International Journal of Development in Social Sciences and Humanities

William Shakespeare, one of the greatest poet of the Renaissance era, is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English Language, the world’s pre-eminent dramatist, England’s national poet and rightly nicknamed as the Bard of Avon. This renowned, appreciated, universal writer has touched almost every aspect of life, be it love, friendship, marriage, jealousy, lust or life itself. His works, especially his sonnets and plays reveal him best as a friend and an intense lover. He often portrays the complicated nature of friendship in his works and regards ‘friends' both as a source of joy and profound unity and of sorrow and suffering too. His love for his friend and glorification of friendship, that transcend time, is well presented in his Sonnet 104, “To me, fair friend, you can never be old..” whereas his complaint, regret and disappointment in friendship is revealed in his well known comedy, As you like it, “…most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly, most loving mere folly..”