Sonnet 54

OF this worlds Theatre in which we stay,

My love, lyke the spectator, ydly sits

Beholding me, that all the pageants play,

Disguysing diversly my troubled wits.

Sometimes I joy, when glad occasion fits,

And mask1 in myrth lyke to a comedy:

Soone after, when my joy to sorrow flits,

I waile, and make my woes a Tragedy.

Yet she, beholding me with constant eye2,

Delights not in my merth, nor rues3 my smart4:

But when I laugh, she mocks, and when I cry

She laughes, and hardens evermore her hart.

What then can move her? yf nor merth, nor mone5,

She is no woman, but a sencelesse stone.

注释：1.mask：戴面具。

2.eye：女人总是被看成水性杨花。

3.rues：可惜。

4.smart：伤害。

5.mone：呻吟，哼；〔古、诗〕悲叹，哭。