First Quatrain: “Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press”
In the first quatrain of sonnet 140, the speaker, addresses the “dark lady,” insisting that she refrain from straining his patience with her cruelty and disdain. He suggests that if she continues in her hateful actions, he will be forced to lash out at her. Heretofore, he has remained “tongue-tied” and holding his emotions in check for her sake.
If she will not take his advice to be as “wise” as she is “cruel,” his “sorrow” will motivate him to untie that tongue and express his suppressed pain, and he will let loose without pity for her feelings. He reveals that his “patience” is wearing thin and cautions her lest she suffer his wrath. The reader will snicker at these threats, wondering, “what is he going to do? talk her to death.”
Second Quatrain: “If I might teach thee wit, better it were”
The speaker, while remaining civil, does get in a zap here and there. By condescendingly remarking, “If I might teach thee wit,” he implies that she is really too dull to be taught wit by him. But if, by chance, he could teach her to be clever, it would be better that they were not lovers. But because they are in relationship, he insists that she has to tell him what she means, because he is unable to glean her obfuscating communications.
The speaker then likens his feelings for her to a sick man who can only hear good health news form his doctor. He feels no compunction for admitting that he remains in denial because of his continuing lust for his mistress.
Third Quatrain: “For, if I should despair, I should grow mad”
The speaker then tells the woman that he would become mentally unstable if he sank into “despair.” And from that “madness,” he “might speak ill of [her].” He then evaluates the world in general claiming that it has “grown so bad”; it plucks evil from every corner. He does not want to become a “mad slanderer[ ],” because he thinks that the world would believe him even though he knows he would probably be exaggerating.
He is warning her that if he does eventually explode and start denouncing the woman, her reputation will be further diminished, because of the world’s appetite for gossip.
The Couplet: “That I may not be so, nor thou belied”
The speaker then concludes that if the lady will just keep her eyes on him for a change, he will not have to become this raving madman railing against her. Even if she continues to flirt and carouse with others, if she will just keep her “eyes straight,” in the presence of others, he will overlook the fact that her straight eyes belie her “proud heart” that roams wide.
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