Sonnet 120: That you were once unkind befriends me now

1That you were once unkind befriends me now,

2And for that sorrow, which I then did feel,

3Needs must I under my transgression bow,

4Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel.

5For if you were by my unkindness shaken,

6As I by yours, you've pass'd a hell of time;

7And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken

8To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime.

9O! that our night of woe might have remember'd

10My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,

11And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd

12The humble salve, which wounded bosoms fits!

13 But that your trespass now becomes a fee;

14 Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.