He had the "Love-sonnets from the Portuguese" in mind as he wrote, and he wrote under the best conditions for great work, at a climacteric of living, in the throes of his own sweet love-madness.

For the first time, it is claimed, we can gaze into the soul of the man who wrote the soliloquys of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and the love sonnets.

As a country, we have produced some of the most romantic writing ever produced in any language - from Shakespeare's sonnets to touching love letters written by Winston Churchill.