The Dark Lady in ShakespeareŒs Sonnets.

GCSE English

The Dark Lady in Shakespeare′s Sonnets

Index

Introduction
page 3

The Identification of the Dark Lady
page 4

Epilogue
page 11

Bibliography
page 13

Introduction

More than three and a half centuries ago there was a small volume, entitled "Shakespeare′s Sonnets: Never Before Imprinted", published in London. It contains 2155 lines and 1055 rhymes. There are 154 short poems, all except three which are regular sonnets of fourteen ten syllables lines and also a narrative poem called "A Lovers Complaint".
Most of the first 126 sonnets are clearly addressed to a young man (most likely Mr.W.H., who is mentioned in the dedication, see p.7), and seem to form one sequence, which is terminated by a poem of six couplets, not in sonnet form, which tells the story of a girl who has been seduced and abandoned by an attractive but hartless young man.1 Of the remaining twenty-eight, all except 129 and 146, in which the poet moralises on the themes of lust and human vanity, appear to have been written either to or about a mistress. She seems to be the same women referred to in the sonnets 33-35 and 40-42, which deal with a wrong done to the poet by his friend.2 The Sonnets 127-154 tell us about the theft of Shakespeare′s mistress by another man.3
The mistress is described as being black in her hair as well as in her eyes, her skin is dun, she has neither red lips nor rosy cheeks.

My mistress′ eyes are nothing like the sun, 130.1-6
Coral is far more red, than her lips red,
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun:
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head:
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks,

Therefore my mistress′ brows are raven black, 127.9-10
Her eyes so suited, ...

She is not only named Dark Lady because of her dark looks, but also because of her black moral character.4 Shakespeare describes her for example as cruel and tyrannous.
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art, 131.1-2
As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel...

As well as there have been many speculations about the identity of the man to whom Shakespeare addressed nearly all of the first 126 sonnets there have been speculations about the identity of the so called Dark Lady. No-one has yet been able to show convincingly whether the sonnets do or do not have autobiographical or topical character. So the Dark Lady might not been inspired by a real women at all but might have been a result of Shakespeare′s fantasy and imagination.
The time of publishing might also help us with the identification of the mysterious Dark Lady, in particular if the Sonnets were influenced by Shakespeare′s own life. Investigations have found that Sonnets 1 to 106 were likely been written between spring 1592 and winter 1594.5 One may add to these the Dark Lady Sonnets, 127-154, in so far they are linked with sonnets 33-35 and 40-42.6

Identification of the Dark Lady

There have been many speculations about the identity of the Dark Lady. Some literary critics believe that the Dark Lady is no portrait of a real woman at all, but a creature of the poet′s imagination, a sister of Rosaline in Love′s Labour′s Lost and a convincing illustration of the superiority of masculine friendship to physical passion.7 Katharine M. Wilson compares in her book "Shakespeare′s Sugared Sonnets" Shakespeare′s Sonnets with other poets poems of this time (e.g. by Sidney and Daniel) and therefore believes them to be parodies.8 She states that Shakespeare ,,...makes fun of the prevailing fashion rather than one particular person"9 in his Dark Lady Sonnets.
Other critics hold that the sonnets devoted to the Dark Lady were inspired by a real women. Because Queen Elizabeth influenced most of the love poetry during that time and many poets dedicated their poems to her, some critics, such as George Chalmers, believe Shakespeare addressed the Dark Lady Sonnets to the Queen.10 In this context the satirical poem "Willobie His Avisa", which contains references to Southampton and Shakespeare, should be mentioned. Some critics suggest that the "Avisa" of the poem, who drives so many suitors, such as Shakespeare′s friend Southampton, to despair by her chastity, represents Queen Elizabeth.11 they suggest that the words "...his familiar frend W.S. who not long before had tried the curtesy of the like passion ..." from "Willobie His Avisa" may indicate that Shakespeare had suffered some rebuff from the Queen, such as refusal of an office, before.12
In his sonnets Shakespeare gives not much hints from which one could draw any line to his biography. The Dark Lady is described as black-eyed and -haired. Black, the contrary of the ideal of beauty during this time, being a very strong word for ugliness. It has never been ascertained whether the Dark Lady is black only in her eyes and hair or whether her skin was coffee-coloured, too.13 That there were dark women in the brothels of Clerkwell, near to Shakespeare′s lodgings, seems evident from odd contemporary references.14 G.B. Harrison, followed by Leslie Hotson, in his "Shakespeare Under Elizabeth" (1933) asserts that the Dark Lady was a notorious brothel-keeper of the time.15 She was called Lucy Morgan, sometimes referred to as "Black Luce" or "Lady Negro, Abbess of Clerkwell".
Other suggestions have been that Shakespeare devoted the Dark Lady Sonnets to one of his mistresses.16 She was dark, in a period when being dark, either in skin or hair or eyes, was very unfashionable, but the poet glorifies her darkness.17 "Sonnets 127, 130, 131 and 132 are variations on the paradox that a women of dark complexion may yet be fair."18

