They That Have Power to Hurt and Will Do None is the first line of Sonnet 94 by the great English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
The sonnets were published in 1609, after Shakespeare had already established himself as a playwright. He probably composed the verses over a number of years, though their dates are unknown. Shakespeare wrote a sequence of 154 sonnets, but some scholars think a different poet composed Sonnets 153 and 154, those focused on Cupid, the Roman god of love. Only two of the sonnets were published before 1609, in the anthology The Passionate Pilgrim (1599). See Shakespeare, William.
Like almost all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sonnet 94 consists of three quatrains (four-line units) followed by a concluding couplet (two-line unit). Each quatrain has a rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, with the final couplet a rhyming one (gg).
They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow; They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces, And husband nature’s riches from expense; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others but stewards of their excellence. The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet, Though to itself it only live and die; But if that flower with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity: For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
Sonnet 94 is one of the most widely discussed of Shakespeare’s sonnets because of its complexity and multiple meanings. The sonnet begins as an apparent tribute to a certain type of person—detached, dignified, “unmoved” in the fray of human interchange. Yet it ends with one of the most savage critical statements of the entire sonnet sequence.
This sonnet is one of a large group (numbers 1 to 126) that are addressed to a young nobleman. Although the young man’s identity is unknown, his youth, beauty, and aristocratic position are made clear throughout this group of sonnets. Although some of the sonnets depict a fulfilling friendship, many express the pains and sorrows of unrequited love. This imbalance is often depicted as a result of the young friend’s greater beauty, youth, and elevated social standing. Many of the sonnets convincingly find ways to compensate for this state of affairs. But this sonnet seems to do the opposite. Ultimately, it hints at the “basest” of corruption in the behavior it seems, at first, to compliment.
Many critics read this sonnet as an ongoing argument that the speaker has with himself. The fundamental question he addresses is whether a position of cool detachment is admirable, or defensible, in a human being. Although the sonnet does not directly address the young friend, most critics assume that he is the subject of the poem. The speaker appears to begin with a defense of his friend’s manner, but uses language that allows for alternative meanings. Line 2 praises the self-possession of those who “do not do the thing they most do show,” but also hints at the hypocrisy of such deception. Similarly, the comparison to stone in line 3 seems to compliment unemotional control but then points to the coldness of such an attitude.
The role of aristocratic bearing, which Shakespeare develops in the second quatrain, is also related to theme of emotional detachment. On one level, Shakespeare is simply describing facial control in lines 5 to 8. But in doing so, he also refers to inheritance, aristocratic control of land, and “lords and owners” as opposed to mere “stewards.” Personal detachment is portrayed as a characteristic of aristocracy.
The final extended metaphor, which begins in the third quatrain, develops the image of a flower. Within the speaker’s wavering argument, this image seems a fresh attempt to defend the attitude of indifference. He describes a flower that lives and dies only for itself but also contributes to the summer’s sweetness. But this metaphor then turns on itself. “Base infection” can reduce the finest flower to a level far lower than the “basest weed.” In other words, the baseness of corruption is far worse than the baseness of lowly birth.
If there is any sympathy toward the youth, now depicted as a rotting flower, it lies in the suggestion that “infection” has come from elsewhere. Nevertheless, actions are what define a person—the “sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds.” There can be no doubt where ultimate responsibility for corruption lies. The concluding couplet is relentless in its emphasis on such corruption, using a double image of decay to underline its point. Sweet things turn sour; noble flowers are debased by their own rottenness: “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”
For more information about Shakespeare’s sonnets, see Shakespeare, William (Shakespeare’s poems). See also English literature (Elizabethan poetry); Poetry (Forms) (Renaissance poetry).
