Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide - Nick Groom, Piero 2013

“Lust in Action” …

Long thought to have been Mary Fitton, Pembroke’s mistress, or more recently perhaps a lady-in-waiting of Elizabeth I, Aemelia Lanyer (formerly Aemelia Bassano) - she is often English, but also Italian, or a black courtesan of Clerkenwell …

… AND SOMEONE HAS EVEN SUGGESTED THAT SHE IS REALLY A BOTTLE OF WINE. IS THERE EVIDENCE IN SONNET 129 THAT SHAKESPEARE AND THE DARK LADY DID HAVE RAMPANT PHYSICAL RELATIONS? TH’ EXPENSE OF SPIRIT IN A WASTE OF SHAME IS LUST IN ACTION…

The power of the Sonnets lies precisely in this desire to read Shakespeare and indeed oneself and one’s theories into the lines … they are super-lubricated poetic exercises, enigmatic because Shakespeare always remains at some rhetorical distance. The truth is rather more banal.

“MR. W.H. ” IS LIKELY TO BE MISPRINT FOR “MR. W.S. ” OR “MR. W. SH. ”. “BEGETTER” USUALLY MEANT THE AUTHOR RATHER THAN THE INSPIRER OF A POEM.