Sonnet LXX (70)

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater, being woo'd of time;
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.
Thou hast pass'd by the ambush of young days,
Either not assail'd or victor being charged;
Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise,
To tie up envy evermore enlarged:
If some suspect of ill mask'd not thy show,
Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.

1. Blame is no proof of blameworthiness. 

3. Suspicion is so usually associated with beauty that it may be regarded as its wonted ornament. 

5. So thou be good -- If thou be good. 

6. Being woo'd of time. This must be taken, it would seem, with "slander" of line 5. The sense will then be that "slander coming under the soothing influence of time will show thy worth to be greater;" or, "slander will turn to praise in course of time, and your true character will shine forth." Thy at beginning of this line is in Q. "Their." 

7 For canker vice, &c. This line has been illustrated by "As the most forward bud is eaten by the canker ere it blow," &c., Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act i. sc. I, lines 45, 46. But the "canker vice" of our text is slander or envy. 

9. The ambush of young days. The vices to which youth is prone. 

10. Charg'd. Attacked, assailed. 

11, 12. Yet this praise of thine cannot have such efficacy as to restrain envy, which is ever busy. 

13, 14. If the influence of thy beauty were not abated by evil suspicion all would be devoted to thee. Owe -- Possess, as elsewhere. 

Soneto de amor LXX

Que se hable mal de ti no es tu defecto.
Lo bello siempre es blanco de la insidia
que, como un cuervo en el azul del cielo,
recela del ornato y lo mancilla.
Así, que te difamen es indicio
de tu virtud, que incluso el tiempo anhela:
el chancro adora el brote más tiernito
y tú fuiste una intacta primavera.
Salvaste las primeras emboscadas
incólume o acaso victorioso,
mas no te amparará de la amenaza
creciente de la envidia tanto encomio.
Si mal no suscitase resquemores
caerían a tus pies mil corazones.

Sonnet LXIX (69)

Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend;
All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due,
Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend.
Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd;
But those same tongues that give thee so thine own
In other accents do this praise confound
By seeing farther than the eye hath shown.
They look into the beauty of thy mind,
And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds;
Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The solve is this, that thou dost common grow.

4. Even so as foes commend. Meaning, apparently, "for in like manner even foes commend, stinting their praise as much as possible." 

5. Thy. Q. has "Their." 

7. Confound. Abate and nullify. 

8. By seeing farther. As they pretend. 

9. The beauty of thy mind. Said possibly not without a shade of irony. 

10. Thy deeds. As to the general nature of these we can form a probable guess from what had occurred with regard to Shakespeare's mistress. Cf. xl. al. 

11. Their thoughts. The conclusions they formed. 

13. Odour, of course, is "reputation." 

14. The solve, i.e., the solution, the explanation. Q. has "solye," but there can be little doubt that the emendation "solve" is right. 

Soneto de amor LXIX

Ninguna de tus partes a la vista
requiere que el ingenio la componga,
ni hay lengua -voz del alma- que desdiga
tus dones, ni rival que lo desoiga.
Mas siendo que destacas en lo externo,
las lenguas que pregonan tus encantos
enturbian de inmediato sus acentos
al ver donde no alcanza el ojo humano.
Y así pretenden sopesar tu mente
midiendo su belleza por tus actos;
y si antes te admiraron, ahora infieren
que tu preciosa flor hiede a hierbajos.
¿Por qué no va tu aspecto con tu olor?
Te has vuelto público, ésa es la razón.

Sonnet LXVIII (68)

Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn,
When beauty lived and died as flowers do now,
Before the bastard signs of fair were born,
Or durst inhabit on a living brow;
Before the golden tresses of the dead,
The right of sepulchres, were shorn away,
To live a second life on second head;
Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay:
In him those holy antique hours are seen,
Without all ornament, itself and true,
Making no summer of another's green,
Robbing no old to dress his beauty new;
And him as for a map doth Nature store,
To show false Art what beauty was of yore.

