FACTOID #151: The five countries with the highest coffee consumption are also the five countries whose citizens trust one another the most. Coincidence? Probably.
The Dark Lady is a woman referred to by William Shakespeare in a number of his sonnets. In particular, sonnets 127–152 are addressed directly to her; they are sometimes called the Dark Lady sonnets. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Shakespeares sonnets comprise a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ...
The Dark Lady sonnets are explicitly sexual in character, in contrast to those written to the "Fair Lord". It is implied that the "I" of the sonnets and the Lady had a passionate affair, but that she was unfaithful, perhaps with the "Fair Lord". The poet self-deprecatingly describes himself as balding and middle-aged at the time of the affair. The Lady herself is referred to as 'dark' because her hair is said to be black and her skin dusky. The Fair Lord is the unnamed young man to whom most of Shakespeares Sonnets are addressed. ...
Whether the Dark Lady was a real lover of Shakespeare's or a fictional creation is unknown. Some readers have suggested that the reference to her 'dusky' skin suggests that she may have been Spanish, or even African. However, the language of the verses also implies that her 'darkness' is not intended literally, but rather represents the 'dark' forces of physical lust as opposed to the ideal Platonic love associated with the "Fair Lord". A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ... Plato and his disciples. ...
Many attempts have been made to identify the "Dark Lady" with historical personalities, such as poet Emilia Lanier, but they are all highly speculative, as are all attempts at finding real-life identifications for the characters in the sonnets. Many people continue to maintain that the Dark Lady is merely a work of fiction and never really existed in real life. Aemilia Lanyer, or Emilia Lanier (1569-1645) was the first Englishwoman to assert herself as a professional poet through her single volume of poems, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611). ...
Shakespear rubbed in the lady's complexion in his sonnets mercilessly; for in his day fl hair was as unpopular as red hair was in the early days of Queen Victoria.
The later suggestion of Mr Acheson that the DarkLady, far from being a maid of honor, kept a tavern in Oxford and was the mother of Davenant the poet, is the one I should have adopted had I wished to be up to date.
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