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SONNET 120That you were once unkind, befriends me now,And for that sorrow, which I then did feel Needs must I under my transgression bow, Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel. For if you were by my unkindness shaken, As I by yours, y' have pass'd a hell of time, And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime. O, that our night of woe might have remember'd My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, And soon to you, as you to me, then tendered The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits! But that your trespass now becomes a fee; Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me. NOTES CXX. The poet urges that the pain he had once suffered from his friend's conduct (cf. xl., &c.) should be taken into account with respect to the seeming want of regard which he had displayed during the period of separation. The one must be taken as a set-off against the other. 3. Thinking that I have now inflicted on you similar pain. 4. Unless my nerves, &c. Unless I were destitute of feeling. 6. Y' have pass'd a hell of time. Cf. "Though waiting so be hell" (lviii. 13); and Lucrece, 1287 and 1288: "And that deep torture may be call'd a Hell,7, 8. And I a tyrant, &c. I, like a tyrant, have been regardless of the pain I inflicted, not even sparing time to think of the suffering I once endured. 9, 10. Our night of woe. On that former occasion. The expression "night of woe" may be metaphorical, though it is, of course, possible that reference may be made to some particular night. Might have remembered my deepest sense. Might have caused my deepest sense to remember. 11. And that I had soon tendered to you, as you tendered to me on that former occasion. 12. The humble salve. The humble apology. Fits. Suits. 13. That former trespass of yours against me has become something which I can offer as a payment and ransom for my own offence. How to cite this article: How to cite the sidebars:______ Even More...  Stratford School Days: What Did Shakespeare Read? Games in Shakespeare's England [A-L] Games in Shakespeare's England [M-Z] An Elizabethan Christmas Clothing in Elizabethan England Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron Going to a Play in Elizabethan London Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama Publishing in Elizabethan England Shakespeare's Audience Religion in Shakespeare's England Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day Entertainment in Elizabethan England London's First Public Playhouse Shakespeare Hits the Big Time
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In 1609 Thomas Thorpe published Shakespeare's sonnets, no doubt without the author's permission, in quarto format, along with Shakespeare's long poem, The Passionate Pilgrim. The sonnets were dedicated to a W. H., whose identity remains a mystery, although William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, is frequently suggested because Shakespeare's First Folio (1623) was also dedicated to him. ©1999-2021 Shakespeare Online. All Rights Reserved.