Sonnet 142

If you condemn my sinful love, examine your own conduct—you are equally guilty of betrayal and seduction.

Original

Modern

1 Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,

Love is too young to know what conscience is;

2 Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving,

Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?

3 O but with mine, compare thou thine own state,

Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,

4 And thou shalt find it merits not reproving,

Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:

5 Or if it do, not from those lips of thine,

For, thou betraying me, I do betray,

6 That have profaned their scarlet ornaments,

My nobler part to his base elements;

7 And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine,

My soul, which but doth what it is said to do,

8 Robbed others’ beds’ revenues of their rents.

Is acting not its part, but a part of thee:

Volta The volta shifts from the indictment ('you are as guilty as I') to a bargain ('let me love you as you love others') and a final logical trap ('your denial will prove your hypocrisy').

9 Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov’st those,

So it is not lust, though it be call'd so,

10 Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee,

To act for thee, though for myself I know,

11 Root pity in thy heart that when it grows,

It is a lesser blot, a stain, a crack,

12 Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.

Compar'd with thee, all pure, all truth, all fair,

13 If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,

And yet it must be said I hate thee worse,

14 By self-example mayst thou be denied.

For thus against myself with thee partake:

Moral Inversion

The opening paradox—'Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate'—inverts conventional morality. Her 'virtue' is defined as hating his love, yet this supposedly virtuous hate is itself grounded in 'sinful loving' (her own illicit desires). Neither speaker nor beloved occupies the moral high ground; both are trapped in sin's logic.

The Economics of Betrayal

Line 8, 'Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents,' uses commercial language: infidelity is theft, a violation of property and contract. She has seduced others' partners, corrupting 'honest' bonds of marriage. Yet the speaker argues he and she are equivalent perpetrators, making mutual condemnation impossible and mutual forgiveness the only option.

If this happened today

Like calling out someone who criticizes your infidelity while they themselves cheat: you're forced to ask, 'How can you judge me when you do exactly the same thing?'

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