English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
Sonnet 129
In William Shakespeare, His Life and Work by Anthony Holden: "There would seem to be a subtext expressing Shakespeare's exasperation with the perils concomitant with sexual pleasure."
The Rough Guide to Shakespeare by Andrew Dickson: 'Spirit' can mean semen. Hell was Elizabethan slang for vagina.
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In Eric Partridge's Shakespeare's Bawdy: Bacon in Sylva Sylvarum writes: "It hath been observed by the ancients that much use of Venus doth dim the sight … The cause of dimness of sight is the expense of spirits".
"Waste" can also be read as "Waist".
Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action: and till action, lust Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had, Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad: Mad in pursuit and in possession so; Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme; A bliss in proof,-- and prov'd, a very woe; Before, a joy propos'd; behind a dream. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.