Sonnet 10: “Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate”

For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any

Who for thy self art so unprovident;

Grant if thou wilt, thou art belov’d of many,

But that thou none lov’st is most evident.

For thou art so possess’d with murd’rous hate,

That ’gainst thy self thou stick’st not to conspire,

Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate

Which to repair should be thy chief desire.

O change thy thought, that I may change my mind,

Shall hate be fairer lodg’d than gentle love?

Be as thy presence is, gracious and kind,

Or to thy self at least kind hearted prove.

     Make thee another self for love of me,

     That beauty still may live in thine or thee.

“Sonnet 10 sounds like a reply to Y.M.’s response to Sonnet 9…

“The structure of Sonnet 10 is similar to Sonnet 9: premise in the first two lines, counterargument in the next six lines, new argument in the next four lines, then a two-line conclusion. It’s the new argument that’s different: ‘Change your mind about not having a child, which shows that you hate yourself. Everybody loves you, who are the most beautiful—should hatred come from someone more beautiful than love does? Be as kind as you appear—have a child to show you love me.’ (That explains the change from shame in Sonnet 9 to hate in Sonnet 10.) This gives us a clue to what Y.M.’s response to Sonnet 9 might have been. He might have said something like this: ‘How could you say I bear love to no one? Look at all the friends I have. I love all my friends, including you.’ W. responds by saying, ‘Please have a child. I can’t think well of you if you don’t. Let me think better of you, as you deserve. Do this for the love you say you bear me.’… 

“We started to hear a hint of care in Sonnets 5 and 6. Now with the first use of the word me that care has become certain—there is a loving relationship at some level between these two. After the stern opening of Sonnet 10, the gentle tone of the couplet comes as a welcome relief. Is this how Y.M. reacts to it? I wonder.”

—Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends, p. 36-37 (publication date Oct. 1, 2021)