Sonnet 66 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young
man.

Sonnet 66 is a world-weary, desperate list of grievances of the state of the poet's society. The
speaker criticizes three things: general unfairness of life, societal immorality, and oppressive
government. Lines 2 and 3 illustrate the economic unfairness caused by one's station or nobility:

As, to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

Lines 4-7 portray disgraced trust and loyalty, unfairly given authority, as by an unworthy king
"Gilded honour shamefully misplaced", and female innocence corrupted "Maiden virtue rudely
strumpeted". Lines 8, 10, and 12, as in lines 2 and 3, characterize reversals of what one deserves,
and what one actually receives in life.

As opposed to most of his sonnets, which have a "turn" in mood or thought at line 9, (the beginning
of the third quatrain (See: Sonnets 29, 18) the mood of Sonnet 66 does not change until the last line,
when the speaker declares that the only thing keeping him alive is his lover. This stresses the fact
that his lover is helping him merely survive, whereas sonnets 29 and 30 are much more positive and
have 6 lines in which they affirm that the lover is the fulfillment of the poet's life.

Original Text Modern Text

Because Im tired of all of these things, I cry out
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
for restful death: deserving people destined to be
As to behold desert a beggar born,
beggars, and worthless people dressed up in
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
fancy clothes, and sacred vows broken, and
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
rewards and honors shamefully bestowed on the
And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
wrong people, and chaste women turned into
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
whores, and people perfectly in the right
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
disgraced with slander, and the strong disabled
And strength by limping sway disabld,
by authorities who are weak, and artists silenced
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
by authority, and fools controlling the wise like
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
a doctor does the sick, and simple truth mistaken
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
for simplemindedness, and good enslaved by
And captive good attending captain ill.
evil. Im tired of all these things and would like
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
to escape them, except that if I die Ill be
Save that to die, I leave my love alone.
leaving the person I love all alone.