8-3DarkLady

= Who was the Dark Lady? =

Prepared by Laura H
William Shakespeare was, and always will be one of the best play writes the world has ever known. However, he is also very well known for his beautiful poetry. His sonnets were not to be forgotten; the language and imagery used beyond creative. What is also a common discussion point when Shakespeare's poetry is the topic is the mysterious figure that is the Dark Lady. She was described in twenty four of his sonnets as a "woman color'd ill," with dark hair and eyes. Little does anyone know who this lady actually was, yet there are some tips as to who Shakespeare may have been referring to.

One of the women who was said to have been the Dark Lady was Mary Fitton. She was the Made of Honor for Queen Elizabeth the 1st, and was known for her reckless and wild behavior. Not much is known about the relationship between her and Shakespeare. Another one of the woman who was thought to be the Dark Lady was Emilia Lanier, who was the first english woman to officially title herself a poet. Shakespeare would obviously respect her for that, which may be one of the reasons why he would write so many poems about her. There were also rumors that she and Shakespeare had an affair together. They think that this may have happened because of the way his writing was during the "Dark Ages" of his life. As described by PBS, in the article Emilia Lanier (the Dark Lady?), "The language in some of the sonnets composed around 1597 and onwards is a dark blend of the vengeful, obsessive, pornographic, and to modern ears misogynistic." Another person who could have been the Dark Lady was Lucy Morgan, who was a brothel owner. Not much is known with the relationship between the two, but it must have been a strong one to be quite a big figure in Shakespeare's life. No one really knows for sure if the Dark Lady was even a women, much less a person. Who knows even he wasn't talking to anyone at all? Shakespeare could have just been writing love notes to his wife, or writing about Queen Elizabeth. We thing that he was, in fact, writing about a person, because of the way he described her. But whether we know who the Dark Lady was, or not, she will always be a prominent figure in the history of Shakespeare.