Page 2068 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

122 IT

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain

Full charactered with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain
Beyond all date even to eternity,
Or, at the least, so long as brain and heart

Have faculty by nature to subsist,
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be missed.
That poor retention could not so much hold,

Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score,
Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
To trust those tables that receive thee more:
To keep an adjunct to remember thee

Were to import forgetfulness in me.