Fair Youth
E493812
Fair Youth is the conventional name given to the beautiful young man who is the primary subject of William Shakespeare’s early sonnets, inspiring themes of love, beauty, and mortality.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary character
ⓘ
poetic addressee ⓘ |
| addressedDirectlyIn | second-person sonnet addresses ⓘ |
| appearsInWork | Shakespearean sonnets NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithAuthor | William Shakespeare NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralThemeIn | Shakespeare’s sonnets 1–126 (traditional numbering) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | Dark Lady NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| conventionalNameFor | beautiful young man in Shakespeare’s sonnets ⓘ |
| culturalSignificance |
iconic figure in Shakespearean criticism
ⓘ
symbol of idealized male beauty in Renaissance literature ⓘ |
| describedAs |
beautiful
ⓘ
young ⓘ |
| fieldOfStudy |
Renaissance literature
ⓘ
Shakespeare studies ⓘ queer literary studies ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| identityStatus | historically uncertain ⓘ |
| influences |
interpretations of Shakespeare’s sexuality
ⓘ
modern discussions of homoeroticism in Renaissance poetry ⓘ |
| inspiresTheme |
beauty
ⓘ
fame ⓘ friendship ⓘ idealized beauty ⓘ love ⓘ mortality ⓘ procreation ⓘ time ⓘ |
| knownFrom | textual evidence only ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | Early Modern English NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| linkedToTheme |
ephemerality of youth
ⓘ
jealousy and rivalry ⓘ moral ambiguity in love ⓘ preservation of beauty through verse ⓘ |
| mediumOfRepresentation | lyric poetry ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
focus of the sonnet speaker’s devotion
ⓘ
measure against which time and decay are judged ⓘ |
| notableSonnetGroup |
procreation sonnets (1–17)
ⓘ
sonnets of separation and betrayal ⓘ |
| possibleIdentificationWith |
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| preservedBy | Shakespeare’s verse ⓘ |
| primarySubjectOf | William Shakespeare’s early sonnets NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relationshipToSpeaker |
object of intense affection
ⓘ
source of emotional conflict ⓘ |
| roleInText |
beloved
ⓘ
patron-like figure ⓘ |
| subjectOfScholarlyDebate | real-life identity ⓘ |
| timeOfCompositionContext | Elizabethan era NERFINISHED ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.