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| A pair of miniatures of Queen Elizabeth I and her favorite and friend, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Painted by Nicholas Hilliard, circa 1575. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain. |
On this Valentine's Day, I wish to express my extreme gratitude to all of my loyal BeingBess blog readers, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, Google+ pals, LinkedIn connections, and Pinterest pinners. I appreciate your support of my BeingBess work, and I value your insight on historical figures and controversies. I delight in this online, international community of people who share my passion for researching and discussing the 16th century.
Sending you love & light wherever you are!
SEMPER EADEM,
Ashlie
Here is my Valentine to you all, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, which is my personal favorite!
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. 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;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Admit impediments. 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;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
