Sonnet 147 series#

'When forty winters shall besiege thy brow'

Possibly the Dark Lady is an amalgam of many different women.Дescriptions of a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets from our Artistic Director Gregory Doran drawing on Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells' new book All the Sonnets of Shakespeare (published September 2020). The wife of John Florio, a linguist and translator of Montaigne, who may have been satirised as the pedantic Holofernes In LoveвЂ™s LabourвЂ™s Lost.Black Luce, a brothel owner in Clerkenwell.Emilia was also a member of the Venetian Bassano family, who were musicians at court. Emilia LanierВ - mistress of Lord Hunsdon, (Henry Carey) the Lord Chamberlain, and thus ShakespeareвЂ™s boss, as patron of his company.Mary Fitton -В maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, and the mistress of William Herbert.No one knows the identity of the 'Dark Lady' but possible candidates include: Far from idealising a perfect woman, they feature a female lover accused of making the poet sexually obsessed, furiously jealous, of cheating on him, stealing away his boy friend, and giving him a dose of the clap.

Sonnet 147 series#

Towards the end of the series there are 28 sonnets addressed to a woman. He has the correct initials, just reversed - perhaps to conceal his identity.

Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton to whom in 1593 Shakespeare dedicated his poem Venus and Adonis and later The Rape of Lucrece.

His initials fit to the dedication of the book to 'Mr WH'.

William Herbert - refused to marry Elizabeth Carey, granddaughter of the Lord Chamberlain, the patron of the company Shakespeare worked for.

There are several candidates for this Fair Youth.

The first 17 sonnets for example seem to be addressed to a fair youth, an aristocratic young man, imploring him to get married, and have children. They may be addressed to a series of different people. Regardless of the maleвЂ™s insolent accusations, he still suffers and may die, which may notВ go undeserved.WHO Did SHAKESPEARE ADDRESS WITH HIS SONNETS? While I believe вЂњthe diseaseвЂќ refers toВ syphilis, such a metaphorВ berates womenВ as unholy vessels of death, never accountingВ for male likelihood to haveВ already carried theВ disease himself. The ending of line 2 supports themes of female repugnancy as female sexual prowess is coined вЂњthe diseaseвЂќ of the speaker. MaintainingВ the male has a вЂњlonging stillвЂќ suggests that despite his sickly state, part of him still yearns for the wretched female whom he believesВ to haveВ brought him to his fate. Although, I also agreeВ вЂњfeverвЂќ alludes to an unfortunate symptom of theВ speakerвЂ™s scorching case of syphilis. AВ simile comparing вЂњlove is as a feverвЂќ could refer to the maleвЂ™s terrible passion for his вЂњdark lady,вЂќ fueling his destructive love affair.

Opening lines of the sonnet serve to hint at a general conceit, likening female sexuality to certain fatality вЂњMy love is asВ a fever, longing still/ for that which longer nurseth the diseaseвЂќ (1-2, 1076). Shakespeare enables the female to allegedly transform from a promiscuous temptress of male virtue to a seductive grim reaper, an incubus of a deathly venereal disease, mostВ likely syphilis. Having succumbed to his desire for вЂњthe dark lady,вЂќ the male sets to blame the woman for his ensuing macabreВ physical ailments. Within ShakespeareвЂ™s sonnet 147, the male speakerвЂ™s descant of suffering after a turbulent affair with his вЂњdark ladyвЂќ helps to epitomize Shakespearian misogyny, ranting of womenвЂ™s grave threat to society and salaciousВ nature.