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CHAPTER 1
Smote By Love
Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight.
For I ne're saw true beauty till this night.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
The rarest dream that e'er dulled sleep.
Pericles
* * *
O excellent young man!
As You Like It
* * *
O brave new world,
That hath such people in 't!
The Tempest
* * *
O, you have heard something of my power, and so stand aloof for more serious wooing.
Pericles
* * *
My heart itself plays "My heart is full."
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
I burn, I pine, I perish,
If I achieve not this young modest girl.
The Taming of the Shrew
* * *
I do adore thy sweet grace's slipper.
Love's Labour's Lost
* * *
O brawling love, O loving hate,
O anything of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
[I] dare not offer What I desire to give; and much less take What I shall die to want.
The Tempest
* * *
A woman is a dish for the gods if the devil dress her not.
Antony and Cleopatra
* * *
Too fair, too true, too holy,
To be corrupted with my worthless gifts.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here?
The Tempest
* * *
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!
Twelfth Night
* * *
I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes,
And but thou love me, let them find me here.
My life were better ended by their hate Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
My affections Are then most humble; I have no ambition To see a goodlier man.
The Tempest
* * *
I love thee: I have spoke it.
Cymbeline
* * *
O wonderful, wonderful! And most wonderful wonderful! And yet again wonderful! And after that out of all whooping.
As You Like It
* * *
His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
Yet, if men moved him, was he such a storm As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, untidy though they be.
His rudeness so with his authorized youth Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.
A Lover's Complaint
* * *
Be but sworn my love And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Now I will believe that there are unicorns.
The Tempest
* * *
Is it possible That love should of a sudden take such hold?
The Taming of the Shrew
* * *
Celestial as thou art, O! pardon love this wrong,
That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.
Love's Labour's Lost
* * *
A pack of blessings light upon thy back.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
How prettily the young swain seems to wash The hand was fair before.
The Winter's Tale
* * *
Show pity or I die.
The Taming of the Shrew
* * *
But soft, what light thru yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay
! All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
Sonnet XLIII
Now heaven walks on earth.
Twelfth Night
* * *
Enchanted Tarquin answers with surmise,
In silent wonder of still-gazing eyes.
The Rape of Lucrece
* * *
Summer hath no such a flower.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Run, run ... carve on every tree The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.
As You Like It
* * *
An eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
She that you gaze on so, as she sits at supper.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
O blessed, blessed night, I am afeared,
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering sweet to be substantial.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Now, at the latest minute of the hour,
Grant your love.
Love's Labour's Lost
* * *
... In love, i'faith, to the very tip of the nose.
Troilus and Cressida
* * *
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide.
Sonnet XXVII
* * *
Heaven's bounty ... in you ... beyond all talents.
Cymbeline
* * *
She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.
Antony and Cleopatra
* * *
Thou wast the prettiest babe ...
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant.
Twelfth Night
* * *
My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse.
Troilus and Cressida
* * *
I have lost myself, I am not here.
This is not ... he's some other where.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Mine eyes,
Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not.
As You Like It
* * *
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
What dangerous action, stood it next death,
Would I not undergo, for one calm look.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
By heaven I love thee better than myself.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
I know not why I love this youth, and I have heard you say,
Love's reason's without reason.
Cymbeline
* * *
I have fallen by prompture of the blood.
Measure for Measure
* * *
The game was ne'er so fair and I am done.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?
As You Like It
* * *
He lives not now that knows me to be in love, yet I am in love, but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor who 'tis I love: and yet 'tis a woman; but what woman I will not tell.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
... Bewitched by the charm of looks.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
... the fairest I have yet beheld.
The Winter's Tale
* * *
I am bound to wonder.
Cymbeline
* * *
Happiness courts thee in her best array.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
In the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Hamlet
* * *
Thou hast not loved
... if thou hast not broke from company abruptly as my passion now makes me.
As You Like It
* * *
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature.
Cymbeline
* * *
When she has obtain'd your eye,
Will have your tongue too.
The Winter's Tale
* * *
O noble stain!
O worthiness of nature! Bred of greatness!
Cymbeline
* * *
The dearest morsel of the earth.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did My heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it.
The Tempest
* * *
There was a pretty redness in his lip,
A little riper and more lusty red Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask.
As You Like It
* * *
How angel-like ...!
Cymbeline
* * *
O royal piece!
The Winter's Tale
* * *
What man art thou that thus bescreen'd in night So stumblest on my counsel?
