ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The Dark Lady is a woman described in Shakespeare’s sonnets (sonnets 127–152), and so called because the poems make it clear that she has black wiry hair, and dark, “dun"-coloured skin. The description of the Dark Lady distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence by being overtly sexual.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Dark Lady of the Sonnets is a 1910 short comedy by George Bernard Shaw in which William Shakespeare, intending to meet the “Dark Lady", accidentally encounters Queen Elizabeth I and attempts to persuade her to create a national theatre.

Detailed explanation-3: -In short, the sonnets are about a love affair between the poet and his “dark” mistress who betrays him with other men, even with a beloved friend of his, and because of his dependence the poet finally falls into a deep and melancholy madness.

Detailed explanation-4: -Sonnets 127 to 152 seem to be addressed to a woman, the so-called ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespearean legend. This woman is elusive, often tyrannous, and causes the speaker great pain and shame. Many of these sonnets reflect on the paradox of the ‘fair’ lady’s ‘dark’ complexion.

Detailed explanation-5: -The sonnets cover such themes as the passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality. The first 126 are addressed to a young man; the last 28 are either addressed to, or refer to, a woman. (Sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the 1599 miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim).