Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society cover image

Shakespeare's Sex Life

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

00:00

The Dark Lady

There is a sonnet to her though, isn't it? Isn't there what a writer imagined all of this? Have I hallucinated the whole thing? There are loads and loads of sonnets towards the end of the sequence addressed to a woman. But I still think there might be a real young man. One of my favourite theories about the Dark Lady is that she was a real sex worker who was working in a brothel near the Globe Theatre. She described as hell, which is not quite the same thing as saying that she's dark-skinned, black, Jewish or whatever. So yeah, there is a mistress in there who is female and has female body parts. And there

Transcript
Play full episode

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app