1. When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,

2. And place my merit in the eye of scorn,

3. Upon thy side against myself I'll fight,

4. And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn:

5. With mine own weakness being best acquainted,

6. Upon thy part I can set down a story

7. Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted:

8. That thou in losing me shalt win much glory:

9. And I by this will be a gainer too,

10. For bending all my loving thoughts on thee,

11. The injuries that to myself I do,

12. Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me.

13. Such is my love, to thee I so belong,

14. That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.

I'll Bear All Wrong

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Expressing his complete loyalty to Elizabeth, he tells her that he gladly suffers the extinction of his rights for her. Telling her that losing him gains her advantage and thus advantages him most likely by allowing her to recognize Henry without the baggage Oxford brings. Thus he tells her that he will bare all wrong.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Oxford vows his loyalty to Elizabeth despite himself. Saying in line 1 that when she decides to find him of low worth; To scorn him in line 2; that he will fight with her against himself in line 3; and prove her virtue though he will have lied in line 4.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Telling her that he could write a story of her (Shakespeare did after all frequently wrote write of the nobility and their tragedy) where he being best acquainted with his vices could tell of his own corruption. Finishing in line 8 by telling her if she loses him and thus his potential for violating her virginity than she will retain the praise she has been given.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Telling her that he gains because what is good for her is good for him because he wants what is best for her.

couplet (13-14),

Finally that because of his love and loyatly he though right (and wronged) will in turn bear the wrong.

Commentary:

This is another sonnet expressing the poet’s loyalty to Elizabeth along with a reminder of her freedom from him with a comment on how the loss of the poet will come to advantage her. Remember this theme came before in the “Will” sonnets which reflected the pun on the word will.

He also expresses that his unselfishness is not without its own selfish advantage in line 12. And In the final refrain of this poem quite likely reflect Oxford’s willingness to take the complete blame for Henry’s conception, i.e., suggesting that he is willing to have Elizabeth say that she was raped by him. Perhaps the genesis of the idea and at least partial meaning of the “Rape of Lucrece”, which of course again was dedicated to his son, Henry Wriothesley. To whom he mentions in the dedication, the warrant he has of “honourable disposition” of. The poem was published in 1594, which by my calculation and clues to come we have not reached yet.

Also contained is a message suggestive of Oxford's efforts to disassociate himself from his part in the story. Which I would argue necessitated disassociating himself from his works. Which while not understood are extremely tied to his part in Henry's story. This is important for both an internal dating reference and for an external corroborative means of verification of the validity of this interpretation. The time puts this very early, likely pre-creation of the Stratford man. While things seem more planned by sonnet 81.

Vendler remarks on the flatness of the expression in the poem, and thus concludes the aim is not emotion. To which she correctly concludes that the doubling of Q3 is the theme. Yet she has apparently no insight into the nature of the doubling. I would instead of that the message of this sonnet is that Oxford is implying that his own interests are irrelevant and that they actually benefit from facilitating Elizabeth’s interests. From this perspective, anything that makes her stronger and more secure, provides her means to recognize their son. Of course his argument is that his purpose is loyalty and love for her. But his true message is rather transparently implied.

Vendler states that though thou art forsworn is the crucial phrase of the poem. To which she again mistakes reading the line as only relating to the poem itself and understanding as an expression of a general statement of the poet proving the merit of the subject even in the case of the subject being hypothetically forsworn or forsworn in the future. Instead of recognizing that the poet is stating what he believes to be a current factual statement regarding the subjects honesty and relates to the many other sonnets where the poet has stated that the subject has been part of a large deception. She comments that the poet bearing all wrong is masochism, instead of the continuation of the poet’s promise and intention to remove himself from the situation so that the scandal to which he has been involved, does not interfere with the greater objective.