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Your favourite Shakespeare lovers revealed

Who did you choose as your favourite couple?

Editorial Staff
London London's West End Off-West End
Olivia Vinall (Desdemona), Adrian Lester (Othello), Josette Simon (Cleopatra), Antony Byrne (Mark Antony), Ray Fearon (Macbeth) and Tara Fitzgerald (Lady Macbeth)
Olivia Vinall (Desdemona), Adrian Lester (Othello), Josette Simon (Cleopatra), Antony Byrne (Mark Antony), Ray Fearon (Macbeth) and Tara Fitzgerald (Lady Macbeth)
© Johan Persson/Helen Maybanks/Marc Brenner

To celebrate Shakespeare's birthday week (hitting the big 453), we asked you to vote for your favourite Shakespeare couples. The results were pretty resounding.

First up with almost a whopping 49 per cent of votes are the classic fun-loving lovers Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing. No surprise there. But second in the running was more of an eyebrow raiser, you guys picked Lord and Lady Macbeth – that murderous duo who cause such destruction up in Scotland. What on earth about them appealed to you we just could not fathom.

Third in the running was a little more predictable, it's the star cross'd lovers Romeo and Juliet. Their doomed love-story has clearly been melting hearts from the moment it was first staged to now.

1. Beatrice and Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing) – 49%

2. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) – 8%

3. Romeo and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) – 7.5%

So there you have it. The Italian lovers are unmistakably your favourites.

Other entries to pop up included Bottom and Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Iago and Cassio (Othello) and Heminges and Condell, the editors of the Bard's First Folio.

Do you agree? Let us know over on Facebook or Twitter who your favourites are.