New Light on the Dark Lady Stephanie Hopkins Hughes or anyone who cares about authors, for whom it is almost as important to Fknow how great works of art come to be written as it is to know the works themselves, Shakespeare s Sonnets are of unequalled importance, for they are the only piece of his writing that we can be sure speaks to us directly from the heart of the great author about his own life. Unfortunately, although they tell us a great deal about his feelings, they don t tell us much of anything else. No one is identi- fied, not even the poet himself. We re given very little background detail and what he does give is for the most part far too general to assign a specific time or place with any certainty or to connect with any known event. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, literally thousands of books have been written about the sonnets, and although many commentators stay away from any attempt to identify the personali- ties portrayed in them, or even when they were written, because, as one put it, it is a bog more easily got into than gotten out of, many have addressed it and in the process came up with a dizzying array of candidates and scenarios. Yet, despite the questions that still remain, most scholars willing to address the issue have agreed on a scenario based on a number of meticu- lous and convincing studies made in the first half of the twentieth century, which holds that all but a few of the sonnets were written over a period of five or six years, possibly beginning as early as 1589 or 90 and ending in 1595 or 96 (Akrigg 201 fn 2, 203 fn). Identifying the cast of characters Chiefly because these dates have been more or less firmly determined, most scholars writing today identify The Fair Youth as Henry Wriothesley, Earl of ing her a whore (Sonnet 137). She was Sonnet 147 Southampton, who turned seventeen in high-strung and demanding—— tyrannous 1590. This identification works even bet- ——he called her (Sonnet 131). And she was My love is as a fever, longing still ter for Oxfordians than orthodox scholars, considerably younger than he (Sonnet since Southampton was being urged by his 138). For that which longer nurseth the disease; family and friends at that time to marry His sexual attraction to her was so Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, Oxford s daughter, an historical fact that intense that he felt it as a sort of bondage fits much better with the marriage theme of that he was simply too weak to break, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. the first seventeen sonnets than anything though he knew he should (Sonnets 134, My reason, the physician to my love, the Stratfordians can suggest. Also, with 139, 141, 144, and 147, among others) He Wriothesley as The Fair Youth, The Rival felt so guilty about the relationship that we Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Poet can be identified as his beloved friend might guess that the man she belonged to and mentor, the Earl of Essex. For Oxford- was a friend of his; that in loving her he Hath left me, and I desperate now approve ians, the identity of the melancholy poet was hurting one who had more of a claim Desire is death, which physic did except. himself certainly works better for Oxford, on her and perhaps on him as well turning forty and up to his ears in money (Sonnets 142, 152). Yet, despite the pain Past cure I am, now reason is past care, problems and loss of reputation, than it she caused him, there can be no doubt he And frantic mad with evermore unrest; does for William of Stratford, just turned loved her, not just with the sexual passion thirty and, as orthodoxy has it, embarked expressed in Sonnet 147 (right), but also My thoughts and my discourse as mad mens are, on an exciting and successful career. with a great deal of tenderness. At random from the truth vainly express d; Which resolves the identity of all of the major characters of the sonnets but one. Rowse uncovers her identity For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, The Dark Lady In 1974, the historian A.L. Rowse pub- Who art as black as hell, as dark as night lished his claim to have discovered the Scholars gave her the name because the identity of the Dark Lady. Opinionated and poet made such a point of her dark com- egotistical, Rowse remains a thorn in the also clear that she was immensely attrac- plexion and mournful eyes. Rather unkind- flesh of traditional Shakespeareans. As a tive to men, for Forman, who documented ly he suggests that most did not consider fierce defender of the Stratford myth, he his active sex life in his diaries, became her beautiful. In the old age, he wrote, has been a problematic figure for somewhat obsessed by her, an obsession black was not counted fair, or if it were, it Oxfordians as well. But he got this one that was not deterred by her obvious bore not beauty s name, though he assures right, and so we must be grateful. refusal to fulfill his desires. her always that he thinks her the fairest Rowse had discovered that the diaries Further research revealed that she and most precious jewel. In calling her of Simon Forman, lodged in the Bodleian was a member of the Bassano family, black, we mustn t be confused into Library at Oxford University, were a gold which made it very likely that she was a thinking that, as with our concept of mine of information about the musician, for the Bassanos were the most Othello, she was of African descent, for Elizabethans. Forman was an astrologer numerous and important of the families black was the common term then for a and self-qualified physician to a variety of that provided the music that entertained the brunette (as we still speak of the black Londoners, including several noblewomen Courts of Elizabeth and James. And Irish today). Based on Shakespeare s and wealthy merchant s wives. One day, because they were Italians, brought origi- repeated description, most scholars con- while examining Forman s notes, Rowse nally from Venice to the Court of Henry clude that she was of Mediterranean came across the horoscope of one Emilia VIII during his courtship of Anne Boleyn, descent, with the dark curly hair, olive skin Lanier, who had visited Forman in May it seemed more than likely that she would and dark eyes of Spain, Italy, Southern and June of 1597. According to his notes, have Mediterranean coloring and the France and Greece. Actresses like Sophia Emilia had been at one time the mistress of tyannous temperament that often goes Loren and divas like Maria Callas, suggest Lord Hunsdon, the Queen s Lord Cham- with it. As the Queen s Lord Chamberlain the sexual appeal of such a woman and the berlain. of the Household, it was Hunsden s duty to temperament that often goes along with it. Since Rowse had already spent a oversee entertainment for the Court, which What else do we know or can we great deal of time and energy on efforts to meant, naturally, that he would have had guess about the Dark Lady from the resolve the identity of the Fair Youth, he plenty of contact with the Court musicians. poems? She was an expert keyboard play- was well aware of the qualities necessarily Since Henry Carey, Baron Hunsden, er (Sonnet 128); had to have been to have possessed by the Dark Lady. Emilia was forty-five years older than Emilia, impressed Shakespeare, the most musical Lanier appeared to have several of those their relationship was not one of sexual of writers. She was committed in some qualities. Although married at the time she passion, certainly not on her part and pos- way to another man (Sonnet 152); in his visited Forman, she would certainly have sibly not on his as well. The youngest of picque over the fact that he was not the been seen as a courtesan during the years Hunsdon s ten grown children was nine only man in her life he came close to call- when she was Hunsdon s mistress. It was years older than Emilia. So, although Shakespeare may scorn the Dark Lady for Even more interesting, perhaps, is decades as the first woman in English his- breaking what he terms her bed vow, we the fact, uncovered by Lasocki and Prior, tory to publish a full book of poetry under can surely understand why a young woman that the Bassanos were not Italians, but her own name. This little book, Salve in her early twenties might seek emotional Sephardic Jews. They had been residents Deus Rex Judeorum, was registered with satisfaction outside a relationship that was of Venice for only a brief forty years or so the Stationers in October 1610, and printed not a marriage and, as it turned out, before first coming to England, having left (by Valentine Simms) sometime in 1611. assured her little in the way of future secu- Spain during the diaspora created by the Although, like The Sonnets, it barely sur- rity. With her youth and her powers of 1492 edict of Ferdinand and Isabella that vived into the present age (there are but attraction, Emilia would surely have been banished the Jews from Spain.