The Dark Lady of the Sonnets is a one-act play by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw which centers around the character of the ‘Dark Lady’ described in William Shakespeare’s sonnets. In the preface to the play, Shaw introduces his own audience to the different theories about the actual person to whom the sonnets were devoted, but also if Shakespeare is the actual writer of his works. Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth themselves are characters in Shaw’s rather witty, comic play.