Beyond its initial connotations implying that a woman’s outward appearance is pleasant to men’s eyes, the term “fair” can sometimes allude to a person’s white complexion or describe blonde hair, two main features of the Renaissance archetypal female beauty. Berowne’s eulogy of black in IV.iii represents one discourse on female beauty, a subject rousing varied debates among the characters who often voice opposite opinions on the interpretation of the polysemous word “fair”. 1Ģ Despite his accurate reading of stereotypical beauties in the Renaissance, Goldstein tends to actually “skim” through the seeming antithesis of black and fair in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. And an examination of the many quattrocento renderings of the Virgin can only reinforce the notion. Even a skimming of the love poetry of the period will prove the point – Petrarch’s Laura and Astrophil’s Stella are golden-haired.
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