SOURCE: Davey, James Joseph. “The Function of the Dark Lady in Shakespeare's Sonnets,” in The Function of the Dark Lady in Shakespeare's Sonnets, pp. 5-27. Trieste, Italy: Università Degli Studi Di Trieste, 1986.
In the following essay, Davey contends that in Shakespeare's sonnets to the dark lady, the poet moves away from the idealization of the first group of sonnets—those addressed to the young man—and instead emphasizes the dark lady's physical, earthly nature and beauty.
