Mary Fitton - Shakespeare

Shakespeare

The relationship with Herbert is the basis for the claim that Fitton was the "dark lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets. Herbert is one of the main candidates for the identity of the Fair Youth, a character who betrays the poet by having an affair with the Dark Lady, hence the claim that Fitton might be the lady. The suggestion was first made by Thomas Tyler in his 1890 edition of the sonnets. It was taken up by Frank Harris in several books, including The Women in Shakespeare and Shakespeare and his Love. His influential biography The Man Shakespeare asserted that Fitton had ruined Shakespeare's life and that he died "broken hearted for love of the Dark Lady."

Later scholars have not pursued these assertions. Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells comment that "her star waned when she was discovered to have been fair". There is no hint in her authenticated biography that she was acquainted with Shakespeare. William Kempe, who was a clown in Shakespeare's company, dedicated his Nine Daies Wonder to Mistress Anne (perhaps an error for Mary) Fitton, Maid of Honor to Elizabeth; and there is a sonnet addressed to her in an anonymous volume, A Womans Woorth defended against all the Men in the World.