Was Bard's lady a woman of ill repute? 'Dark Lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets 'may have been London prostitute called Lucy Negro'



Madam, also known as Black Luce, was 'an arrant whore' who ran a brothel in Clerkenwell, north-east London



Inspired many of Bard's sonnets 127 to 152

Bard had friends, and possibly relatives, who lived in Clerkenwell



Dr Duncan Salkeld cites evidence in diary of Philip Henslowe, who built Rose Theatre

Henslowe knew Lucy Negro and her associate Gilbert East, another brothel owner

They were both tenants of Henslowe, who had a rival acting company



The Dark Lady who inspired some of Shakespeare’s romantic sonnets may have had a rather unladylike profession.

An expert on the Bard suggests she may have been a notorious prostitute called ‘Lucy Negro’ or ‘Black Luce’ who ran a brothel in Clerkenwell, London.

Shakespeare scholar Dr Duncan Salkeld said he had unearthed documents that indicate she is ‘the foremost candidate for the dubious role of the Dark Lady’.

New research claims The 'Dark Lady' of Shakespeare's sonnets was a notorious London prostitute named Lucy Negro or Black Luce - a dark-skinned madam who ran a licentious house in Clerkenwell. Above, the Bard in London

Many of the sonnets 127 to 152 are addressed to an unidentified woman with whom Shakespare imagines having an affair.

In Sonnet 144 the temptress is referred to as ‘my female evil’ and ‘my bad angel’. The identity of the Dark Lady has mystified academics for years.

To her contemporaries, she was known as 'an arrant whore and a bawde’, catering for everyone from ‘ingraunts’ (immigrants) to ‘welthyemen’ and the aristocracy.

The sonnets give few details describing her, apart from her dark eyes, hair and complexion, with hints that she was married.

This identity was tentatively suggested in the 1930s but Dr Salkeld has now found public records that convince him that she is 'the foremost candidate for the dubious role of the Dark Lady', the Independent reported.

Dr Duncan Salkeld discovered part of the evidence in the diary of Philip Henslowe, the theatre owner who built the Rose Theatre (right) and whose acting company was a rival to Shakespeare’s. Left, Geoffrey Rush as Henslowe in the film Shakespeare In Love

HER 'EYES ARE RAVEN BLACK': SHAKESPEARE'S SONNET 127

The first of the so-called 'Dark Lady' poems... In the old age black was not counted fair,

Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;

But now is black beauty's successive heir,

And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:

For since each hand hath put on Nature's power,

Fairing the foul with Art's false borrowed face,

Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,

But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.

Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,

Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem

At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,

Sland'ring creation with a false esteem:

Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,

That every tongue says beauty should look so.

The Bard imagines an unidentified woman - known as the 'Dark Lady' but not actually named by him in that way - in an adulterous sexual relationship.

She is the inspiration for many of the sonnets 127 to 152. She is 'my female evil' and 'my bad angel' in sonnet 144.

Dr Salkeld discovered part of the evidence in the diary of Philip Henslowe, the theatre owner who built the Rose Theatre and whose acting company was a rival to Shakespeare’s.

Within its pages, there is mention of both Black Luce and her associate Gilbert East, who operated another Clerkenwell brothel.

Henslowe, who staged at least one of Shakespeare’s plays - Titus Andronicus - recorded 30 occasions when he dined with a Gilbert East who was also Henslowe’s bailiff for properties that he owned.

The discovery that Luce and East were also Henslowe’s tenants adds a definitive link to Shakespeare’s world, according to the scholar.

Dr Salkeld said: 'The name "Gilbert East" is rare in London parish records and we are on safe ground in taking the brothel-owner to be East. It proves the connection between East and Henslowe.'

He adds: 'To my knowledge, no one has spotted this connection before.'

Lucy also appears in a list of bawdy entertainments – the Gray’s Inn Christmas entertainments of 1594 – and in a few plays and literary texts of the period.



Apart from a midnight raid on her premises, Luce is not recorded as being arrested, though her girls were, and court documents include references to her successful brothel.

He says: 'Black Luce’s bad name was so well-known that anyone reading Shakespeare’s… sonnets… in the 1590s and early 1600s is likely to have brought her to mind, and Shakespeare must have known this.'



Lucy Negro also appears in a list of bawdy entertainments - the Gray's Inn Christmas entertainments of 1594 - and in a few plays and literary texts of the period. Above, Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress from the 1700s

BLACK PEOPLE OF LONDON TOWN

During Britain's involvement in the slave trade in the 16th century, thousands of African and Afro-Caribbean slaves were ferried to London ports - on the same ships that brought imperial products such as tea, sugar, cotton and rum. Those who came to Britain were often brought in by naval officers and government officials returning to the UK. Some black people were offered to the commanders of slaving vessels as gifts, and were later sold into domestic service. Slavery was legal in Britain until 1772, and many of these Africans found themselves working as butlers or other household attendants in noble families. In 1764 The Gentleman's Magazine reported that there was 'supposed to be near 20,000... Negroe servants' in London: the magazine went on to say that 'the main objections to their importation is, that they cease to consider themselves as slaves in this free country, nor will they put up with an inequality of treatment, nor more willingly perform the laborious offices of servitude than our own people'.

Acknowledging that trying to unravel the Dark Lady is controversial, he concludes that there is sufficient 'circumstantial' evidence: 'Whoever that person was, Shakespeare painted her with the reputation of Luce… This is new evidence.'

The link to Clerkenwell is further strengthened by Shakespeare’s own connections with the area. Not only did he know people who lived there, but he may also have had his own relatives there.

In parish records, Dr Salkeld found several Shakespeares, including a Matthew Shakespeare who was married to an Isabel Peele – sister of the dramatist George Peele, who probably collaborated with the Bard on Titus Andronicus.



In a London with only 200,000 population, such connections are significant.

Dr Salkeld also notes the lack of evidence for the supposition that prostitutes circulated around Southwark and Bankside, the site of the Elizabethan Rose and Globe theatres: 'The stews were closed down by Henry VIII in 1546 and that drastically inhibited prostitution activity in the area.



'The majority of cases were north of The Thames, including Clerkenwell.'