The Dark Lady

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
Shakespeare, Sonnet 147

Various ladies have been put forward as the Dark Lady. Popular candidates are:

· Amelia Lanyer, a poet in her own right, and daughter of one of the Queen's musicians
· Mary Fitton, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen. Impregnated out-of-wedlock by the Earl of Pembroke, who then refused to marry her.
· Anne Vavasour, another of the queen's ladies. The Earl of Oxford's dark-haired mistress (and mother of his bastard son).
· Queen Elizabeth (who had fair-skin and red hair, but dark eyes)

Some maintain that Shakespeare's "dark" imagery refers to the lady's skin rather than her hair-and that she was black. See the novel Nothing Like the Sun by Anthony Burgess.