Shakespeare Story

30 Shakespearean chat-up lines for Valentine’s Day

  Be inspired by the Bard this Valentine’s Day – here’s some of the most romantic, wittiest and rudest Shakespeare quotes to woo your crush

3 minute read

Charity Wakefield as Shakespeare in Emilia, 2018. Photographer: Helen Murray.

Thou art wise as thou art beautiful
— A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act III, scene 1

O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
— Romeo & Juliet. Act II, scene 2

You have witchcraft in your lips
— Henry V. Act V, scene 2

Your bum is the greatest thing about you
— Measure for Measure. Act II, scene 1

I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you
— The Tempest. Act III, scene 1

Olivia Ross as Princess Katherine and Jamie Parker as Henry V in Henry V, 2012. Photographer: John Haynes

I do love nothing in the world so well as you
— Much Ado About Nothing. Act IV, scene 1

Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie
— Venus & Adonis

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
— Sonnet XVIII

Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love
— Hamlet. Act II, scene 5

An angel is like you, and you are like an angel
— Henry V. Act V, scene 2

Michelle Terry as Titania and Pearce Quigley as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2013. Photographer: John Haynes

So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape
— A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act III, scene 1

Give me my sin again
— Romeo & Juliet. Act I, scene 5

O beauty,
Till now I never knew thee
— Henry VIII. Act I, scene 4

One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
Mine own, I would say. But if mine, then yours,
And so all yours
— The Merchant of Venice. Act III, scene 2

My dearest partner of greatness
— Macbeth. Act I, scene 5

Jack Laskey as Rosalind and Bettrys Jones as Orlando in As You Like It, 2018. Photographer: Helen Murray

What, with my tongue in your tail?
— The Taming of the Shrew. Act II, scene 1

For where thou art, there is the world itself,
With every several pleasure in the world,
And where thou art not, desolation
— Henry VI Part 2. Act III, scene 2

Come, woo me, woo me, for now I am in a holiday humor, and like enough to consent
— As You Like It. Act 4, scene 1

You kiss by th’ book
— Romeo & Juliet. Act I, scene 5

Goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
— A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act III, scene 2

Two actors in Elizabethan clothing stare into each other's eyes

Ellie Piercy as Juliet and Richard Madden as Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, 2007.

By the roses of the spring,
By maidhood, honor, truth, and everything,
I love thee so
— Twelfth Night. Act III, scene 1

I’ll smother thee with kisses
— Venus & Adonis

On the touching of her lips I may
Melt and no more be seen. O, come, be buried
A second time within these arms
— Pericles. Act V, scene 3

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
— Hamlet. Act III, scene 2

Hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot
thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love
— Troilus & Cressida. Act III, scene 1

A man in a grey gown holds a couple's hands together who smile at each other

Jessie Buckley as Miranda, Roger Allam as Prospero and Joshua James as Ferdinand in The Tempest, 2013. Photographer: Marc Brenner

I do love you more than words can wield the matter,
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty
— King Lear. Act I, scene 1

What is your parentage?
— Twelfth Night. Act I, scene 5

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. Act III, scene 1

I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes
— Much Ado About Nothing. Act V, scene 2

I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say, “I love you”
— Henry V. Act V, scene 2

FINIS.