Sonnet 37

As a decrepit father takes delight

To see his active child do deeds of youth,

So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite,

Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth;

For whether beauty, birth or wealth, or wit,

Or any of these all, or all, or more,

Entitled in thy parts do crownèd sit,

I make my love ingrafted to this store.

So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised,

Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give,

That I in thy abundance am sufficed,

And by a part of all thy glory live.

Look what is best, that best I wish in thee;

This wish I have, then ten times happy me.

Commentary

Does this mean that Shakespeare was lame? Line 3 'lame by fortune's dearest spite' implies that this is the case, though it would seem unlikely that Shakespeare's detractors (particularly Robert Greene) would not have picked up on this in their taunts had it been the case. But see also Sonnet 89.

The important image here is contained in line 8 'I make my love ingrafted to this store'. Store of what? Store of beauty, wealth, and birth, the things that Shakespeare lacks. He also adds 'wit', but it is difficult to believe that Shakespeare, even at his most modest and self deprecating, could have accused himself of a lack of wit. The intimacy suggested by the word 'ingrafted' is huge. Shakespeare here takes on the attributes of his young friend by feeding from the same root.

Remains to be seen what his young friend thinks of this.