I will swear beauty herself is black 132.13

Thy blacke is fairest in my judgements place. 131.12

In this case he might have wanted to show that even if his mistress is no beauty of her time his love for her is very strong. That Shakespeare disagrees with the existing ideal of beauty sonnet 127 might tell:

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I will swear beauty herself is black 132.13

Thy blacke is fairest in my judgements place. 131.12

In the old age black was not counted fair, 127
Or if it were, it bore not beauty′s name.
But now is black beauty′s successive heir,
And beauty slandered with a bastard shame.
For since each hand hath put on Nature′s power,
Fairing the foul with art′s false borrowed face,
Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,
But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.
Therefore my mistress′ brows are raven black,
Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem
At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,
Slandering Creation with false esteem.
Yet so they mourne, becoming of their woe,
That every tongue says beauty should look so.

Attempts at identification this mistress have included the name of Mrs. Jane Devenant, the wife of an Oxford vintner, who with her husband John kept a tavern at Oxford, where Shakespeare is supposed to have put up on his frequent trips between London and Stratford.19
Yet, the Sonnets tell us about a women who plays upon the virginals with professional skill. This makes us think of her as of a more wealthy and leisured or professional women.

How often when thou my music play′st, 128.1-2
Upon that blesséd wood whose motion sounds

During the time the Dark Lady Sonnets were probably written, Shakespeare had no entree into wealthy homes in London, but he was connected with the theatre, and so might she have been.20 There was a certain William Kempe member of the theatrical troupe and a famous instrumentalist who enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Leicester. It has been suggested that William Kempe was married and that his wife was herself an accomplished musician and had access to an instrument. Maybe she did not accompany her husband on his continental tour (Leicester took the players as part of his entourage as commander of the English forces fighting with the Netherlanders in their war of independence), and that she had a liaison with Shakespeare during that time.21 William Kempe became a partner of Shakespeare in the Lord Chamberlain′s Company eight years later, and the two men were apparently friends.
On the other hand it is very hard to imagine that any woman would be pleased with all of Shakespeare′s honest descriptions of her "black beauty".

And in some perfumes is there more delight, 130.7-12
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I knoe,
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

Besides this solution neglects the developing story in the Dark Lady Sonnets, in some sonnets Shakespeare insults his mistress of being cruel and tyrannous to him, in others there is another man involved, who seems to have stolen the mistress from Shakespeare.

So now I have confessed that he is thine, 134
And I myself an mortgaged to thy will.
Myself I′ll forfeit, so that other mine,
Thou wilt restore to be my covetous, and he is kind,
He learned but surety-like to write for me,
Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
The statue of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou usurer that put′st forth all to use,
And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake,
So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
Him have I lost, thou hast both him and me,
He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.

Sonnet 42 tells us that this man is one of Shakespeare′s friends:

Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her. 42.8-14
If I lose thee, my loss is my love′s gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found thath loss:
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross.
But here′s the joy, my friend and I are one
(sweet flattery): then she loves me alone.

The sonnets are prefaced by a puzzling dedication:

TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.
THESE.INSULTING.SONNETS.
MR.W.H..ALL.HAPPINESS.
AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.
PROMISED.
BY.
OUR.EVERLIVING.POET.
WISHETH.
THE.WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTURING.IN.
SETTING.
FORTH.

T.T.

We may assume that "Mr. W.H." to whom Shakespeare refers to in his dedication is the young man who inspired the sonnets.22 That there was only one such inspirer Shakespeare tells us in Sonnet 105:23

Sine all alike my songs praise be 105.3-4
Toone, of one, still such, and ever so.

From the fifth line of Sonnet 37 it seems that the young man was possessed of beauty, wealth and wit, and from two other sonnets that he was a patron of poets and writers.24

For whether beauty, birth, or worth and truth 37.5
So often have I invok′d thee for my Muse, 78.1-4
And found such faire assistance in my verse,
As every Alien pen hath got my use,
And under thee their poesie disperse.
I grant thou wert not married to my Muse, 82.1-4
And therefore maiest without attaint ore-looke
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their faire subject, blessing every booke.

Some have thought that the name of the other member of the triangle, as well as Shakespeare′s, was Will, because there is a "Will" mentioned in the sonnets 135 and 136. But this pun is simply on the cant meaning "Will" as sexual desire or sexual parts.25

Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will, 135.1-2
And Will to boot, and Will in over-plus,

The only such young men known to have given Shakespeare their patronage and who were also his friends, were Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton (to whom Venus and Adonis and the Rape of Lucrecre were dedicated), and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.26
We know that Shakespeare felt heavily for Elizabeth Vernon, Southampton′s mistress and later his wife, who seems to have neglected him.27
Furthermore the identification of Mistress Mary Fitton with the Dark Lady has been accepted by many reliable historians.28 Her claims were first advanced by Thomas Tyler, in a paper read in front of the New Shakespeare Society at its meeting on May 30, 1884, and defended at his "The Hebert-Fitton Theory of Shakespeare′s Sonnets" (1898). Those who accept Pembroke as the young aristocrat (Mr. W.H.) to whom Shakespeare addressed his sonnets find that the known facts of Mary Fitton′s career as a maid of honour at the queen′s court correspond to what Shakespeare tells us in the sonnets about the Dark Lady.29 Mary or Mall Fitton is said to have been Shakespeare′s mistress before she left him in favour of Pembroke.

