Who is the "dark lady" in Shakespeare's poems?

Sonnets are an important literary legacy left by Shakespeare to mankind, with a large number, second only to Shakespeare's masterpiece Hamlet. Although there are many of his works, his life information is extremely limited, because the playwright was not valued by people at that time, which brought some difficulties to people in studying Shakespeare's life, cause of death and works. Take sonnets for example. Was it originally published out of Shakespeare's own will? Who is Mr. W. H. H. in the preface? Is it true that the young friend, rival poet and dark lady in the poem? Who are they?

Is it the Queen of England?

Among Shakespeare's poems, The Lady with Dark Skin is the most striking and romantic. She is young and good at music. She has a special charm, black hair, black eyes and even black skin. In love, she is unfaithful, frivolous and dissolute. She cheated her husband, betrayed her lover and secretly threw herself into the arms of the handsome young man, the poet's friend.

In the poet's pen, she simply became a truly beautiful woman. Such a seductive beauty naturally aroused the great interest of later researchers, trying to find this real person in real life.

/kloc-Malone, editor of the complete works of Shakespeare in the 0/8th century, began to look for the poet's lover. He thought that this "dark lady" was Queen Elizabeth I at that time, and put forward many arguments. Shakespeare sang his own times without reservation in many works, and pinned the author's ideal of a wise monarch on Queen Elizabeth.

Karmai, a contemporary of Malone, said, "Obviously, all the sonnets were written for Queen Elizabeth." Elizabeth was over 60 years old when Shakespeare suggested his lovely queen friend get married and have children. Judging from all the facts that didn't embarrass the poet, the personal relationship between the poet and the queen is very good, so the queen is probably the prototype of the "dark lady". Is it a hybrid offspring?

/kloc-Jordan, a famous scholar in the 0/9th century, inferred that "my lover must be flat-footed" according to the sentence in sonnet 130. According to her musical talent and good at coquetry, Jordan concluded that Mrs. Black came from the West Indies colony, was a descendant of Europeans born in the West Indies, and had mixed blood of Africans, either black and white or white. This statement continued until 1933.

In the same year, Shakespeare scientist Harrison proposed a real woman, that is, Lucy, a black woman living in London, a prostitute serving courtiers, nobles and rich families. In 1964, Quennell echoed this statement, thinking that Mrs. Black was not a lady in the court ... but a famous maid-in-waiting, nicknamed "Black Lucy", and was praised for her black face. On the other hand, Shakespeare told us that besides deceiving him and seducing his friends, she was also unfaithful to her bedside oath. Therefore, we may point out that she is the wife of a wealthy businessman.

More credibly, "Mrs. Black" is Mary felton. 1595, 17 became the palace maid of Queen Elizabeth, 1600 became the lover of Halber Yate, a nobleman, and gave birth to a child for him, but died soon after. Therefore, Hulbert was sent to Fleet Street prison, and felton was expelled from the palace. Felton's fate is also very bad. First I gave birth to two illegitimate children to Sir Rafson, and later I married Captain Polmore. However, this assertion is also doubted by people, because the dark-skinned lady in the sonnet is a married woman, and felton didn't formally marry anyone until long after she was kicked out of the palace. Even more deadly, it was later discovered that felton's portrait was a blonde with white skin, even though her church monument said that she was a black woman.

New progress

On June 29th, 1973, the situation made new progress: when the famous British historian and Shakespeare Raous studied simon furman's materials in the Persian Rhine Library in Oxford, he found that this "dark lady" was most likely Amelia Rainier.

Furman was born in 1552 and died in 16 1 1. He is a doctor, an astrologer and a womanizer. Amelia is the daughter of Bassano and Margaret Johnson. Her father was only six years old when he died. She was orphaned at the age of 1587 17, leaving only 100 kg. In order to save her bad luck, she became the lover of Lord Hanston I.

After discovering that she was pregnant, she found a court musician William Rainier as her husband to cover it up. Amelia 1593 visited Vermont and told him that her husband was unkind to her and wasted a lot of money, leaving her penniless now. Furman described her as "brown and young" and deliberately spoiled. Later, she sent a maid to see him. He wrote in his diary: "I went with them and spent the whole night at her place." But this caused two problems: first, Amelia actually married Alfonso Rainier, not William Rainier; Secondly, Wells, the editor of Shakespeare Dictionary and an expert on Shakespeare studies, pointed out that Rouse's Brown and Young is also wrong. After careful study, it is found that the word is not brown, but brave, which means Amelia is "young and beautiful" rather than "dark skin". Therefore, what Raous provides to people is still a vague lady.

There are also a few critics who, based on Shakespeare's special love for "Mrs. Black Skin", prove that this charming woman is none other than Shakespeare's own wife Anna Hathaway, calling her "poor Anna" or "the beauty of Stratford".

In short, no matter whether this "Lady Dark" is a real person or an imaginary figure, I'm afraid this beautiful mystery will never be solved, as Shakespeare expert Dawton said at the beginning of this century: "We will never find this woman's name."