Sonnet 96 argues that the young man’s charm turns his faults into graces in other people’s eyes, which gives him a dangerous power to lead admirers astray, and the speaker asks him not to use it because the young man’s good name is now the speaker’s own.
Sonnet 96: Full Poem
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;
Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;
Both grace and faults are lov’d of more and less:
Thou mak’st faults graces that to thee resort.
As on the finger of a throned queen
The basest jewel will be well esteem’d,
So are those errors that in thee are seen
To truths translated, and for true things deem’d.
How many lambs might the stern wolf betray,
If like a lamb he could his looks translate!
How many gazers mightst thou lead away,
If thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state!
But do not so; I love thee in such sort,
As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 96 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 96 Means
Sonnet 96 continues the worry of Sonnet 95. People are talking about the young man, and they do not agree about what they see. The speaker’s point is that it hardly matters what they say, because the young man has a gift for making anything about himself look attractive.
The first quatrain sets out the gossip. Some people say his fault is youth, and some say it is “wantonness,” a taste for pleasure and loose behavior. Others say that his youth and “gentle sport” are exactly what make him graceful. Both his graces and his faults are loved by “more and less,” people of high and low rank alike. Whatever faults come to him, he turns into graces.
The second quatrain explains this with a simile. On the finger of a queen sitting on her throne, even the cheapest jewel is admired. In the same way, the young man’s errors are “To truths translated,” changed into virtues and taken for “true things.” It is the setting, not the stone, that people value.
The third quatrain moves from admiration to alarm. A wolf could betray many lambs if it could make itself look like a lamb. The young man, with the full “strength” of his “state,” could lead many “gazers” away. The comparison casts the young man as someone whose appeal could be used to deceive.
The couplet asks him not to. “But do not so,” the speaker says, because he loves the young man “in such sort,” in such a way, that the young man belongs to him, and so the young man’s “good report,” his reputation, belongs to the speaker too. These two lines are word for word the couplet of the earlier Sonnet 36.
Sonnet 96 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 96 belongs with the poems around it that worry about the young man’s reputation, and its themes come from the gap between how he behaves and how he is seen.
Charm That Transforms Faults
The poem’s central claim is in line 4: “Thou mak’st faults graces that to thee resort.” The young man does not hide his faults. They are seen, talked about, and argued over. But the act of being attached to him changes them. Youth, which some call a fault, others call a grace. The queen’s jewel in the second quatrain makes the same point: it is the wearer, not the object, that gives value. Sonnet 95 describes the same effect, with the young man’s beauty turning gossip into “a kind of praise.”
The Power to Deceive
The third quatrain names what this charm could become. A wolf that looked like a lamb would be able to “betray” lambs, and the young man, using “the strength of all thy state,” could “lead away” his admirers. The image recalls the familiar gospel warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing. The speaker does not accuse the young man of doing this. He describes the power the young man holds and imagines how it could be misused, much as Sonnet 94 considers those who “have power to hurt.” For more on how these concerns recur, see the guide to Shakespeare’s major themes.
Shared Reputation
The couplet makes a claim about love and identity. The speaker loves the young man so fully that, “thou being mine,” the young man’s “good report” becomes the speaker’s own. The young man’s reputation is not just his to spend. Any damage he does to his name, the speaker will feel as damage to himself. This gives the plea its force, since the speaker is asking on his own behalf as well as the young man’s.
Form and Language
Sonnet 96 moves from balanced reporting to vivid comparison to a direct request, and its key words shift meaning along the way.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem follows the usual Shakespearean pattern of three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter, and its rhymes are full throughout. The first quatrain’s rhymes, “wantonness” and “less,” and “sport” and “resort,” come back in the couplet’s “sort” and “report,” which gives the ending a sense of returning to the gossip where the poem began. For more on these patterns, see the guide to meter and rhyme in the sonnets.
