Shakespeare's Lovers, Lusters & Losers by Hannah Tompkins

Catalog of the Shakespeare Art Collection -- Shakespeare's Lovers, Lusters & Losers

Shakespeare's
Lovers, Lusters & Losers
by Hannah Tompkins
Mixed Media on Brown Paper: conte crayon, chalk, crayon, watercolor and ink. 9-1/2" x 12".

Lovers: Petrucio & Katherine - Taming of the Shrew - Act IV sc. v --by Hannah Tompkins
Petrucio & Katherine
Taming of the Shrew - Act IV sc. v

Lovers: Beatrice & Benedick - Much Ado About Nothing - Act II sc. iii --by Hannah Tompkins
Beatrice & Benedick
Much Ado About Nothing - Act II sc. iii

Lovers: Orlando & Rosalind - As You Like It - Act IV sc. i --by Hannah Tompkins
Orlando & Rosalind
As You Like It - Act IV sc. i

Lovers: Leontes & Hermione - Winter's Tale - Act V sc. iii --by Hannah Tompkins
Leontes & Hermione
Winter's Tale - Act V sc. iii

Lovers: Ferdinand & Miranda - he Tempest - Act III sc. i --by Hannah Tompkins
Ferdinand & Miranda
The Tempest - Act III sc. i

Illustrated:
Petruchio & Katherine (T.S.)
Beatrice & Benedick (MAAN)
Orlando & Rosalind (AYLI)
Leontes & Hermione (WT)
Ferdinand & Miranda (TEMP)

Others:
Biron & Rosaline (LLL)
Lorenzo & Jessica (MV)
Claudio & Hero ( MAAN)
Oliver & Celia (AYLI)
Claudio & Juliet (M/M)
Florizel & Perdita (WT)
Antipholus & Adriana (CE)
Julia & Proteus/Silvia & Valentine (2 G of V)
Helena & Demetrius (AMND)
Hermia & Lysander (AMND)
Orsino & Viola (12th N)
Sebastian & Olivia (12th N)

Lovers:

It has been said that Love makes the world go round; no doubt it does, (as well as greed, lust and revenge). It also makes Shakespeare's plays go 'round, (as well as greed, lust and revenge).
Shakespeare was certainly diverse in the way he paired up his romancers, from the adolescent love-at-first-sight of Miranda and Ferdinand (Temp.) through the youthful fires of Rosalind and Orlando (AYLI), the riper, but not less romantic collisions of Beatrice and Benedick (MAAN), to the mellowed re-kindling between Leontes and Hermione (WT).

Please note: this is not a mechanical catalog of all Shakespeare's lovers but a selection of those relationships which, despite obstacles and resistance, were all resolved in "happy endings", in those plots where it seemed that this resolution was the prime objective.

Some cases are fairly simple; others made more complex by the triangles, quadrangles and complicated tangles of disguisings and mistaken identities. Yet through all these convolutions, the lovers are ultimately brought into a happy union. 'Happy', in that none of them dies by the plays conclusion.
Where other factors enter into the scheme, like lust, ambition or revenge, the chemical combustion erupts into destruction and the inevitable tragedy...these are the Losers. But first a word about the Lusters.