Epilogue

Although there are some critics, who believe Shakespeare′s Dark Lady is only a product of the poet′s imagination, there have been many attempts to identify this mysterious women, with regard on Shakespeare′s biography. Many suspicions have been uttered, but neither one of them could be proved definitively, nor could one explain all the given facts in the Dark Lady Sonnets.
Some literary critics do not think it worth to take a closer look to the identification of this mistress as this quotation from Wait′s "The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets" shows:
"By the nature of things it is not to be expected that she would make a great mark on history, and speculations as to her identity are thus profitless."30
Other critics, like Anthony Burgess, believe it better to keep the lady anonymous for her own sake:
"It was an affair of lust not love, and the women is best thought to be kept anonymous, an instrument of elemental pleasure, then remorse."31
"It is best to keep the Dark Lady anonymous, even composite. ...The Sonnets make statements of permanent validity about some of the commonest experiences known to a man - obsession with a woman′s body, revulsion, pain in desertion, resignation at another′s treachery."32
To me Burgess′ suggestion that Shakespeare did not restrict himself to one love-affair, but that he had several liaisons and mistresses during his time in London, seems most likely.
"Shakespeare was a long time in London, and we cannot think that he limited himself to one affair."33 "What I mean is that it is tempting to associate Shakespeare′s pessimism and obsession with sexual excess and disease with one particular object - the Dark Lady - but, if we accept the powerful libido of Will, it is probable that his fault was not a single fixations but promiscuity. He loved not wisely but too frequently."34
So every attempt at identification may contain a little part of the truth. The Dark Lady might be a composition of different women as well as off different love stories and Shakespeare may also have added some of his criticism about the fair ideal of beauty and some parodies of other poet′s palliated poems.

Bibliography

Burgess, A.: Shakespeare. Penguin Books Ltd, Hamondworth, 1970.

Campbell, O.J.: A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. Methuen & Co Ltd, w/o loc, 1974.

Middlebrook, D.: Sweet My Love. The New World Press, North Adelaide, 1980.

Shakespeare, W.: The Sonnets/ Die Sonette. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1996.

Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh, 1972

Wilson, K.M.: Shakespeare′s Sugared Sonnets. Willmer Brothers Limited, Birkenhead, 1974.

1 See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh, 1972, p. 7.

2 See: Ibid, p. 45.

3 See: Ibid, p. 113..

4 See: Wilson, K.M.: Shakespeare′s Sugared Sonnets. Willmer Brothers Limited, Birkenhead. 1974, p. 90.

5 See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh. 1972, p. 16.

6 See: Ibid, p. 13.

7 See: Campbell, O.J.: A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. Methuen & Co Ltd, w/o loc. 1974, p. 175.

8 See: Wilson, K.M.: Shakespeare′s Sugared Sonnets. Willmer Brothers Limited, Birkenhead. 1974, p. 83.

9 See: Ibid, p. 85.

10 See: Campbell, O.J.: A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. Methuen & Co Ltd, w/o loc. 1974, p. 175.

11 See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh. 1972, p. 121.

12 See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh. 1972, p. 121.

13 See: Burgess, A.: Shakespeare. Penguin Books Ltd, Hamondworth. 1970, p. 146.

14 Ibid.

15 See: Campbell, O.J.: A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. Methuen & Co Ltd, w/o loc. 1974, p. 176.

16 See: Middlebrook, D.: Sweet My Love. The New World Press, North Adelaide. 1980, p. 10.

17 See: Burgess, A.: Shakespeare. Penguin Books Ltd, Hamondworth. 1970, p. 145.

18 See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh. 1972, p. 45.

19 See: Campbell, O.J.: A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. Methuen & Co Ltd, w/o loc. 1974, p.176.

20 See: Middlebrook, D.: Sweet My Love. The New World Press, North Adelaide. 1980, p. 13.

21 See: Ibid.

22 See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh. 1972, p. 12.

23 See: Ibid.

24 See: Ibid, pp. 12-13.

25 See: Ibid, p. 115.

26 See: Ibid, p. 13.

27 See: Burgess, A.: Shakespeare. Penguin Books Ltd, Hamondworth. 1970, p. 131

28 See: Ibid, p. 148

29 See: Campbell, O.J.: A Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. Methuen & Co Ltd, w/o loc. 1974, p. 176.

30 See: See: Wait, R.J.C.: The Background to Shakespeare′s Sonnets. T. & A. Constable Ltd, Edinburgh. 1972, p. 120.

31 See: Burgess, A.: Shakespeare. Penguin Books Ltd, Hamondworth. 1970, p. 131.

32 See: Ibid.

33 See: Ibid

34 See: Burgess, A.: Shakespeare. Penguin Books Ltd, Hamondworth. 1970, p.221.

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