1. Sonnet 121 2. 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be receives reproach of being, 3. And the just pleasure lost which is so deemed Not by our feeling but by others' seeing. 4. For why should others' false adulterate eyes Give salutation to my sportive blood? 5. Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, Which in their wills count bad what I think good? 6. No, I am that I am, and they that level At my abuses reckon up their own; 7. I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel. By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown, 8. Unless this general evil they maintain: All men are bad, and in their badness reign. 9. Sources Shakespeare statue, by sret/flickr, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Doctor Evil, by Greg Mote/flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) Paparazzi, by Benmil222/Wikimedia Commons, Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license Guy Faux Masked Man, Anonymous9000/flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) Spy vs Spy, by Terry Robinson/flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) Shakespeare Bust, by fractalznet/flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BYSA 3.0) Lego Batman, by Thibault/flickr, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) Mad scientist, by AhNinniah/openclipart, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Weiser, David K. (1978). Theme and Structure in Shakespeare's Sonnet 121. Studies in Philology, 75(2), 142-162