Shakespeare's Sonnets: Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all

Sonnet 40

1Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all,
2What hast thou then more than thou had'st before?
3No love, my love, that thou may'st true love call;
4All mine was thine before thou had'st this more.
5Then if for my love thou my love receiv'st,
6I cannot blame thee for my love thou us'st,
7But yet be blam'd, if thou this self deceiv'st
8By wilful taste of what thy self refus'st.
9I do forgive thy robb'ry, gentle thief,
10Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
11And yet love knows it is a greater grief
12To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.
13    Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
14    Kill me with spites, yet we must not be foes.

Notes

5] receiv'st] receiuest Q. Back to Line
6] for] because.us'st] vsest Q. Back to Line
7] this] sometimes emended to "thy," but the apparent referent, "this more" (line 4), makes sense, and the alternative after emendation (that the beloved deceives himself) is puzzling. deceiv'st] deceauest Q. Back to Line
8] By] B y Q. refus'st] refuseth Q. Back to Line
13] Lascivious] trisyllabic and elided. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet