Question: Does Shakespeare mention Valentine's Day?
Answer: Three third-century Christian saints named Valentine are mentioned in the early church catalogue of martyrs under the date of February 14. However, the common customs of courtship and romance associated with Saint Valentine's Day are not linked to any of the saints. The traditions originated in fourteenth-century France and England with the belief that on February 14, birds begin to mate. In Chaucer's The Parliament of Foules we read:
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's dayShakespeare mentions Saint Valentine's Day in A Midsummer Night's Dream (4.1.145) and in Hamlet, where Ophelia sings:
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more. (4.5.50-7)
