Dark Lady (Shakespeare)

"The Dark Lady" redirects here. For other uses, see Dark Lady.

The Dark Lady is a woman described in Shakespeare's sonnets (sonnets 127–152), and so called because the poems make it clear that she has black wiry hair, and dark, "dun"-coloured skin. The description of the Dark Lady distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence by being overtly sexual. Among these, Sonnet 151 has been characterised as "bawdy" and is used to illustrate the difference between the spiritual love for the Fair Youth and the sexual love for the Dark Lady.[1] The distinction is commonly made in the introduction to modern editions of the sonnets.[1] As with the Fair Youth sequence, there have been many attempts to identify her with a real historical individual. A widely held scholarly opinion, however, is that the "dark lady" is nothing more than a construct of Shakespeare's imagination and art, and any attempt to identify her with a real person is "pointless".[2]

  1. ^ a b Matz, Robert (2008). The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-7864-3219-6.
  2. ^ Lasocki, David; Prior, Roger (1995). The Bassanos : Venetian musicians and instrument makers in England, 1531-1665. Abingdon, England: Routledge. pp. 114–6. ISBN 9780859679435.