Shakespeare is still reliable with the ladies, says online dating study

"Language was invented for one reason, boys, to woo women," Robin Williams' Dead Poets Society character, Mr. Keating, tells a class of boarding school teens by way of explaining the value of poetry. "And in that endeavor, laziness will not do."  

This is a lesson today's lazier online daters would do well to take to heart. Because it seems that invoking the greatest practitioner of the English language will significantly boost your chances of getting a response, according to a study by Match.com.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death on Saturday, the world's largest online dating service trawled its database for mentions of the Bard -- and discovered how successful members who used his name and works can be. 

Men looking for women who mention or quote Shakespeare in their profiles had a 27% greater chance of getting a response, the site says. That could have something to do with the fact that 30% of women on the service describe themselves as "literary." 

And where in America do online daters mention Shakespeare the most? Nope, not New York, San Francisco, or even famed locations for Shakespeare festivals like Ashland, Oregon.

Nope, it's Kalamazoo, Michigan, which apparently is not just about craft beers and Gibson guitars. Second place goes to Boise, Idaho. Montgomery, Alabama, is the third most Shakespeare-friendly town when it comes to dating, while Washington D.C. is fourth.

If you're suddenly inclined to spruce up your profile with some Shakespeare, you could do worse than brushing up on all 154 of his sonnets, which have been known to impress a paramour or two (such as Gwyneth Paltrow's character in the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love). 

Lucky for you, the sonnets have all been annotated on Genius. Because while laziness will never do, there are always smarter ways to do your homework. 

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