Sonnet 121

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,When not to be receives reproach of being;And the just pleasure lost, which is so deem'dNot by our feeling, but by others' seeing: 4For why should others' false adulterate eyesGive salutation to my sportive blood?Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,Which in their wills count bad what I think good? 8No, I am that I am, and they that levelAt my abuses reckon up their own:I may be straight though they themselves be bevel;By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown; 12Unless this general evil they maintain,All men are bad and in their badness reign.

3, 4 Cf. n.6 Give salutation to: greet (as if Shakespeare were one of them)sportive: wanton8 in their wills: as they please11 bevel: oblique