"O that I were a foole, I am ambitious for a motley coat. _Duke_. Thou shalt haue one. _Jag_. It is my onely suite, Prouided that you weed your better judgements Of all opinion that growes ranke in them, That I am wise. I must haue liberty Wiithall, as large a Charter as the winde, To blow on whom I please, for so fooles haue: And they that are most gauled with my folly, They most must laugh.... Inuest me in my motley: Giue me leaue To speake my minde, and I will through and through Cleanse the foule bodie of th' infected world If they will patiently receiue my medicine." He also gives us most valuable information in Sonnet 81. Or I shall liue your Epitaph to make, Or you suruiue when I in earth am rotten, From hence your memory death cannot take, Although in me each part will be forgotten, Your name from hence immortall life shall haue, Though I (once gone) to all the world must dye, The Earth can yeeld me but a common graue, When you intombed in men's eyes shall lye, Your monument shall be my gentle verse, Which eyes not yet created shall ore read, And toungs to be, your being shall rehearse, When all the breathers of this world are dead, You still shall liue (such vertue hath my Pen) Where breath most breaths euen in the mouths of men. Stratfordians tell us that the above is written in reference to a poet whom Shakespeare "evidently" regarded as a rival. But it is difficult to imagine how sensible men can satisfy their reason with such an explanation. Is it possible to conceive that a poet should write _against a rival_ "Your name from hence immortall life shall haue Though I (once gone) to all the world must dye" or should say _against_ a _rival_, "The Earth can yeeld me but a common graue While you intombed in men's eyes shall lye." or should have declared "_against_ a _rival_," "Your monument shall be my gentle verse" No! This sonnet is evidently written in reference to the writer's mask or pseudonym which would continue to have immortal life (even though he himself might be forgotten) as he says "Although in me each part will be forgotten." It is sometimes said that Shakespeare (meaning the Stratford actor) did not know the value of his immortal works. Is that true of the writer of this sonnet who says "my gentle verse Which eyes not yet created shall ore read" No! The writer knew his verses were immortal and would immortalize the pseudonym attached to them "When all the breathers of this world are dead." Perhaps the reader will better understand Sonnet 81 if I insert the words necessary to fully explain it.