The dark lady

The next group of sonnets, 127-152 are traditionally seen as the sonnets to the “dark lady”, a woman. The speaker of the sonnets refers to her as his “mistress”. “Dark” could indicate her character (bad or evil) as well as her appearance, her looks: dark hair and eyes and perhaps dark skin. In contrast to how most women were described in sonnets, this “dark lady” is not the stereotypical beauty. Sonnet 130 is an example of how Shakespeare wiped the floor with the cliché imagery of his (and our) time about beauty: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun Coral is far more red than her lips’ red If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound. I grant I never saw a goddess go: My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

This woman he described does not have coral red lips and eyes like the sun. Instead she has black wires growing on her head as hair, her breath smells and her voice is not all that nice to hear. And despite the fact that she does not meet with all the cliché aspects of beauty, she is “rare”, she’s exceptional because there is no one like her. And perhaps this is true beauty.

In other sonnets, this “mistress” is not described in terms of love and beauty, but more in sexual, sinful and negative terms. For example, in sonnet 147, the speaker describes his love for his mistress as a “fever”, as a “disease”. She is “as black as hell, as dark as night”. And in sonnet 138, it becomes clear that the speaker is aware that his mistress is not wholly / fully honest with him: When my love swears that she is made of truth I do believe her though I know she lies,

Sonnet 144 has led to a lot of speculation. The speaker tells that he has “two loves”; a man, described as “a man right fair” and a woman, described as “a woman coloured ill [dark]”. The speaker describes that he suspects that this man and woman are having a relationship with each other behind his back. It looks like the speaker is in some sort of triangular relationship with this man and woman.

The last two sonnets, 153 and 154 seem not to be connected to the rest of the cycle.