Sonnet 144
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
duality
corruption
jealousy
angels
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend
Suspect I may, but not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
What It Means
Shakespeare has two loves: the 'better angel' (the fair young man, comfort) and the 'worser spirit' (the dark woman, despair). The angel is being seduced by the woman, who is trying to convert him from white to black. Shakespeare can't see what's happening — only suspect it. He won't know whether the angel has been corrupted until he gets a venereal disease, which will be the evidence.
Context
Part of both sequences — Sonnet 144 explicitly names both the fair youth and the dark lady. It is the clearest triangulation in the entire sonnet sequence.
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