Sonnet 4 By; Autumn Morton & Shawna Young

Background Sonnets 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.