Sonnet 35
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
betrayal
forgiveness
love
complicity
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense--
Thy adverse party is thy advocate--
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate
That I an accessary needs must be
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
What It Means
Shakespeare reverses himself. Stop grieving, he tells the young man, roses have thorns, springs have mud, all perfection has its corruption. Shakespeare makes excuses for whatever wrong was done, then turns the accusation on himself: by making excuses for you, I become an accessory. My love for you is at war with my sense of right and wrong, and I'm trying to be your lawyer while you stole from me. It's a remarkably honest self-examination.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence, the third in the sequence dealing with the young man's wrongdoing (33–35). Scholars debate what the wrong was, possible infidelity with Shakespeare's own mistress.
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