Shakespeare's Sonnets

FAIN: FT-12138-74

Alice-Lyle Scoufos
California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, CA 92831-3599)

To define the "dark mistress" of Shakespeare's sonnets as a literary and a theological symbol for the church under persecution. Shakespeare wrote the sonnet sequence to advice the young Earl of Southampton to marry and avoid the temptations of the dark mistress. This study will release the sonnets from the need for topical indentification and place them within the lyric tradition which exploited the conflation of secular and religious images and motifs.