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
[She is] a gift of the gods.
Cymbeline
* * *
I hereupon confess I am in love; and as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench.
Loves Labour's Lost
* * *
And by the way, you shall tell me where in the forest you live.
As You Like It
* * *
This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever Ran on the green-sward.
The Winter's Tale
* * *
I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god.
The Tempest
* * *
By Jupiter, an angel! Or, if not,
An earthly paragon! Behold divineness!
Cymbeline
* * *
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep: the more I give to thee The more I have, for both are infinite.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Skin as smooth as monumental alabaster.
Othello
* * *
Not a heavenly saint ... but ... an earthly paragon.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears he hath had good ancestors.
Cymbeline
* * *
My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnet CXXX
* * *
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptis'd.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Where hast thou been, my heart?
Antony and Cleopatra
* * *
Fair one, all goodness that consists in beauty.
Pericles
* * *
Soft, I will go along;
And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
So holy and perfect is my love,
And I in such a poverty of grace,
That I shall think it a most plenteous crop To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps; loose now and then A scattered smile, and that I'll live upon.
As You Like It
* * *
Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love?
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
Now my lord, what say you to my suit?
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
The fairest that I have look'd upon.
Cymbeline
* * *
You must lay down the treasures of your body.
Measure for Measure
* * *
The sweetest flower of all the field.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
... a shop of all the qualities that man Loves woman for.
Cymbeline
* * *
Where is my wit? I know not what I speak.
Troilus and Cressida
* * *
You are a lover, borrow Cupid's wings And soar with them above a common bound.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by the leg.
As You Like It
* * *
'Tis [your] breathing that Perfumes the chamber thus.
Cymbeline
* * *
Dumb jewels often in their silent kind,
More than quick words, do move a woman's mind.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
Here pleasures court mine eyes.
Pericles
* * *
The air ... for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on [you]
And made a gap in nature.
All's Well That Ends Well
* * *
You have a nimble wit.
As You Like It
* * *
Most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty!
Twelfth Night
* * *
Heaven and earth ... do meet in thee at once.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Plainly conceive, I love you.
Measure for Measure
* * *
[Thy] virtue and ... general graces speak That which none else can utter.
Antony and Cleopatra
* * *
Methinks I feel this youth's perfections With an invisible and subtle stealth To creep in at mine eyes.
Twelfth Night
* * * Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies eyes.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
What a paragon!
Pericles
* * *
Good marrow, fairest.
Cymbeline
* * *
They that dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton.
Twelfth Night
* * *
Look where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
* * *
... Not so fair ... as well-favored.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
Jove, Jove! This shepherd's passion Is much upon my fashion.
As You Like It
* * *
You do usurp yourself: for what is yours to bestow is not yours to reserve.
Twelfth Night
* * *
One of the noblest note.
Cymbeline
* * *
My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words Of thy tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Look how fresh she looks!
Pericles
* * *
I conclusion, I stand affected ...
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
* * *
'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.
Twelfth Night
CHAPTER 2
Love's Seductions
Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Out of my sight! thou dost infect my eyes.
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
Richard III
* * *
They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes.
Love's Labour's Lost
* * *
I think I shall have something to do with you.
Pericles
* * *
Hearing thy mildness prais'd in every town,
Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,
Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,
Myself am mov'd to woo thee for my wife.
The Taming of the Shrew
* * *
It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity.
All's Well That Ends Well
* * *
Give me swift transportance to those field Where I may wallow in the lily beds.
Troilus and Cressida
* * *
Trust me, sweet.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
* * *
Please you, draw me near.
The Tempest
* * *
Come woo me, woo me; for I am in a holiday humor and like to consent.
As You Like It
* * *
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
Come, sit on me.
The Taming of the Shrew
* * *
If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken. I should quickly leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier: If thou canst love me for this, take me: if not, to say to thee that I shall die, is true; but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too.
Henry V
* * *
Such a passion doth embrace my bosom.
Troilus and Cressida
* * *
If thou lov'st me then,
Steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town ...
There will I stay for thee.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
* * *
What cheer?
The Tempest
* * *
All hail the richest beauties on the earth!
Love's Labour's Lost
* * *
Pray you, come hither awhile.
Pericles
* * *
My love can give no place, bide no delay.
Twelfth Night
* * *
In delay we waste our lights in vain.
Romeo and Juliet
* * *
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend nor enemy;
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word;
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.
Richard III
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Shakespeare on Love"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Stephen Brennan.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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