What Is The Improbability Of The Dark Lady Being Black?

However, many of these reasons are considered pointless by critiques who express the improbability of the Dark Lady being black. For example, “The Scandal of the Sonnets” by Margareta de Grazia argues that all the sonnets are about a man and any idea that there could be a black mistress would “threaten” the homosexual relationship Shakespeare was trying to create with the man (Grazia p. 106). There are other critiques that Denis Donoghue from his essay “Shakespeare At Sonnets” mention such as Edward Hubler from The Riddles’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets who don’t think there is a real Dark Lady, but rather Shakespeare based the poems on “infatuation” or what he wanted love to be like and how he could never have it which cause some of the last sonnets to be more about a sickening

464). Flessiner argues similar arguments by explaining how sonnets 127, 130, 131, 132, 133, 141, 144, and 147 all have textual evidence that suggest a black woman is the subject.

Beginning with sonnet 130, Flessiner explains how this poem is the most famous of all of the sonnets that can be used as evidence. As powerful as this poem is, if interpreted that the appearance of the Dark Lady is black-skinned, many of the lines of this sonnet could have multiple meanings. The first line, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” could relate to brown eyes that could suggest the woman was an African American or could suggest that the lady does not have charming eyes (Shakespeare l. 1). The idea that the Dark Lady’s lips are not as red as would be expected, could be considered evidence of the lady having brown lips of a black woman. However, Flessiner argues