Sonnet 124
If my dear love were but the child of state,
love
constancy
politics
fate
If my dear love were but the child of state,
It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd'
As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gather'd.
No, it was builded far from accident;
It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls
Under the blow of thralled discontent,
Whereto the inviting time our fashion calls:
It fears not policy, that heretic,
Which works on leases of short-number'd hours,
But all alone stands hugely politic,
That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers.
To this I witness call the fools of time,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime.
What It Means
If Shakespeare's love had been born of political circumstance — favoritism, flattery, opportunism — it could be undone by the same forces. But it isn't. It's above fortune and fashion. It was not built by opportunity and cannot be dismantled by adversity. It's a love that would have existed even in a time of heresy, and it survives as a 'fool' to any force that tries to take it down.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The political language suggests a context of court intrigue or religious conflict, though the specific reference is unclear.
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