Sonnet 134

So now I have confest that he is thine,

And I my selfe am morgag'd to thy will,

My selfe Ile forfeit, so that other mine,

Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still:

But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,

For thou art covetous, and he is kind,

He learned but surety-like to write for me,

Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.

The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,

Thou usurer that put'st forth all to use,

And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake;

So him I lose through my unkind abuse.

Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me;

He pays the whole; and yet am I not free.

Commentary

Address to a hard woman.

In the first quatrain, the poet makes the confession that his friend belongs to the hard woman he addressed in the previous sonnet, and proposes that he should forfeit himself to redeem his friend (other mine).

In the second quatrain, the poet realises that the woman will not free his friend on this basis because she is 'covetous', and his friend is kind. His friend, in trying to help him (the poet), has fallen into the hard woman's clutches.

In the third quatrain, the poet continues the legal metaphors relating to ownership and possession, applying the idea of securing a loan to the situation, where the guarantor (his friend) becomes liable as surety.

The final couplet summarises the 'disastrous' situation where his friend has paid everything, and yet he (the poet) is still not free.

In all, the poet seems more concerned to work out his complicated legal metaphors than to actually complain about what is happening.

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