by William Shakespeare
, believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and tropes with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. The play also deals with the themes of friendship
and infidelity
, the conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of people in love
.
Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.
I have no other but a woman's reason:I think him so, because I think him so.
O, how this spring of love resemblethThe uncertain glory of an April day.
And if it please you, so; if not, why, so.
O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,As a nose on a man’s face, or a weathercock on a steeple.
She is mine own,And I as rich in having such a jewelAs twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.