Sonnet 142
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
sin
hypocrisy
desire
cruelty
Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents.
Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lovest those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
What It Means
Shakespeare accuses his mistress of hypocrisy. She scorns him for his sin of loving her — but she does the same things. Her lips have been used as badly as his. She locks up her lips against him while giving them to others. His desire mirrors hers exactly, so her contempt for him is contempt for herself.
Context
Part of the Dark Lady sequence.
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