“Some Say” and Balanced Lines
The opening two lines are built in parallel: “Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness; / Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport.” The repetition of “Some say” makes the speaker sound like a reporter collecting opinions. The same quality, youth, appears as both “fault” and “grace,” and this balance shows that what people disagree about is not the young man’s conduct but how to judge it. Line 3 then collapses the difference: “Both grace and faults are lov’d.”
“Translated”
The verb “translate” appears twice in the poem. In line 8, the young man’s errors are “To truths translated,” changed into something else. In line 10, the wolf would “his looks translate,” altering its appearance. In Shakespeare’s English, “translate” could mean to transform as well as to carry from one language to another. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Bottom appears with an ass’s head, Quince cries, “Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated.” The repetition links the two quatrains: the change that makes the young man’s errors look like truths is the same kind of change that would let a wolf pass as a lamb. For more on words whose meanings have shifted, see the glossary of archaic words.
The Queen’s Jewel
The simile of lines 5 and 6 is carefully chosen. A “throned queen” is at the top of the social order, and anything she wears takes on her prestige. The “basest jewel,” the least valuable stone, is “well esteem’d” because of where it sits. The simile implies that the young man’s faults are like cheap stones, admired only because of their setting.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 96 begins as a defense of the young man and ends by showing how dangerous the thing being defended is.
The first eight lines appear to take the young man’s side. Whatever people say, the speaker argues, the young man’s faults become graces, and people high and low, “more and less,” love him regardless. This sounds like a reassurance. But the reasoning has a troubling implication. If the young man’s errors are “for true things deem’d,” then people can no longer tell his errors from his virtues. The queen’s cheap jewel is admired, but it is still cheap. The simile defends the young man by admitting that his faults are real and that others are being fooled.
The third quatrain draws out that implication. Once the speaker has said that the young man can make errors look like truths, the next step is to imagine what a person with that skill could do. The wolf and the lambs make the danger explicit. The repetition of “translate” ties the two ideas together, so that the young man’s charm and the wolf’s disguise appear as versions of one power. The speaker has moved, almost without seeming to, from praising the young man to fearing him.
The couplet’s request, “But do not so,” is therefore a response to a threat the speaker himself has raised. It is gentle, and it rests on love rather than moral argument. The speaker does not say that misleading people would be wrong. He says that it would hurt him, because the young man’s reputation and his own are bound together.
The repetition of Sonnet 36’s couplet adds a further layer. In Sonnet 36, the lines close a poem in which the speaker keeps his distance in public to protect the young man from the speaker’s own “bewailed guilt.” Here, the same words close a poem about the young man’s faults. Why the couplet appears twice is not known. Some readers treat it as a deliberate echo, others as an accident in the text. Read as an echo, it suggests that the positions have been reversed: the reputation now in danger is the young man’s, and the speaker now has a share in it.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 96, answered briefly.
Who Is Sonnet 96 Addressed To?
The young man of the Fair Youth sonnets. Sonnets 1 to 126 are generally read as addressed to him, and this poem’s concern with his faults continues the theme of Sonnet 95.
Why Is the Couplet of Sonnet 96 the Same as Sonnet 36?
No one knows for certain. The two couplets use the same words. Some readers think the repetition is deliberate, linking two poems about reputation, while others suspect an error in the text.
What Does “More and Less” Mean in Sonnet 96?
It means people of higher and lower rank, the great and the humble. The speaker is saying that the young man’s graces and faults are loved by people across society.
What Is the Wolf and Lamb Image About?
It describes the young man’s power to deceive. A wolf that could look like a lamb could betray many lambs, and the young man, using his full charm and status, could “lead away” many admirers. The speaker imagines the danger without saying the young man has acted on it.
Where Is the Volta in Sonnet 96?
At line 13, with “But do not so.” After twelve lines describing the young man’s power to transform faults and mislead admirers, the speaker turns to ask him not to use it.
Related Sonnets
Three nearby sonnets share this poem’s concern with the young man’s charm, reputation, and power.