Our book club selection was "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell.
Since we could not meet formally as planned today we decided to have a small gathering of book club members in the park today who could meet up to celebrate "Shakespeare's" birthday (it's April 23rd).
There was prosecco and cupcakes and we royally toasted "Will".
Sherri gifted us all with essential Rosemary oil made from her garden herb.
A lovely afternoon together.
Whether he was writing comedies, histories, tragedies, or sonnets, William Shakespeare almost always touched upon the theme of love. Across his complete works — including 39 plays and 154 sonnets — the word “love” appears 2,191 times. Sometimes, of course, his characters expressed doubts about love. Take Beatrice, for example, in Much Ado About Nothing, who quipped, “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.”
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Shakespeare commented on all aspects of love: unrequited, compassionate, lustful, and everything in between. He saw all the nuances — all the joy and tragedy — that love could provoke. He also made a distinction between the courtly love of the nobles and the uninhibited sexual love of the common people, but for Shakespeare, neither was any more true or valuable than the other.
Shakespeare’s most famous star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, became an archetype for young love, even though their tale ended in tragedy. Their love was immature at first, but grew into something more profound. Happier endings are found in the playwright’s comedies, perhaps most notably in the witty romance between Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.
Through his many plays and sonnets — comedic, tragic, or otherwise — Shakespeare left us with a wealth of quotes about love. Here are some of the most profound and passionate lines from the pen of history’s most celebrated bard.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.
— A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The course of true love never did run smooth.
— A Midsummer Night’s Dream
I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say “I love you.”
— Henry V
Speak low if you speak love.
— Much Ado About Nothing
I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.
— Much Ado About Nothing
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek.
— Romeo and Juliet
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
Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service.
— The Tempest
If music be the food of love, play on.
— Twelfth Night
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
— Twelfth Night
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate
— Sonnet 18
No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason, no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage.
— As You Like It
Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.
— Hamlet
Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
— Sonnet 116
And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
— Love's Labour's Lost
So are you to my thoughts as food to life, Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground.
— Sonnet 75
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.
— Venus and Adonis
I love you more than words can wield the matter; Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty; Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour.
— King Lear
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