Sonnet 142

The Dark Lady: Reckoning

Notes

TLN 1980archaic vocab
“seal'd false bonds of love as oft as mine, Robb'd others' beds' revenues of their rents”
Both lines use legal and financial language for infidelity. To 'seal' a bond was to press a wax seal onto a contract to make it binding; 'false bonds' are fraudulent contracts — promises of love made without intent to keep them. 'Revenues of their rents' means income rightfully belonging to others: the faithfulness owed to a spouse or partner. By calling adultery 'robbery,' the speaker treats it as a property crime against a third party, framing both himself and the Dark Lady as serial defaulters on love's obligations.
TLN 1982syntax grammar
“Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those Whom thine eyes woo”
'Be it lawful' is a subjunctive construction meaning 'let it be granted' or 'let it be considered permissible' — closer to 'grant that it is lawful for me to love you.' The legal idiom continues from the bonds-and-revenues metaphor of the preceding quatrain: the speaker frames his desire as a petition before a court. The argument of lines 9-10 is: you pursue others with your eyes just as my eyes importune you — so by your own standard, my love for you should be allowed.