SOURCE: "Recognition of Beauty," in Elizabethan and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 77: Of Comfort and Despair: Shakespeare 's Sonnet Sequence, edited by Dr. James Hogg, Institut Für Anglistik Und Amerikanistik der Universitat Salzburg, 1979, pp. 166-77.

In the following excerpt, Witt evaluates the sonnets which focus on the poet's "mistress," or "the Dark Lady, " as opposed to the poems which center around the poet's male friend. Witt argues that while the earlier poems to "the Friend" demonstrate the ideals of "reasonable love, " those to the Dark Lady represent the destructiveness of a lustful, "sensual, " and therefore false love. This negative love, Witt asserts, eventually teaches the poet to appreciate all the more the "beauty" of the true love he has for his friend.

Viii. Recognition of Beautv (sonnets 130, 127, 132, 128, 145)

Most commentators seem to agree that Sonnets 127-152 are concerned with the poet's mistress rather than the friend. Also, many agree that...