On Valentine’s Day

By Sean Murphy.

Each numbered phrase is from a Shakespeare play, but which one? Answers below:

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window
To be your Valentine[i].

I am so love-shaked[ii] that I need a remedy. My love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers[iii]. I am an old love-monger[iv], who speaks skilfully. I relish a love-song[v], and wish to write a love-line[vi]. I imagine myself a don Cupid, a regent of love rhymes[vii] in love-letters. I aim to loose my love-shaft from my bow[viii], plead my love-suit[ix] and interchange love-tokens[x] with my true love before love-devouring death do what he dare[xi].

Ah, if only I could end the heart-ache[xii] I feel for that rose-lipped cherubin[xiii]. I am a true lover[xiv], a hot lover[xv]! I am a lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad, made to my mistress’ eye-brow[xvi]. Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow![xvii] If my passion change not shortly[xviii], then I will kiss your lips[xix].

Enough, no more![xx]

The 15th of February, I can say at last:

Good morrow, friends – Saint Valentine is past![xxi]

[i] Hamlet
[ii] As You Like It
[iii] Twelfth Night
[iv] Love’s Labours Lost
[v] The Two Gentlemen of Verona
[vi] All’s Well that End Well
[vii] Love’s Labours Lost
[viii] A Midsummer Night’s Dream
[ix] Henry V
[x] A Midsummer Night’s Dream
[xi] Romeo and Juliet
[xii] Hamlet
[xiii] Othello
[xiv] As You Like It
[xv] The Two Gentlemen of Verona
[xvi] As You Like It
[xvii] A Midsummer Night’s Dream
[xviii] Much Ado About Nothing
[xix] Henry V
[xx] Twelfth Night
[xxi] A Midsummer Night’s Dream

About Mathew Gillings

PhD Linguistics student at Lancaster University.
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