Sonnet 136
If thy soule check thee that I come so neere,
Sweare to thy blind soule that I was thy Will,
And will thy soule knowes is admitted there,
Thus farre for love, my love-sute sweet fullfill.
Will, will fulfill the treasure of thy love,
I fill it full with wils, and my will one,
In things of great receit with ease we proove,
Among a number one is reckon'd none.
Then in the number let me passe untold,
Though in thy stores account I one must be,
For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold,
That nothing me, a some-thing sweet to thee.
Make but my name thy love, and love that still,
And then thou lovest me for my name is Will.
Commentary
To a married woman
In the first quatrain, the poet advises the woman to tell herself (her soul) that, if she has any concerns (if thy soul check thee) about his advances, then she should tell her soul that it is her husband, Will, who is approaching, and, since her soul is blind, her soul will believe her. In the second quatrain, the poet promises to fill her 'treasure' full of wills, and proceeds to assert that 'in things of great receit' one is not reckoned as a number, The idea comes from no less an authority than Aristotle (Metaphysics 1039 a15).
In the third quatrain, the poet suggests that as one is nothing, then he should be able to pass uncounted, though, once arrived in her 'stores account', he will have to be a one, if it please her to take him for nothing, he will nevertheless be something sweet to her.
The final couplet concludes with a further pun on his name.
This is simply bawdy sophistry, but was perhaps effective in seducing this particular woman. The sonnet as a whole has the air of having been written to please one or two friends who were perhaps interested to see whether this manner of wooing would be successful.