Shakespeare’s sonnets
from 127 to152 are addressed to a woman commonly known as the 'Dark Lady'
because her hair is said to be black and her skin "dun".
In these sonnets we come to know about the dark lady and the speaker’s
relation with her. 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.Many attempts have been made to identify the "Dark Lady" with
historical personalities, such as Mary Fitton
or the poet Emilia Lanier, who was Rowse's favoured
candidate, though neither lady fits the author's descriptions.
The nature of love to the lady
The love the
speaker develops towards the dark lady is undoubtedly the misguided love.The
lady is worthless.Not physically attractive the lady has also a loose moral
character.She has many other lovers except the poet. But the poet is so infatuated
that he can’t but love her.But this infatuated love can’t bring the mental
satisfaction which we see in his relation with the young man.This frustrated
love affair bring mental suffering for him.His love towards the young firiend
brings him comfort.On the other hand his love for the lady brings him despair.
The antipetrarchan heroine
As it is seen in the sonnets 127 and 129, Shakespeare treats the Lady in a very ani-petrarchan manner. Unlike the
Petrarchan heroine, the Lady is very unattractive or black. In Elizabethan
days, so the poet tells us, black was not considered beautiful: "In the
old age black was not counted fair, / Or, if it were, it bore not beauty's
name." However, what is considered beautiful — at least to the poet — has
changed; "now is black beauty's successive heir." This change in what
is considered beautiful is the poet's main concern here in Sonnet 127 and in
succeeding sonnets.
The degree of
emphasis on the Dark Lady's color varies in the sonnets, so sometimes she seems
black-haired and other times merely brunette. The poet's appreciation of the
Dark Lady's appearance is complex: He is glad that she does not use cosmetics
to lighten her appearance, which would be "a bastard shame," but she
is not physically attractive to the poet, for all her erotic appeal. However,
her black eyes become her so well "That every tongue says beauty should
look so." Black, then, becomes another means for the poet to discredit the
use of cosmetics; his mistress' good looks are not "slandered" by
unnatural measures.
The anti-petrarchan treatment of love and the lady
The poet does
not find in his mistress those beauties which have conventionally been attributed
by writers to their beloveds. For instance, the eyes of the poet’s mistress are
not bright like the sun, her lips are not as red as coral, her breasts are
certainly not white like snow, her hairs are certainly not like golden wires,
her cheeks certainly do not have the hues of roses, her breath is certainly not
as sweet as perfumes, her voice is certainly not as pleasing as music. In
short, the poet’s mistress is no goddess but just an ordinary woman walking on
the ground. In spite of all this, the poet looks upon his beloved as a rare
woman, as rare as any woman who has most extravagantly been praised by any
writer.
This sonnet is a
satire on the unreal comparisons in which the poets of the time used to indulge
when writing about the beauty of their mistresses. All kinds of artificial
comparisons were made to eulogize and glorify a woman in those days. Many of
those comparisons figure in this sonnet, but here the poet speaks in a negative
vein pointing out that these comparisons are not valid in the case of his
beloved. Thus the poem is a satirical rejection of the false comparisons which
were current in the poetry of the Elizabethan times. Shakespeare here adopts a
more realistic approach while describing his beloved, but at the same time he
affirms that she is a rare woman. From the point of view of the style, it is
one of the easiest of the sonnets and is completely free from any kind of
obscurity. Here we have an example of Shakespeare’s lucid style.
Lady has exquisite talent for music
But the quality
for which the poet truly admires the Lady is her exquisite talent for music.
In the sonnet 128, the poet describes the Lady’s talent for music. Besides the
Lady’s talent for music, the poet also fantasizes about kissing the woman in the same
tender, controlling manner that she uses when playing. What makes the sonnet so
physically sensual despite the poet's never once touching the woman is not only
his description of her playing technique but his personification of the
instrument's response to the woman's touch. In the concluding couplet, the poet
continues to personify the wooden instrument's levers, calling them "saucy
jacks so happy" because the woman physically touches them. The only
consolation the poet has is his fantasy of kissing his mistress, which is an
empty comfort given that the poet craves the sensuous touch the Dark Lady uses
as she plays the musical instrument.
The speaker
feels disgust for his own lust
The speaker knows that the lady has developed a sexual relation with his
young friend. Whereas Sonnet 132 makes the mistress into
a chaste beauty, Sonnet 133 maligns her for seducing the poet's friend.The
story of the poet's friend's seduction unfolds in Sonnet 134. Hoping to gain
the woman's favor, the poet sends the young man to the woman with a message.
However, she seizes the opportunity to make the youth her lover, and the youth
responds to her advances wholeheartedly.
The sonnet is saturated with terms common to
usury: The poet is "mortgaged" (used as security) by the woman (the "usurer")
to gain the affections of the youth (the "debtor").
