Download Sonnet 4

Sonnet 4
By;
Autumn Morton
&
Shawna Young
Background
• Sonnets 1-126 were written to the Fair Young Man
• In this sonnet Shakespeare is addressing the Fair young Man
and asking why he isn’t sharing his beauty with the rest of the
world and settling down to have children who will share his
beauty with the world.
• He says that he is abusing the gift he was given by nature,
because he is not sharing it: “why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give.”
• Shakespeare also points out that when he dies, he will leave
behind no legacy: “What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee.”
Original
• Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free.
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traffic with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.
Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee,
Which, used, lives th' executor to be.
Troublesome Vocabulary
Unthrifty (1): wasteful or unprofitable.
beauty's legacy (2): the beauty passed down to you
(that should extend to your children). Your beauty is
but a loan from nature: you must not hoard it.
frank (4): generous.
free (4): liberal/generous.
niggard (5): miser.
usurer (7): moneylender.
traffic with thyself alone (9): A moneylender would
not turn a profit if he lent only to himself.
th' executor to be (14): the child he would bear.
Analysis
•
•
Lines 1-2: In the first lines Shakespeare is asking why the Fair Young Man is only
sharing his beauty with himself and why he hasn’t settled down to start having kids
who he can pass on his beauty’s legacy to.
Lines 3-4: Nature’s does not give the gifts, she only lends them, and usually to
those who are free with them. Shakespeare is saying nature didn’t give him this gift
for himself, she lent it to him so that it could be shared with the world.
•
•
Lines 5-6: He then asks why this stingy and selfish individual has abused the gifts
given to him by nature, that he in turn was supposed to share with the world.
Line 7-8: Shakespeare compares the Fair Young Man with a “profitless usurer.” A
usurer in his time was a money lender. He’s saying he isn’t doing his job, which
would be to lend his beauty/gifts to the world through procreation. Money lenders
always had a great sum of money at their disposal and so by saying he can’t live on
it is saying that while he has a wealth of beauty now, it won’t be there in the future.
Analysis
• Lines 9-10: By keeping to himself and not marrying he is
depriving/cheating himself out of having children, who are a part of
himself.
• Lines 11-12: In this line, Shakespeare asks him what record he can provide
of his life and accomplishments when he dies if he has nothing to show of
himself when he leaves the earth.
• Lines 13-14(Heroic Couplet): in the closing couplet Shakespeare is saying
that any children he could have had will be buried with him because he was
selfish and kept to himself by never marrying.
Modern Translation
• You wasteful lovely person, why are you spending all of your
beauty on yourself? Nature doesn’t give us anything; she only
lends us the gifts we get at birth, and, being generous herself,
she lends the most to people who are generous themselves. So,
you beautiful miser, why do you abuse the bountiful gifts that
were given to you to share with others? Why do you insist on
being such a bad investor, using up the immense treasure you
have to offer the world but unable to support yourself or
preserve your memory? By only having dealings with
yourself, you’re cheating yourself out of the best part of
yourself. Then how, when nature says it’s time for you to go,
will you be able to give an acceptable account of how you
spent your time and beauty? Your unused beauty will have to
be buried with you. But if you used that beauty now, it would
stay behind once you were gone and preserve your legacy.
Paraphrase
• In Sonnet 4 Shakespeare is addressing the Fair Young
Man and is berating him for not settling down and
having kids. He wants him to share his beauty with
the world and to have something of himself left on
earth when he dies. He speaks of Nature and how she
only lends beauty for those to share and pass on to the
world. He compares him to a money lender who is
bad at his job and is keeping all the money instead of
giving it out and in a way cheating himself out of the
joys of life.