William Shakespeare, Sonnet cxxii
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full character'd with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain,
4
Beyond all date, even to eternity:
Or at the least so long as brain and heart
Have faculty by nature to subsist;
Till each to raz'd oblivion yield his part
8
Of thee, thy record never can be miss'd .
That poor retention could not so much hold, [*]
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;
Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
12
To trust those tables that receive thee more:
To keep an adjunct to remember thee,
Were to import forgetfulness in me.
Notes
line 9: Malone says, "That poor retention is the table-book given to him by his friend, incapable of retaining, or rather of containing, so much as the tablet of the brain." [ Back to text ]
Most notes to Shakespeare's sonnets are from Charles Knight's edition, but those in square brackets are mine.