Dark Lady of the Sonnets
Bernard Shaw
Publisher: Muhammad Ali
Summary
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets is a 1910 short play by George Bernard Shaw on William Shakespeare and the "Dark Lady" character in his sonnets. The dark lady of the sonnets was based on a real life person. Sonnets 127 to 152 are addressed to a woman commonly known as the 'Dark Lady' because her hair is said to be black and her skin "dun". These sonnets are explicitly sexual in character, in contrast to those written to the 'Fair Youth'. It is implied that the speaker of the sonnets and the Lady had a passionate affair, but that she was unfaithful, perhaps with the 'Fair Youth'. The poet self-deprecatingly describes himself as balding and middle-aged at the time of writing.
Available since: 01/09/2021.
