Sonnet 127

In the ould age blacke was not counted faire,

Or if it weare it bore not beauties name:

But now is blacke beauties successive heire,

And Beautie slanderd with a bastard shame,

For since each hand hath put on Natures power,

Fairing the foule with Arts faulse borrow"d face,

Sweet beauty hath no name no holy boure,

But is profan'd, if not lives in disgrace.

Therefore my Mistresse eyes are Raven blacke,

Her eyes so suted, and they mourners seeme,

At such who not borne faire no beauty lack,

Slandring Creation with a false esteeme,

Yet so they mourne becomming of their woe,

That every toung saies beauty should looke so.

Commentary

Addressed to a woman with dark eyes.

This is the first of the sonnets addressed to the so-called 'dark lady'.

The first quatrain comments on the fact that 'black' was not traditionally called beautiful, but that now black is 'beauty's successive heir'. The idea of bastardy picks up on the thought that black, the bastard, is not entitled to be called 'beautiful', in the same way that a bastard is not entitled to inherit titles from his or her father.

The second quatrain expresses the thought that cosmetics (Arts faulse) are now used to make 'faire the foul', profaning beauty itself.

The third quatrain comments that his mistress' eyes are raven black, and thus coloured (so suted) seem to be mourners who mourn the fact that those who are not born fair 'slander' beauty by making themselves appear fair by the use of cosmetics.

The final couplet states that they (his mistress' dark eyes) mourn so effectively that everyone begins to think that beauty should be like that.

The central message is fairly clear: the beautiful and the fair used to be the same thing, but now along comes this woman, the dark lady, who is not fair, and yet the poet wants to tell her that she is beautiful. Then we have the case of those strumpets who paint themselves to counterfeit beauty. The dark lady's eyes are imagined as mourners for beauty at the sight of these painted whores. and the mourning suits her so well, that everybody says 'beauty should looke so'.

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