Sonnet 70

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Shakespeare. Sonnet 1

«That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander’s mark was ever yet the fair». 

The poet is unable to maintain his disapproval of the young man, but he forgives without forgetting. The youth can blame only himself for the slanderous rumors about him.

Sonnet 70
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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.

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The poet notes that the slander pays an oblique and unintended tribute to the youth’s innocence, charm, and beauty: “For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love, / And thou present’st a pure unstained prime.”

The youth’s real problem, according to the poet, is that his morally ambiguous nature leaves him vulnerable to slander; his virtuous beauty masks a potential for vicious habits: “If some suspect of ill masked not thy show, / Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe.” The poet calculatedly appeals to the youth’s vanity in the hopes of encouraging upright behavior.

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Credits

English audio from YouTube Channel Socratica

Summary from Cliffsnotes.com

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