The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.1868  Tuesday, 2 November 1999.

[1]     From:   Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 1 Nov 1999 18:17:59 +0000
        Subj:   SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

[2]     From:   Mary Jane Miller <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 1 Nov 1999 14:56:22 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

[3]     From:   Melissa D. Aaron <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 01 Nov 1999 16:59:35 -0700
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

[4]     From:   David J. Schalkwyk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 02 Nov 1999 08:47:17 -0600
        Subj:   Re: SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Stuart Manger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 1 Nov 1999 18:17:59 +0000
Subject: Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes
Comment:        SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

Blond hair? Isn't that a bit pre-male bimbo / DeCaprio?

And in any event, were not grey eyes favoured by Elizabethans, or was it
just Chaucer's day?

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Mary Jane Miller <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 1 Nov 1999 14:56:22 -0500
Subject: 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

I seem to recall a well-known portrait of Southhampton (and cat) in the
Tower during the unfortunate Essex contretemps. I also seem to remember
he had black hair and a little beard.

Mary Jane

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           "Melissa D. Aaron" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 01 Nov 1999 16:59:35 -0700
Subject: 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.1851 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.

Not to mention that if you write enough sonnets, the poet can him- or
herself forget who the specific inspiration of the sonnet was.

Melissa D. Aaron
Dept. of English and Foreign Languages
California Polytechnic State University at Pomona

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           David J. Schalkwyk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 02 Nov 1999 08:47:17 -0600
Subject: 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes
Comment:        Re: SHK 10.1851 Re: Blond Hair and Blue Eyes

In case people think I'm crazy for asking about Southampton and
Pembroke's colouring, I thought I should explain the reason for my
question.  I'm interested in the degree to which scholars/critics will
ignore or overlook certain kinds of evidence which they might insist
upon on other occasions.  If Mary Fitton's candidature for the "dark
woman" came to an abrupt end because a portrait shows that she was not
dark enough (and how dark is "dark enough"? one might ask), I was
wondering whether anyone has even looked at portraits or attended to
descriptions of Southampton or Pembroke.  That's all.  I'm not
interested at all in the "real" identity of the sonnet figure; I am
intrigued about whether any critic who has proposed either Southampton
or Pembroke has asked my question.

David Schalkwyk

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