Mary Fitton was the only woman
Shakespeare ever loved, or at least, the only woman he loved with such
intensity as to influence his art. She was Rosaline, Cressid, Cleopatra,
and the "dark lady" of the sonnets. All his other women are parts of her
or reflections of her, as all his heroes are sides of Hamlet, or
reflections of him. Portia is the first full-length sketch of Mary
Fitton, taken at a distance: Beatrice and Rosalind are mere reflections
of her high spirits, her aristocratic pride and charm: her strength and
resolution are incarnate in Lady Macbeth. Ophelia, Desdemona, Cordelia,
are but abstract longings for purity and constancy called into life by
his mistress's faithlessness and passion.
Shakespeare admired Mary Fitton as intensely as he desired her, yet he
could not be faithful to her for the dozen years his passion lasted.
Love and her soft hours drew him irresistibly again and again: he was
the ready spoil of opportunity. Here is one instance: it was his custom,
Aubrey tells us, to visit Stratford every year, probably every summer:
on his way he was accustomed to put up at an inn in Oxford, kept by John
D'Avenant.
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