

 	--William Shakespeare

CXXXV



Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy \'Will,\'

And \'Will\' to boot, and \'Will\' in over-plus;

More than enough am I that vex\'d thee still,

To thy sweet will making addition thus.

Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,

Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?

Shall will in others seem right gracious,

And in my will no fair acceptance shine?

The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,

And in abundance addeth to his store;

So thou, being rich in \'Will,\' add to thy \'Will\'

One will of mine, to make thy large will more.

  Let no unkind \'No\' fair beseechers kill;

  Think all but one, and me in that one \'Will.\'



CXXXVI



If thy soul check thee that I come so near, 

Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy \'Will\',

And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there;

Thus far for love, my love-suit, sweet, fulfil.

\'Will\', will fulfil the treasure of thy love,

Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one.

In things of great receipt with ease we prove

Among a number one is reckon\'d none:

Then in the number let me pass untold,

Though in thy store\'s account I one must be;

For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold

That nothing me, a something sweet to thee:

  Make but my name thy love, and love that still,

  And then thou lov\'st me for my name is \'Will.\'



CXXXVII



Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,

That they behold, and see not what they see?

They know what beauty is, see where it lies,

Yet what the best is take the worst to be.

If eyes, corrupt by over-partial looks, 

Be anchor\'d in the bay where all men ride,

Why of eyes\' falsehood hast thou forged hooks,

Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied?

Why should my heart think that a several plot,

Which my heart knows the wide world\'s common place?

Or mine eyes, seeing this, say this is not,

To put fair truth upon so foul a face?

  In things right true my heart and eyes have err\'d,

  And to this false plague are they now transferr\'d.

 	--William Shakespeare

LIX



If there be nothing new, but that which is

Hath been before, how are our brains beguil\'d,

Which labouring for invention bear amiss

The second burthen of a former child!

O! that record could with a backward look,

Even of five hundred courses of the sun,

Show me your image in some antique book,

Since mind at first in character was done!

That I might see what the old world could say

To this composed wonder of your frame;

Wh\'r we are mended, or wh\'r better they,

Or whether revolution be the same. 

  O! sure I am the wits of former days,

  To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

 	--William Shakespeare

CXXV



Were\'t aught to me I bore the canopy,

With my extern the outward honouring,

Or laid great bases for eternity,

Which proves more short than waste or ruining?

Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour

Lose all and more by paying too much rent

For compound sweet; forgoing simple savour,

Pitiful thrivers, in their gazing spent?

No; let me be obsequious in thy heart,

And take thou my oblation, poor but free,

Which is not mix\'d with seconds, knows no art,

But mutual render, only me for thee.

  Hence, thou suborned informer! a true soul

  When most impeach\'d, stands least in thy control.

 	--William Shakespeare