- Apr 2016
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www.opensourceshakespeare.org www.opensourceshakespeare.org
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O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are No longer yours than you yourself here live: Against this coming end you should prepare, And your sweet semblance to some other give. So should that beauty which you hold in lease 5 Find no determination: then you were Yourself again after yourself's decease, When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, Which husbandry in honour might uphold 10 Against the stormy gusts of winter's day And barren rage of death's eternal cold? O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know You had a father: let your son say so.
Rhyme scheme: Are(a) live(b) prepare(a) give(b) lease(c) were(d) decease(c) bear(d) decay(e) uphold(f) day(e) cold(f) know(g) so(g)
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O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
Only an irresponsible person would let a beautiful house fall apart.
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Which husbandry in honour might uphold 10 Against the stormy gusts of winter's day And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
A responsible person could easily care for the house through disasters and death.
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When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Again, Shakespeare is saying that her life will be carried on by her children.
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then you were Yourself again after yourself's decease,
After she dies her children will carry on her life. Her life will remain because her children are alive.
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O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Her identity will only be with her while she is alive. When she dies her identity is gone.
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So should that beauty which you hold in lease 5 Find no determination:
This means that when she dies her beauty will be carried on through her child. Her beauty will never die because it is carried on through her children.
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Against this coming end you should prepare, And your sweet semblance to some other give.
Shakespeare is saying that she needs to prepare for her death and have a child. She should let her life live on through her child.
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Who lets so fair a house fall to decay
House is referring to a family. Shakespeare is asking the rhetorical question of: Who would let a family fall apart?
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