SONNET #40

by: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

AKE all my loves, my love, yea, take them all:

What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?

No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;

All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.

Then, if for my love thou my love receivest,

I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;

But yet be blamed if thou this self deceivest

By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.

I do forgive thy robb'ry, gentle theif,

Although thou steal thee all my poverty;

And yet love knows it is a greater grief

To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury.

Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,

Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.

• Shakespeare Index - An index of articles on to the Elizabethan dramatist.
• Biographical aspects of the Sonnets - Examines the worth of Shakespeare's sonnets in piecing together clues as to the nature of his romantic life.
• The Shakespeare-Bacon Theory - Analysis of the theory that the plays of William Shakespeare were not written by the man whose biography we are familiar with, but rather under pseudonym by Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon.
• Shakespeare Monologues - A collection of monologues for actors.
• William Shakespeare - A biography.
• William Shakespeare - Another biography.
• William Shakespeare - A biographical account of the poet's life.
• William Shakespeare - A biography, plus links to purchase all of his works currently in print.
• Purchase books by William Shakespeare