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 of that Bride of Christ who is “black but comely.” Professor Minto, following in the footsteps of Henry Brown, had regarded the whole group of Sonnets as simply “exercises of skill undertaken in a spirit of wanton defiance and derision of the commonplace.” Mr Gerald Massey, without any historical proof or probability, had insisted that they were addressed to the celebrated Lady Rich, the Stella of Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnets, the Philoclea of his “Arcadia,” and that they contained no personal revelation of Shakespeare's life and love, having been written in Lord Pembroke’s name and at his request. Mr Tyler had suggested that they referred to one of Queen Elizabeth’s maids-of-honour, by name Mary Fitton. But none of these explanations satisfied the conditions of the problem. The woman that came between Shakespeare and Willie Hughes was a real woman, black-haired, and married, and of evil repute. Lady Rich’s fame was evil enough, it is true, but her hair was of—

“fine threads of. finest gold, In curled knots man’s thought to hold,”

and her shoulders like “white doves perching.” She