SONNET 118	PARAPHRASE
Like as, to make our appetite more keen,	Just as we awaken our appetite
With eager compounds we our palate urge;	with sharp tastes,
As, to prevent our maladies unseen,	and as a prevention against unseen illnesses,
We sicken to shun sickness when we purge -	we 'sicken' our selves with purges -
Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness,	So being full of your sweetness
To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;	I added bitter sauces to my 'diet',
And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness	and with this lack of health found a fitness
To be diseased ere that there was true needing.	in being sick before there was a real need.
Thus policy in love, t'anticipate	So in love, the anticpation
The ills that were not, grew to faults assur'd,	of ills led to faults,
And brought to medicine a healthful state	and I attempted to be healthy
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur'd.	by a corruption of good and thus be 'cured'.
But thence I learn and find the lesson true,	But I have learned that the drug (of infidelty)
Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.	poisoned me whose sickness was my love for you.