Sonnet 120
1. That you were once unkind befriends me now,
2. And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,
3. Needs must I under my transgression bow,
4. Unless my Nerves were brass or hammered steel.
5. For if you were by my unkindness shaken
6. As I by yours, you've pass't a hell of Time,
7. And I a tyrant have no leisure taken
8. To weigh how once I suffered in your crime.
9. O that our night of woe might have remembred
10. My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,
11. And soon to you, as you to me, then tendred
12. The humble salue, which wounded bosoms fits!
13. But that your trespass now becomes a fee,
14. Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.
Unkindness Appreciated
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Providing Elizabeth the consolation he gets that she was unkind to him so that he may feel better about his own unkindness toward her. That because they each has mistreated the other their transgressions cancel out to some extent.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
In an attempt at reconciliation tells Elizabeth that it makes him feel better that she was once unkind.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
For as he was unkind to her he can understand her pain having himself suffered at her hands. Though his reference to his own tyranny is seemingly reflected in his single-mindedness and lack of respite in his complaint of her crime (and pursuance of his satisfaction).
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
Referring in retrospect probably the night of conception that now has caused such pain.
couplet (13-14),
Setting up that your ill toward me is fee toward your returning a favor to me. and possibly a recognition a recognition of Henry where Oxford plays no part.
Commentary:
Oxford expresses the notion that Elizabeth’s guilt is his assurance that she will do the right thing. And attempts to apologize for his reaction to the misdeeds of the subject of this and most of the other poems. Perhaps 121 was a setup for this sonnet, as now both being guilty are liable to each other and there is mutual obligation.
This sonnet for one shows the connectedness of the poems and the very important nature of the “crime” mentioned. This should become even more apparent as the sonnets progress and the references to the transgressions of the past are repeatedly made. It also shows a level of subservience in the manner of the apology, which I would suggest would likely not be seen between a man and woman of other stations or equals.
Line 8 references the crime of the earliest Sonnets. While again the proper noun treatment of Time in line 6 subtextually infers the father of himself (and time). While the bosom of line 12 infers the nurturing mother Elizabeth both should be and has been in some sense. Line 10 perhaps most importantly reflects on how deep the sorrow has been. Line 12's salue may have a religious connotation.
While the couplet again suggests a subtle reference to bargaining his own involvement in Henry's procreation.
Vender reflects that this sonnet is “an imaginative fiction of parodic rendition of mutual render in which what is rendered is trespass for trespass, transgression for transgression, as the past unkindness of the friend is recalled to excuse the recent unkindness of the speaker. But what she fails to see is that the poet very much has in mind the greater significance of the transgression of the subject, to which the poet refers to as a crime. As well she fails to connect the sonnets as a discussion of this crime. And in actuality this sonnet is an expression of mutual cruelty providing an obligation to each other, which Oxford takes as a source of faith that Elizabeth will ultimately do what he believes is right and answer his plea to recognize Henry.