ABSTRACT
Shakespeare continued to express his hopes and disappointments in intimate sonnets. Friendship was severely strained over the affair of the Black Woman. She was a courtesan, notorious to fashionable young gentlemen of the Inns of Court who took their pleasures in Clerkenwell; and for a time Shakespeare became her lover. The woman however was after the highest game and when Southampton came her way she readily deserted Shakespeare. In the reorganisation of the Lord Chamberlain's company he was able to acquire a player's share and henceforward took his place on equal terms with the rest. The Chamberlain's men were at first at some disadvantage compared with their rivals on the Bank, side for their repertory contained fewer popular plays, but they had Shakespeare with them as a partner. Romeo and Juliet was his most successful play hitherto, and with the two poems, firmly established Shakespeare's reputation with the young gentlemen of the Inns of Court.
