’Tis better to be vile than vile esteem’d,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deem’d
Not by our feeling, but by others’ seeing:
For why should others’ false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am, and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown;
Unless this general evil they maintain,
All men are bad and in their badness reign.
In plain English
It's actually better to *be* bad than to be *thought* bad when you're innocent. When people accuse you of something you didn't do, they rob you of the pleasure you actually deserve—not because you feel guilty, but because their judgment taints it.
Why should I care what other people's warped eyes make of my natural appetites? Why should weak, judgmental people get to define my flaws as evil when I see them differently? They're just projecting their own corruption onto me.
I know who I am. When people attack my behaviour, they're really just cataloguing their own sins. I can be honest and straight while they're twisted. I won't let their toxic minds dictate how my actions should be seen—unless they want to argue that everyone is corrupt and thriving in their own badness.
