PREFACE TO THE DARK LADY
OF THE SONNETS
How the Play came to be Written
I had better explain why, in this little _piece d\'occasion_, written for a
performance in aid of the funds of the project for establishing a National
Theatre as a memorial to Shakespear, I have identified the Dark Lady with
Mistress Mary Fitton. First, let me say that I do not contend that the
Dark Lady was Mary Fitton, because when the case in Mary\'s favor (or
against her, if you please to consider that the Dark Lady was no better than
she ought to have been) was complete, a portrait of Mary came to light
and turned out to be that of a fair lady, not of a dark one. That settles the
question, if the portrait is authentic, which I see no reason to doubt, and
the lady\'s hair undyed, which is perhaps less certain. Shakespear rubbed
in the lady\'s complexion in his sonnets mercilessly; for in his day black
hair was as unpopular as red hair was in the early days of Queen Victoria.
Any tinge lighter than raven black must be held fatal to the strongest claim
to be the Dark Lady. And so, unless it can be shewn that Shakespear\'s
sonnets exasperated Mary Fitton into dyeing her hair and getting painted
in false colors, I must give up all pretence that my play is historical. The
later suggestion of Mr Acheson that the Dark Lady, 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. Why, then,
did I introduce the Dark Lady as Mistress Fitton?