As promised, last time I said I was going to write about another possible candidate for the Dark Lady award. This time, her name is Lucy Morgan (alias Lucy Parker). She was born in 1579 and according to my mother, she didn't have a very long innings as she died in 1600. She was one of Queen Elizabeth's gentlewomen and on three occasions was given dresses by Her Majesty. Apparently she was a popular lass at court and was also known as Lucy Negro due to her dark complexion.
In 1595, she, or a lady with a similar name was in trouble with the law for running a brothel in St. John Street, Clerkenwell and had to appear before the Queen's bench. She was found guilty and was sentenced to spend some time in the notorious Bridewell jail.
Is this our William thinking about his next
tryst with the Dark Lady?
According to an article in the U.K. Independent newspaper
(27 Aug. 2012), Dr. Duncan Salkeld, reader in WS studies at the University of Chichester, says that "she is the foremost candidate for the dubious role of the Dark Lady." This lady was referred to in Sonnets 127-154 as a "temptress" and "my female evil" and "my bad angel."
Salkeld finds links between Morgan and Gilbert East, another brothel-owner in Clerkenwell and Philip Henslowe, the theatre-owner of the "Rose" theatre, a rival to the "Globe." There are also several family connections involved here and Salkeld also suggests that there was a link with a Matthew Shakespeare who was married to Isabel Peele and whose dramatist brother, G may have collaborated with our William on Titus Andronicus, one of his first plays.
All of the above is not true according to another academic. Dr. Aubrey Burl of the Society of Antiquaries states that the Dark Lady was called Aline Florio, the wife of an Italian translator who lived in London. In an article in The Telegraph UK newspaper, (8 Jan. 2013), Hannah Furness quotes Dr. Burl who says that WS loved this lady "for her own gratification" while he indulged in "temptation and callously self-satisfied betrayal of her husband."
John/Giovanni Florio, Italian translator and possible friend of Shakespeare. Did our William lead his wife astray, or was it the
other way round?
To reach this conclusion, Dr. Burl spent years studying this topic and narrowed his list down to eight possible candidates. These included a courtesan, a wig-maker's wife, a landlady and various other beautiful women. In the end, Mistress Florio came out on top.
WS and this Dark Lady would meet at the Bard's patron's house (the Earl of Southampton) at Titchfield and also at her house in Shoe Lane near the River Fleet.
But whoever she was, Lucy Morgan, Aline Florio, Mary Fitton or Emilia Bassano-Lanier, we will probably never know. Andthe final question on this topic is: Does it really matter? As the man himself wrote,"The play's the thing." This is what should really interest us, not who he was having a bit of hanky-panky with on the side as his good lady-wife was back in Stratford looking after his parents and his kids.
Next time I'm going to start an ABC of plays, places and people connected with Shakespeare, so tell all your literary and other friends and family to watch this space.
In 1595, she, or a lady with a similar name was in trouble with the law for running a brothel in St. John Street, Clerkenwell and had to appear before the Queen's bench. She was found guilty and was sentenced to spend some time in the notorious Bridewell jail.
tryst with the Dark Lady?
According to an article in the U.K. Independent newspaper
(27 Aug. 2012), Dr. Duncan Salkeld, reader in WS studies at the University of Chichester, says that "she is the foremost candidate for the dubious role of the Dark Lady." This lady was referred to in Sonnets 127-154 as a "temptress" and "my female evil" and "my bad angel."
Salkeld finds links between Morgan and Gilbert East, another brothel-owner in Clerkenwell and Philip Henslowe, the theatre-owner of the "Rose" theatre, a rival to the "Globe." There are also several family connections involved here and Salkeld also suggests that there was a link with a Matthew Shakespeare who was married to Isabel Peele and whose dramatist brother, G may have collaborated with our William on Titus Andronicus, one of his first plays.
All of the above is not true according to another academic. Dr. Aubrey Burl of the Society of Antiquaries states that the Dark Lady was called Aline Florio, the wife of an Italian translator who lived in London. In an article in The Telegraph UK newspaper, (8 Jan. 2013), Hannah Furness quotes Dr. Burl who says that WS loved this lady "for her own gratification" while he indulged in "temptation and callously self-satisfied betrayal of her husband."
other way round?
To reach this conclusion, Dr. Burl spent years studying this topic and narrowed his list down to eight possible candidates. These included a courtesan, a wig-maker's wife, a landlady and various other beautiful women. In the end, Mistress Florio came out on top.
WS and this Dark Lady would meet at the Bard's patron's house (the Earl of Southampton) at Titchfield and also at her house in Shoe Lane near the River Fleet.
But whoever she was, Lucy Morgan, Aline Florio, Mary Fitton or Emilia Bassano-Lanier, we will probably never know. Andthe final question on this topic is: Does it really matter? As the man himself wrote,"The play's the thing." This is what should really interest us, not who he was having a bit of hanky-panky with on the side as his good lady-wife was back in Stratford looking after his parents and his kids.
Next time I'm going to start an ABC of plays, places and people connected with Shakespeare, so tell all your literary and other friends and family to watch this space.
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