Unthrifty loveliness, why doest thou spend
Sonnet 4Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thy self 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 thy self alone, Thou of thy self 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 tombed with thee, Which, used, lives th' executor to be. |
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Why, my lovely one, do you yourself spend all the inheritance of your own good looks? Nature didn’t give them to you, she lent them – and, being forthright herself, she only lends to those people who will in turn happily disperse her gifts.
In that case, you gorgeous miser, why are you abusing those gifts she gave you? In withholding your beauty [by not having children] it’s as if you’re hoarding money in usury without the profit: you’re sitting on a huge treasure, and can’t make any use of it at all.
In keeping yourself to yourself, you’re cheating your very self. When your life is at its end, what on earth will you have to say for yourself? Your never-shared beauty will be lost with you. Instead, if you share your beauty, it’ll live [in the form of a child] to carry on your wealth of good looks.