Sonnet 112
Your love and pittie doth th'impression fill,
Which vulgar scandal stampt upon my heart,
For what care I who calles me well or ill,
So you ore-greene my bad, my good alow?
You are my All the world, and I must strive,
To know my shames and praises from your tounge,
None else to me, nor I to none alive,
That my steel'd sence or changes right or wrong.
In so profound an Abisme I throw all care
Of others voyces, that my Adders sence,
To cryttick and to flatterer stopped are:
Marke how with my neglect I doe dispence.
You are so strongly in my purpose bred,
That qll the world besides me thinkes y'are dead.
Commentary
Address to his beloved
Changes to the original text
In the first quatrain, the poet claims that his friend's compassion (love and pittie) fills in the stamped impression (scandal stampt) that scandal has made on his heart (thereby effectively erasing this impression), the reason being that the poet cares nothing for what other people say, but is only interested in seeing that the beloved glosses over what bad he does (o'er-green my bad), and approves the good. The expression 'ore-green' has been seen as referring to Robert Greene, who criticised Shakespeare as an 'upstart crow'.
In the second quatrain, the poet urges himself to only take notice of his friend and no-one else (none else to me, nor I to none alive), and that he (the poet) should not use his own logic (steel'd sence) to argue what is right and what is wrong, that is, that not only should he not listen to anybody else, but also he should not try to make his own reasons or assessments of his behaviour, but rather listen to what his friend says.
In the third quatrain, the poet claims that he throws all concern for others' voices, be it critic or flatterer, into a great abyss (abisme) and asks his friend to note (mark) how he arranges things (dispence) by doing nothing (with my neglect).
In the final couplet, the poet supposes that his friend has so far advanced in (in my purpose bred) the task of bringing about his (the poet's) rehabilitation that everybody must suppose him dead.