Love

A scene from The Tempest. Watercolor drawing by Richard Westall. Folger ART Box W522 no.5 (size L) Shakespeare’s comedies and romances are full of lovers. See if you can match each pair of lovers with the Shakespeare play in which…

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, much of the comedic conflict derives from the application of the nectar of a magic flower. Under its influence, the queen of the fairies (Titania) becomes enamored of a donkey, and, through a bit…

One of the figures that Shakespeare and his characters frequently invoke is Aphrodite, the goddess of love, often referred to by her Roman name, Venus, both in the plays and sonnets and in Shakespeare's popular long poem, Venus and Adonis. He and his love-struck characters also often allude to her son, Cupid, armed with love's arrows.

The word “love” appears 2,146 times in Shakespeare’s collected works (including a handful of “loves” and “loved”). Add to that 59 instances of “beloved” and 133 uses of “loving” and you’ve got yourself a “whole lotta love.” So, what does Shakespeare have to say about love? Here are 20 quotations from the Bard about love.

Shakespeare quotes can seem like good choices for Valentine’s Day cards, but his tales of love are nuanced and complicated.

We look at three instances of love letters in Shakespeare’s plays: Orlando’s love poems to Rosalind in As You Like It, Hamlet’s passionate missive to Ophelia in Hamlet, and Proteus’s romantic letter to Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Can you match up these Shakespearean lovers? Take the quiz and challenge your friends.