Sonnet 95: How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame

1How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame

2Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,

3Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!

4O! in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose.

5That tongue that tells the story of thy days,

6Making lascivious comments on thy sport,

7Cannot dispraise, but in a kind of praise;

8Naming thy name, blesses an ill report.

9O! what a mansion have those vices got

10Which for their habitation chose out thee,

11Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot

12And all things turns to fair that eyes can see!

13 Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege;

14 The hardest knife ill-us'd doth lose his edge.