1. Love is too young to know what conscience is,

2. Yet who knows not conscience is born of love,

3. Then gentle cheater urge not my amiss,

4. Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove.

5. For thou betraying me, I do betray

6. My nobler part to my gross body's treason,

7. My soul doth tell my body that he may,

8. Triumph in love, flesh stays no farther reason,

9. But rising at thy name doth point out thee,

10. As his triumphant prize, proud of this pride,

11. He is contented thy poor drudge to be

12. To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.

13. No want of conscience hold it that I call,

14. Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall.

Betrayal

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Expressing Elizabeth’s betrayal of him and of his own betrayal to both himself and his son as he hopes love wins out and provides for his son Henry and his future. However until that time, he offers her that Henry's has but little alternative to become her drudge. That they each dare not stand in the way of her affairs. And then finally because of her lack of conscience, it is within her love and will in which his and thus Henry's fate is decided.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Playing on his subject’s conscience and gently suggesting her fault, then pointing out how one's conscience is created by love. Oxford asks Elizabeth not to have him break vows (betray) he made to her or else she will be guilty as well.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

The betrayal and the gross body's treason are references to Henry as he is the "he" from line 7 who the poet hopes will still triumph as in the "flesh" from line 8. Line 9’s rising at thy name an allusion to Elizabeth’s exalted status.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

"Rising in thy name" is certainly a clue that our poet is subservient to his subject. I don't believe anyone is more apt here than Elizabeth. The "prize" in line 10 and the "pride" are references to Henry.Line 11 refers to the very young and thus completely unaware Henry. And line 12 again is clearly appropriate for Elizabeth if anyone.

couplet (13-14),

Likely referring to both her love of himself and of Henry, for which his mental state and fortune so depend.

Commentary:

This sonnet expresses Oxford's admission of responsibility through some unknown fault, though it probably owes more to the psychology of a victim trying to understand why the abuse has happened to them. It also hints at the betrayal Oxford’s seems to feel toward himself via his own minor complicity in Elizabeth’s act, by effectively cooperating with her crime. A minor theme that will be reflected in early sonnets to come, mostly as an expression of his service to her. Hopefully, the context that I'm claiming should be seen to provide a way of understanding the conflicts the poet faces and a framework for understanding the psychological complexities and seeming contradictions alluded to in these sonnets. Never the less, mostly this sonnet is a continuation of Elizabeth’s betrayal of him which will also be explored and was already revealed in the “foul” lie of 152.

The “gentle cheater” reference of this sonnet is a likely attempt by the poet to tone down his initial reaction and to be less accusatory and attempt to win Elizabeth over with expressions of love. This approach though is short lived and seems obviously to me at least to have been a failure as we will progress in to ever more tension, emotion, and slander as the sonnets proceed.

The keyword “born” is used to remind of the recent birth. This is one of many allusions to Henry in this early portion whose connotation evinces that he is very young and displays the arrow of time since his birth. And are consistent with the overall arrow of time in the sonnet sequence. Additional clues can be picked up from the nature of the subject matter. The hurt of the poet is fresh but there is still an expression of loyalty and subservience. As mentioned, this will change as the sonnets progress. The second quatrain and couplet gives some insight into Elizabeth’s power though this will be even more clearly displayed in the next sonnet. While again the prize is one of the many metonymical references to Henry for which the Sonnets will become replete.

The modern orthodox interpreters of this sonnet see yet more sex. Steven Booth even posits that the “nobler part” of line 6 refers to the poet’s phallus. At least in this respect Katherine Duncan Jones reveals that it is in fact the poet’s soul but she never the less finds sex in this sonnet as well. I hope it is not much more clear that expression of the poet’s rise and fall is not a sexual reference (at least not an explicit one) but merely an expression of his mental state and hopes being at the mercy of his more powerful subjects ever shifting moods and promises.

KDJ comments that line 2 is a pun on “prick of conscience” an example of the distorted sense of these poems as expressing sexual content which I maintain is almost wholly absent from these poems.

Vendler sees this sonnet as many others “thematizing” the conflict between the poet and the “Dark Lady” which she mentions interestingly as also appearing in those to the “young man”. She also seems to believe that the sonnet is a discussion partly of “sexual sin”.