I was on the beach with my beautiful wife when a rather nice looking chap sat more or less in front of us

At first I thought he was admiring my wife’s breasts as she always sunbathed topless

This did not bother me as I have always considered that beauty should be shared

He then asked me what I was reading and I passed my book to him

My book was an investigation into the identity of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady

The stranger introduced himself as Ralph and pointed to a woman who was swimming in the sea and noted that he and his wife were visiting the area as he was attending a lecture in Canterbury

He said that he had written many books about The Dark Lady of the Sonnets and was considered something of an expert

Ralph asked me for my thoughts and I told him that the descriptions left by Shakespeare led me to believe that the raven haired beauty might have come from a country such as Spain or Portugal or might have been the daughter of a merchant of Iberian origins

I was then asked to consider whether the Dark Lady might have been a negress as he thought this was a possibility

My wife who by now had grown weary of our conversation stood up and announced that she would swim

On the matter of the origins of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets I said that I had considered that she might have had African origins or at least was a native of the Maghreb but thought it unlikely due to the social geography at the time

We agreed to differ and for the next fifteen minutes discussed the beauty of the sonnets themselves

Our interesting but rather empty conversation was interrupted when my wife accompanied by Ralph’s wife sat down in front of us and said that we were both being bores

It was then that I noticed that Ralph’s wife was as dark as my wife was fair