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 subdu'd
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand:
Pity me then and wish I were renew'd;
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.
1. With. Q. "wish."
4. Publick manners. Implying vulgar, low, and probably disreputable conduct.
8. Renew' d. Thoroughly changed.
10. Eysell. Vinegar, a well-known supposed disinfectant. But here the idea is of a medicine to arrest and neutralise disease and corruption within.
12. To correct correction. To complete and perfect the correction of my conduct. Similarly we say, "To make assurance doubly sure."
14. Implying probably that the cause of offence, whatever it may have been, was superficial, and not deeply seated in Shakespeare's nature.
4. Publick manners. Implying vulgar, low, and probably disreputable conduct.
8. Renew' d. Thoroughly changed.
10. Eysell. Vinegar, a well-known supposed disinfectant. But here the idea is of a medicine to arrest and neutralise disease and corruption within.
12. To correct correction. To complete and perfect the correction of my conduct. Similarly we say, "To make assurance doubly sure."
14. Implying probably that the cause of offence, whatever it may have been, was superficial, and not deeply seated in Shakespeare's nature.
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