The poems first stanzas seemed unremarkable, but the ones that followed would be familiar to most English majors.
Thats because Veronese had stumbled upon a rare, undocumented copy of one of Shakespeares most famous sonnets.
In his defense, the two versions of the sonnet are quite different.
The recently discovered Sonnet 116.© University of Oxford
Smith was not involved in the study.
In addition to a different beginning, the adaptation also has a different ending and extra lines.
According to the study, the additional lines likely served the purpose of making the song longer.
However, Veronese argues that the different version may have also been politically motivated.
From 1642 to 1651, England was wracked bythree civil warsbetween King Charles I and Parliament.
So whileLove alters not with his brief hours and weekssonnets might!
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