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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873)

That thou hast her it is not all my...
Language: English 
Our translations:  ITA
That thou hast her it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;
That she hath thee is of my wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders thus I will excuse ye:
Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I love her;
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross:
      But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;
      Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 42 [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 Hans-Jürgen von Bose (b. 1953), "Shakespeare Sonnet No. XLII", 1985, published [1987], first performed 1986 [ baritone and string quartet ], Mainz : Schott [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet XLII", 1865 [ medium voice or low 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. 42, first published 1857
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Che tu possieda lei non è tutto il mio tormento", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 130

Qu'elle soit à toi, ce n'est pas là tout...
Language: French (Français)  after the English 
Qu'elle soit à toi, ce n'est pas là tout mon chagrin ; 
et cependant on peut dire que je l'ai bien aimée ; 
mais que tu sois à elle, voilà ma suprême douleur : 
cette perte d'amour-là me touche de bien plus près.
Ô mes offenseurs chéris, voici comment je vous excuse ; 
toi, tu l'aimes, parce que tu sais que je l'aime ; 
elle, c'est encore pour moi qu'elle me trompe 
en permettant à mon ami de l'apprécier à cause de moi.
Si je te perds, ma perte fait le gain de ma bien-aimée ; 
et, si je la perds, c'est mon ami qui profite de la perte ; 
si je vous perds tous deux, tous deux vous vous trouvez ensemble, 
et c'est encore pour mon bénéfice que vous me faites porter cette croix.
  Ce qui me console, c'est que mon ami et moi, nous ne faisons qu'un : 
  douce flatterie ! il n'y a donc que moi qu'elle aime.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by François-Victor Hugo (1828 - 1873), no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 42, first published 1857 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 42
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-08-17
Line count: 14
Word count: 152

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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