Sonnet 88

Sonnet 88
Detail of old-spelling text
Sonnet 88 in the 1609 Quarto

Q1



Q2



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C

When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,
And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side, against myself, I’ll fight,
And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn:
With mine own weakness being best acquainted,
Upon thy part I can set down a story
Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted,
That thou, in losing me, shalt win much glory;
And I by this will be a gainer too,
For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,
The injuries that to myself I do,
Doing thee vantage, double vantage me:
Such is my love, to thee I so belong,
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.




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—William Shakespeare[1]

Sonnet 88 is one of 154 sonnets published in 1609 by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's one of the Fair Youth sequence.

Sonnet 88 continues the theme of a division between the two friends, based on their differing sense of values. The poet offers to support the young man's rejection of him by listing the poet's own faults, and in this way give double support to the young man.[2]

The paradoxical ideas of self-wounding in this sonnet are outlandish enough, that it is difficult to accept a sincere desire for self-immolation on the poet's part. This is especially clear in the context of other sonnets in the sequence that deal with a division between the poet and the young man. The poet does reserve for himself the story-telling posture ("I can set down a story"), which includes the considerable powers of poetry, powers that have been a recurring theme in the sonnets.[3]

  1. ^ Shakespeare, William. Duncan-Jones, Katherine. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Bloomsbury Arden 2010. p. 287 ISBN 9781408017975.
  2. ^ Shakespeare, William. Duncan-Jones, Katherine. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Bloomsbury Arden 2010. p. 286 ISBN 9781408017975.
  3. ^ Hammond. The Reader and the Young Man Sonnets. Barnes & Noble. 1981. p. 86-87 ISBN 978-1-349-05443-5