“Sonnet 131” was first published in a 1609 quarto edition entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets. It belongs to the sequence of the Dark Lady sonnets (127–52). The speaker affirms that the Dark Lady is a typical ‘femme fatale’ and her menacing charm haunts the presence of men and threatens the existence of women. ’Art’ is utilized as a pun here in that it refers to ‘are’ in Shakespearean language and ‘art’ with reference to her art of ensnaring others in her charm. She is also tyrannous in her aggressive seductive powers that imposes more upon than it allures. The poet employs a Petrarchan conceit here to allude to the “power the object’s beauty imposes over the sonneteer and argues for her beauty based on the power she exerts over him.”(Duncan-Jones 2007, 131.13).Her existence is as intimidating as the beauty of others, though she is not beautiful in a conventional manner. She was much of a tormenter as those who tormented others through the exquisite charm of their beauty. She realizes that the speaker dotes on her and takes advantage of the fact by causing him distress with impunity. The lines are reminiscent of the ones in “Sonnet 144” where Man is presented as a ‘better angel’ and the Woman as an ‘evil spirit’.…