According to some research from the National Year of Reading, Shakespeare is the read second-most-likely to impress your date, beating Facebook, the Financial Times and song lyrics in the poll.
Shakespeare even figures in the top 10 list for teenagers. For teenage guys, Shakespeare is in tenth place, but beats Heat Magazine in the list for teenage girls, ranking in ninth place.
For a moment I found this surprising, but soon remembered that Shakespeare has always been connected with love. His treatment of love in Romeo and Juliet has forever remained in the public consciousness and (possibly) the world’s greatest collection of love poetry was penned by Shakespeare. In particular, Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day has managed to succinctly capture the essence of love.
I wonder if love for Shakespeare has ever brought “a pair of star-cross'd lovers” together? Perhaps you and your partner met at a production of Much Ado About Nothing, or you were performing in a Shakespeare play together? If you’ve got a Shakespeare related love story, we’d love to read it on About.com.
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Comments
I read the Shakespeare canon last year. During that time, I was so obsessed with Shakespeare I used to leave the book open on the floor by my bedside and read the words as I was making love to my wife. It didn’t matter what I was reading, it was the act of making love to the text itself. OMG, was I cheating???