The speaker himself would like to satisfy his
sexual hunger
That the speaker’s love with the Lady is misguided
is seen in the sonnet 135. The speaker
himself would like to satisfy his sexual hunger.The poet wants to
continue his sexual relationship with his mistress, but she is already bursting
with lovers: "Whoever hath her wish, thou hath thy Will, / And Will to
boot, and Will in overplus."
Because the woman already has several Wills, or
lovers, the poet wonders why she does not accept him, his "will," as
well: "So thou, being rich in Will, add to thy Will / One will of mine to
make thy large Will more."
There is more than a little cynicism in the poet's
admission of lust for a thoroughly disreputable woman. Begging to have sex with
the woman, the poet barely masks his jealousy of the woman's many lovers:
"Shall will in others seem right gracious, / And in my will no fair
acceptance shine?" What is so wrong, he asks her, with his sex organ that
she won't accept him as her lover? Sarcastically, he bawdily asks her why her
own sex organ, which so easily accommodated other men's, cannot accept one
more.
The relation is based on the lie
Sonnet 138 presents a candid psychological study
of the mistress that reveals many of her hypocrisies. Certainly she is still
very much the poet's mistress, but the poet is under no illusions about her character: "When my love swears that she is made of truth, / I do
believe her, though I know she lies." He accepts without protest her
"false-speaking tongue" and expects nothing better of her. Cynically,
he too deceives and is comforted by knowing that he is no longer fooled by the
woman's charade of fidelity to him, nor she by how young and simpleminded he
presents himself to be.
The main theme
of the concluding two lines is lust, but it is treated with a wry humor. The
poet is content to support the woman's lies because he is flattered that she
thinks him young — even though he knows that she is well aware of just how old
he is. On the other hand, he does not challenge her pledges of faithfulness —
even though she knows that he is aware of her infidelity. Neither is disposed
to unveil the other's defects. Ultimately the poet and the woman remain
together for two reasons, the first being their sexual relationship, the second
that they are obviously comfortable with each other's lying. Both of these
reasons are indicated by the pun on the word "lie," meaning either
"to have sex with" or "to deceive": "Therefore I lie
with her and she with me, / And in our faults by lies we flattered be."
The poet is overcome by despair and threatens the lady
Sinking quickly
into despair over the sad state of his relationship with the woman, the poet
threatens the woman with public humiliation should she not at least feign love
for him. The first warning is in the first quatrain, in which he cautions her
not to be too public in her flirtations with other men. In the second quatrain,
the poet uses a simile to convey his thoughts of how the woman should treat
him. Like a dying man who wants only false reassurances from his doctor about
his condition, he wants the woman to falsify her love for the poet. Sadly, the
poet's suggesting this action shows how knowledgeable he is that the
relationship's end is near. The third quatrain contains another threat that the
poet will publicly slander the woman's character: "For if I should
despair, I should grow mad, / And in my madness might speak ill of thee."
Lest the woman not heed his first two warnings, he adds a third in the sonnet's
last three lines, overtly forewarning his mistress that "Slanderers by mad
ears believed be," and that she should "Bear thine eyes straight,
though thy proud heart go wide." In other words, when they are in public,
she must pay attention only to him and not to any other man; if she does not do
as he wishes, he will publicly slander her.
The infatuation comes to the end
Delving into the awareness of sin, Sonnet 142 sums up the poet's whole
fatuous and insatiable passion. He supports the woman's rejection of his love
because he deems his love for her unworthy of him: "Love is my sin and thy
dear virtue hate, / Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving." He cannot
help loving her, but he despises himself for doing so. Note that in lines 1 and
2, the poet compares himself to the woman using opposite qualities: The poet's
"Love" opposes the woman's "hate," and "my sin"
contrasts to the cynical "thy dear virtue." He believes that he
deserves her contempt because of her damnable behavior, not because of his. Yet
the poet feels that he deserves the woman's pity because he shares her vice.
That is, he loves the woman in the same manner that she loves her many suitors:
artificially, meanly, and basely. Ironically, however, her flirting with others
becomes such an artful and "sinful loving" that he admires her and
wants her more.
The relation breaks up
The end of the
relationship between the poet and the woman becomes apparent. Addressing the
woman with a sense of shame and outrage, the poet is fully conscious of his own
adultery and that of his mistress, as well as her infidelity to him and his
lack of moral perception: "In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn, /
But thou art twice forsworn." A reconciliation between the poet and the
woman is suggested, but subsequently the poet accuses her of "vowing new
hate after new love bearing."
Thus, from his sonnets from 127 through 154, we
come to know about a Dark Lady with whom the poet was acquainted. There have
been many speculations about the identity of the Dark lady. But no-one has yet
been able to show convincingly whether the sonnets do or do not have
autobiographical or topical character. On the basis of sheer speculation,
several young women of Queen Elizabeth I's court—including Mary Fitton, Emilia
Lanier, and Lucy Morgan—have been put forth as historical models for the Dark Lady
of Shakespeare's sonnets.These dark lady sonnets, however, are important
beacuse they highlight Shakespeare's personality as well as his anti-petrarchan
conception of beauty.