The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.1851  Monday, 1 November 1999.

[1]     From:   Abigail Quart <
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        Date:   Thursday, 28 Oct 1999 11:14:17 -0700
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.1844 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

[2]     From:   Dana Shilling <
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        Date:   Saturday, 30 Oct 1999 02:17:48 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.1844 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Abigail Quart <
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Date:           Thursday, 28 Oct 1999 11:14:17 -0700
Subject: 10.1844 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.1844 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

Ye gods, people, there was more than one blond young man in London!
There is no basis for this ridiculous assumption about Southhampton.
It's practically an urban myth. Poets may well dedicate the work to the
kind soul who fed them during the writing, or said, "There, there,"
about their broken hearts, but the object of the poetry may never have
had a clue the sonnets were written or written about him.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Dana Shilling <
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Date:           Saturday, 30 Oct 1999 02:17:48 -0400
Subject: 10.1844 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.1844 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

In "The Group," Mary McCarthy says that one of her characters has the
coloring considered most desirable by Elizabethans: blond hair and BROWN
eyes. I don't know whether McCarthy pulled this out of a hat or what,
but I suspect that Shakespeare was at least somewhat influenced by
contemporary notions of babe status.

Dana (Shilling)