Who were Shakespeares sonnets written to?
The first 126 sonnets are mostly romantic in nature and addressed to a young man, referred to in academia as the Fair Youth. Sonnets 127-152 are also romantic, some explicitly sexual, and addressed to a woman whose looks are described as outside of conventional attractiveness, known as the Dark Lady. References are also made to a figure known as the Rival Poet in sonnets 78-86. Furthermore the sonnets in their entirity are dedicated to a Mr. W.H. Although speculation abounds on the precise identity of each of these individuals, there is no definite to any.
