When Shakespeare put quill to parchment and began his one hundred and forty fourth sonnet with the above lines, he could not have known that, almost four hundred years after his death, scholars would still be searching for, and arguing over the identity of his “woman coloured ill” or, as she is better known, the “Dark Lady” of the Sonnet’s. Of course, similar arguments still rage over his other love, the so called “better angel” and what exactly Shakespeare’s relationship with this “man, right fair” was. But it is his Dark Lady who has truly captured the popular imagination and become almost a legend in her own right.
Shakespeare addresses a total of twenty-four, apparently autobiographical, sonnets to the mystery woman with whom it is more than evident he has enjoyed a passionate affair. In an age when the paragon of feminine beauty was fair hair and pale skin, Shakespeare reveals that his “mistress” is unfashionably dark-haired, dark-browed and dark-eyed. Furthermore he obviously considers her to be dark in spirit and totally amoral. Line’s such as “When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies..” do not exactly paint an endearing picture of this woman. Yet he is evidently besotted with her, for he tells us, in lines with which anyone who has felt similar pangs can readily identify, “Past cure am I, now reason is past care, And frantic mad with evermore unrest”. But the one thing he doesn’t tell us is her identity, and thus numerous contenders have, over the years, been put forward, including Mary Fitton (1578-1647), an intriguing lady who lived at Gawsworth Hall and who lies buried in the nearby parish church of St James the Great.
In around 1595 Mary Fitton became a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth 1st. Sir William Knollys, comptroller of the Royal household, promised her father that he would protect his “innocent lamb” from the “wolfish cruelty and fox-like subtlety of the tame beasts of this place”. But Sir William appears to have shown more than a custodial interest in his young charge and she, by all accounts, did not discourage his attentions. Then, in 1600, Mary also became the mistress of William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke, by whom she became pregnant and, although their child, a son, died soon after birth, Mary was dismissed from court.
Of course, there is no proof that she also found the time to become the mistress of William Shakespeare, and the suggestion that she was indeed the “Dark Lady” is based upon a series of tenuous claims and presumptions. Chief amongst these is that William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, was the “Mr. W.H.” to who the 1609 edition of the Sonnet’s is dedicated. That being the case, it can then be presumed that he was infact the “better angel” and therefore the man who, according to the Sonnet’s, ultimately steals Shakespeare’s mistress. Many who favour Mary’s claim also argue that the opening lines of the hundred and thirty-fifth Sonnet, “Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will, And Will to boot, and Will in overplus,” are a punning reference to her three lovers Knollys, Herbert and Shakespeare, all of whom share the same Christian name, William. One problem with this is that the imagery of the Sonnet’s suggests that they may have been written in 1593 at which time William Herbert was just thirteen years old. If we do accept that they were written later, there is still the problem that Shakespeare states that his mistress is, like him, married whilst Mary Fitton, at the time of her involvement with Herbert, was most certainly single. Furthermore, it would appear that Mary Fitton had brown hair and grey eyes, whereas Shakespeare is emphatic that the hair colouring of the woman he is writing about is ”raven black”.
The arguments both for and against Mary Fitton having been the “Dark Lady” continue. But, whoever this mysterious enigma was, there is little doubt that she made quite an impression upon William Shakespeare, even though his feeling for her are certainly tinged with bitterness and resentment or, as he puts it, in a parting shot aimed at his mistress brow:
