The mysterious and faithless brunette who, in Shakespeare's sonnet sequence (1590's), seduces the earl of Southhampton away from Shakespeare, so that he is bereft of both.
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:*
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell*, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend
Suspect I may, but not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.*
(sonnet 144)
Of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, numbers 127-152 are addressed to the Dark Lady.
The Dark lady is one who betrays her lover by being unfaithful to him with his friend.
~Facts on File dictionary of historical and cultural allusions.