1. The map of days outworn. "This pattern of the worn-out age," used of the groom inLucrece, has been compared, as also "Thou map of honour" in King Richard II., Act v. sc. i, line 12. 

3. These bastard signs of fair. This mere artificial appearance of beauty. Bastard. As not truly derived from Nature. 6. The right of sepulchres. Which should have been consigned to the sepulchre, and have remained there. The following passage from the Merchant of Venice, Act iii. sc. 2, lines 92-96, has been justly compared:

"So are those crisped snaky golden locks,
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulchre."

8. Ere beauty's dead fleece, &c., appears to express in other words what had been already said. 

10. Itself would seem to be equivalent to "nature itself." 

12. Robbing no old, &c. These words and the two lines preceding may be taken to explain the "holy" of line 9, which can scarcely be used of moral purity.

Soneto de amor LXVIII

Su cara es, pues, el mapa de esos tiempos
en que lo bello, igual que ahora las flores,
vivía hasta morir, sin que aderezos
bastardos empolvasen las facciones;
de cuando no esquilaban las guedejas
de aquellos que dormían para siempre
por darles otra vida en otra testa,
y a nadie hacía más bello un vello inerte.
Como en las horas sacras del pasado,
en él todo es verdad, sin falsedades:
no hará de un verde ajeno su verano
ni ha de robar vestidos para aviarse.
Natura, así, cual mapa lo atesora:
donde hay belleza pura, huelgan modas.

Sonnet LXVII (67)

Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
And with his presence grace impiety,
That sin by him advantage should achieve
And lace itself with his society?
Why should false painting imitate his cheek
And steal dead seeing of his living hue?
Why should poor beauty indirectly seek
Roses of shadow, since his rose is true?
Why should he live, now Nature bankrupt is,
Beggar'd of blood to blush through lively veins?
For she hath no exchequer now but his,
And, proud of many, lives upon his gains.
O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had
In days long since, before these last so bad.

3. That sin by him advantage, &c. His presence serving as a veil to conceal corruption. 

4. Lace itself with his society. "Lace" may here mean "embellish," though in passages which have been quoted in proof the sense is rather "diversify." So in Romeo and Juliet., Act iii. sc. 5, lines 7, 8, --

"What envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east;"

and Macbeth, Act ii. sc. 3, lines 117-119, --

"Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood;
And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature,"  

6. Dead seeing. "Seeing" is equivalent to "appearance." Cf. v. 2, "The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell." The "seeing" is "dead" as not being the result of healthy vitality, but mere imitation. 

7. Poor beauty. Beauty indifferent and imperfect. Indirectly. By artificial means.

8. Shadow. Mere external appearance.

12. Proud of many. On account of their seeming beauty, which, however, is not caused by "blood blushing through lively veins."

Soneto de amor LXVII

¿Por qué ha de sufrir él la corrupción
y honrar con su presencia a la ignominia,
y que el pecado goce del favor
que otorga su graciosa compañía?
¿Por qué debe imitarlo el falso arte,
sacar de su alma viva copia muerta?
¿O la belleza ruin querer buscarle
rosas de sombra si su rosa es cierta?
¿Por qué ha de vivir hoy, cuando Natura
en ruinas le mendiga sangre ardiente?
Sin más aval que el de él y su fortuna,
se jacta pero vive de sus bienes.
Y lo retiene en prueba de que antaño
supo ser rica, en tiempos menos malos.

Sonnet LXVI (66)

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

1. Tir'd with all these, i.e., such things as those which follow. 

2. As. As, for example. Desert a beggar born. Real merit and worth suffering the disqualification of an abjectly mean origin, and restrained by penury. 

3. This line probably refers to what is commonly described as "keeping up an appearance." 

4. Unhappily forsworn. Through the pressure of circumstances (as seems likely) in an evil world. 

5. Gilded honour shamefully misplaced. Cf. Ecclesiastes x. 5, 6, "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity." &c. 

6. Rudely. Either of physical force, or of the recklessness of slander; but the latter sense would seem to agree with the next line. 

8. Strength by limping sway disabled. Describes the injury inflicted by an incompetent and feeble government. 

9, 10. In these lines there seem to be allusions to universities and their technical phraseology. This view accords with the use of doctor-like, and line 9 (where art will denote "learning") may be taken to refer to opinions obnoxious to those in authority being forbidden to be expressed and published. 

12. This is a climax. Evil is a victorious captain, with Good as a captive attending to grace his triumph. 

Soneto de amor LXVI

Que venga ya la muerte: estoy cansado
de ver hecho un mendigo al que más vale,
y que el don nadie vista con boato,
y al cándido lo engañe el miserable,
y que el honor recaiga en el indigno,
y que el perfecto sufra la desdicha,
y la doncella se hunda en el ludibrio,
y al fuerte lo invaliden las intrigas,
y que la autoridad censure el arte,
y la locura cure lo sensato,
y tachen de simpleza a las verdades,
y viva el bien cautivo de lo malo.
Mas en la muerte no hallaré reposo
si, muerto yo, mi amor se queda solo.

Sonnet LXV (65)

Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

Soneto de amor LXV

Si ni la piedra, el bronce, el mar, la tierra,
se libran de la triste destrucción,
¿cómo ha de hacerle frente la belleza,
que apenas tiene el brío de una flor?
¿Y qué opondrá el aliento veraniego
al despiadado embate de los días,
si el Tiempo tumba pórticos de hierro
y ni la roca aguanta su embestida?
¡Cruel desazón! Pues, ¿quién podrá evitar
que el Tiempo encofre su mejor alhaja?
¿Qué mano detendrá su pie fugaz.
librando a la belleza de su azada?
No salvará a mi amor sino un milagro:
que impreso en tinta negra brille tanto.

Sonnet LXIV (64)

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

2. The sumptuous buildings or other appurtenances of a generation or a people which has decayed and passed away, and which is now buried in the dust. 

4. Mortal rage. Deadly, destroying. "Mortal rage" refers to the supreme principle of Mutability and Decay. 

5-8. The words of K. Hen. IV., Part II., Act III. sc. i, lines 45-51, have been justly compared:

"O God, that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea! and other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune's hips," &c.

The following lines from Tennyson's In Memoriam, written, probably, to some extent, under Shakespearean influence, may also be given:

"There rolls the deep where grew the tree,
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
There where the long street roars hath been
The stillness of the central sea.

The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go."

8. Extending its own domain by what the other loses, and losing by what the other gains. 

10. State. Magnificence, though in the previous line "state" seems to mean "condition." 

13. This thought is as a death. Causing anticipatively the pang of separation. 

Soneto de amor LXIV

A ver que el Tiempo y su vil mano borran
la augusta pompa de las viejas ruinas,
la torre más altiva se desploma
y el bronce eterno es siervo de la ira;
que el mar en su avidez gana terreno
al reino de la costa y, a su vez,
la tierra firme extiende al mar su reino
de modo que, al ganar, vuelve a perder;
al ver que se intercambian los estados
o que el estado se hunde sin razón,
he de esperar que el Tiempo y su vil mano
vendrán a despojarme de mi amor.
Saberlo ya es morir y sólo queda
llorar por conservar lo que se pierda.

Sonnet LXIII (63)

Against my love shall be, as I am now,
With Time's injurious hand crush'd and o'er-worn;
When hours have drain'd his blood and fill'd his brow
With lines and wrinkles; when his youthful morn
Hath travell'd on to age's steepy night,
And all those beauties whereof now he's king
Are vanishing or vanish'd out of sight,
Stealing away the treasure of his spring;
For such a time do I now fortify
Against confounding age's cruel knife,
That he shall never cut from memory
My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life:
His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,
And they shall live, and he in them still green.