William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

Verse > Anthologies > William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. > The Book of Elizabethan Verse

CONTENTS · GLOSSARY · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt

By William Shakespeare (1564–1616)


THEN 1 hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah! do not, when my heart hath ’scaped this sorrow,	5
Come in the rearward of a conquer’d woe; 2
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite,	10
But in the onset come: so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune’s might;
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, 3
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so!

Note 1. Sonnet xc. Shake-speare’s Sonnettes, 1609. See Sonnet lxxxix., of which this sonnet takes up the last word, pleading pathetically for hatred; for the worst, speedily, if at all. (Dowden.) [back]

Note 2. The rearward of a conquer’d woe: cf. Much Ado about Nothing, act iv. sc. 1:

	Thought I thy spirit were stronger than thy flames,
	Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
	Strike at thy life.

[back]

Note 3. And other strains of woe: cf. Much Ado about Nothing, act v. sc. 1:

	Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine
	And let it answer every strain for strain.

[back]

CONTENTS · GLOSSARY · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.

Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry