Dark Lady of the Sonnets

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. The play was written as part of a campaign to create a "Shakespeare National Theatre" by 1916. The play refers to the "dark lady", who is the addressee of Shakesepeare's sonnets 127 to 152, so-called because her hair is said to be black and her skin "dun". In the sonnets, the poet is apparently involved in a sexual relationship with the Lady, but it is implied that she is unfaithful to him, perhaps with the "Fair Youth", the young man who is the addressee of most of the other sonnets. Many attempts have been made to identify the "Dark Lady" and "Fair Youth" with historical personalities.