I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here;
Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear,
The which read more

I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here;
Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear,
The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood
Which breathed this poison.

If I can do it
By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
She shall not read more

If I can do it
By aught that I can speak in his dispraise,
She shall not long continue love to him.

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defense

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defense

. . . For slander lives upon succession,
For ever housed where it gets possession.

. . . For slander lives upon succession,
For ever housed where it gets possession.

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking read more

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.

And truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with. One doth not know
How read more

And truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with. One doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking.

Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.

Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense.

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense.

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
read more

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater, being wooed of time;
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.