Original artwork, not a still
As You Like It · 1623
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Beauty is compared with wealth through their power to attract someone willing to steal. The comparison gives an admired quality a dangerous consequence: desirability can invite possession by force. Sooner places beauty ahead of gold in that unsettling measure of what provokes a thief.
Context reviewed
