Shakespeare's Sonnets (1923) Yale/Text/Sonnet 96
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For other versions of this work, see Sonnet 96 (Shakespeare).
96
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;
Both grace and faults are lov'd of more and less:
Thou mak'st faults graces that to thee resort. 4
As on the finger of a throned queen
The basest jewel will be well esteem'd,
So are those errors that in thee are seen
To truths translated and for true things deem'd. 8
How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,
If like a lamb he could his looks translate!
How many gazers mightst thou lead away,
If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state! 12
But do not so; I love thee in such sort,
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
3 more and less: high and low
8 translated: changed
12 state: grandeur, beauty (?)
13, 14 Cf. n.