Author(s): Orange Hippo!

Gift & Humour

No writer, before or since, has matched Shakespeare in terms of influence, critical acclaim or popular success. And the Bard had plenty to say about the subject of love - the word appears more than 2,000 times in his collected works! Packed full of timeless reflections on the subject - from the star-crossed devotions of Romeo and Juliet to the witty rhetoric in Much Ado About Nothing - and complemented by fascinating facts about Shakespeare and his works - this Little Book contains some of the most romantic and profound lines ever written in the English language. "Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service." Ferdinand - The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1 "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." Romeo - Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5 "Doubt that the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move his aides, Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love." Hamlet - Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2 No-one has influenced the modern rom-com genre as much as Shakespeare. Perhaps the Bard's most influential romantic comedy is Much Ado About Nothing, the timeless tale of sworn enemies who become lovers. Countless pop-culture pairings owe a debt to the play, from Elizabeth and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice to the leads in When Harry Met Sally and Something's Gotta Give. Shakespeare's best-loved sonnet, "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?", touches on the themes of unattainable love and mortality. The poem is part of Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sequence of sonnets, which many historians believe are actually about a young man.