... audience could have been his close friends, whom Shakespeare told about his relationship with irony. Shakespeare differentiates between two types of love in his sonnet sequence. First his love only with spiritual intercourse towards the young man and his love only with physical intercourse towards the mistress. His friend ... loves at the same time, and with this betrayal lost both of them also. The relationship of the friend and the Dark Lady is fantastically described in sonnet 144, where Shakespeare writes about his former mistress: " . . . . , my female evil Tempteth my better angel ...

• Word Count: 1353
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School