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Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain;
Lest sorrow lend me words, and words express
The manner of my pity-wanting pain.
If I might teach thee wit, better it were,
Though not to love, yet, love to tell me so; --
As testy sick men, when their deaths be near,
No news but health from their physicians know; --
For, if I should despair, I should grow mad,
And in my madness might speak ill of thee;
Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad,
Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be.
That I may not be so, nor thou belied,
Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 140 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet CXL", 1866 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 140, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-13
Line count: 14
Word count: 118
La tua crudeltà si accompagni a saggezza; non opprimere la mia muta pazienza con un eccessivo disprezzo al punto che il dolore mi spinga a parlare e a esprimere la misura della pena che a causa tua sopporto. Se posso darti un consiglio, meglio per te sarebbe, pur se non mi ami, che tu fingessi il tuo amore; come fa un medico che parla di guarigione, perché ne ha pietà, a un malato che muore. Perché, se non avessi più speranze, folle potrei diventare e, nella mia pazzia, di te potrei parlar male e questo mondo si è fatto perverso fino al punto che le calunnie più pazze sono credute vere. Perché ciò non avvenga, e tu non sia diffamata, tieni fermo il tuo sguardo anche se il tuo cuore muta.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2025 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 140
This text was added to the website: 2025-07-16
Line count: 14
Word count: 131
