Sonnet 93
So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
suspicion
fidelity
appearance
self-deception
So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceived husband; so love's face
May still seem love to me, though alter'd new;
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place:
For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
In many's looks the false heart's history
Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange,
But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell;
Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be,
Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,
if thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!
What It Means
Shakespeare admits he's living on an assumption. He believes the young man is faithful because the young man's face shows nothing but love. But faces can lie. A heart can hold evil while a face wears beauty. He cannot read betrayal in the face he loves. So he will live in the assumption of faithfulness, even knowing it might be false. It's a deliberately unresolved sonnet — a meditation on the impossibility of knowing another person fully.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence.
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