If you can forget for a second that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is an adulterer, it’s hard not to be smitten with the guy after reading those e-mails to his mistress Maria Belen Chapur. They’re over the top, but they’re supposed to be. That’s what love letters are for. Absolutes. Exaggeration. Nonsensical promises. Mentions of eternity.
Romance, as it turns out, is not dead. It may be cheating on its wife, but it’s not dead.
Sanford isn’t the only modern man who embraces the art of the classic, swoony, love letter. Remember Boston Magazine’s story about Red Sox owner John Henry courting his now-wife, Linda Pizzuti? Henry’s e-mails quoted by the magazine were Shakespearean - in some cases, right out of a Bronte novel, or maybe “Twilight.’’
If you have any doubt about how Sanford (or Henry, for that matter) stacks up against the best romantics in history, I dare you to try to distinguish his words from some of the most famous love letters and beloved fictional proclamations of adoration. It won’t be as easy as you think. (Answers below.)
1. The anxiety shown about our loves in your last note is an immense pleasure to me; however you must not suffer such speculations to molest you any more: nor will I any more believe you can have the least pique against me.
2. I barely know you. I don’t have any illusions about capturing your heart. But the world is brighter, better, lighter, and warmer when a man imbues a woman he knows - even tabula rasa - with the attributes that I believe reside in you. It’s the small things that ultimately matter, the subtle things. I am honest. I don’t play games. And I see no reason not to say that I’ve been smitten by you and you’ve done me a great service.
3. The rarest of all commodities in this world is love. It is that thing that we all yearn for at some level to be simply loved unconditionally for nothing more than who we are not what we can get, give or become.
4. My heart is full of so many things to say to you - ah - there are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all - Cheer up - remain my true, my only treasure, my all as I am yours.
5. A man needs a muse. Well, he doesn’t really. He doesn’t need nearly as much as he generally thinks he does. A man is greedy. Greedy for what he doesn’t think he has and what he thinks he wants.
6. In the last hundred years or so, I never imagined anything like this. I didn’t believe I would ever find someone I wanted to be with . . . And then to find, even though it’s all new to me, that I’m good at it . . . at being with you. . .
7. Sometimes you don’t choose things, they just happen . . . I can’t redirect my feelings and I am very happy with mine towards you. . .’’
8. Best Wishes.
9. Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire.
10. I have been specializing in staying focused on decisions and actions of the head for a long time now and you have my heart. You have oh so many attributes that pulls it in this direction. Do you really comprehend how beautiful your smile is? Have you been told lately how warm your eyes are and how they softly glow with the special nature of your soul?
Answers: 1. John Keats 2. Red Sox owner John Henry 3. Governor Mark Sanford 4. Ludwig van Beethoven 5. John Henry 6. Edward Cullen, of “Twilight’’ 7. Mark Sanford 8. Bill Clinton (to Monica Lewinsky) 9. Napoleon Bonaparte 10. Mark Sanford
Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com. You can read her daily Love Letters dispatch and chat with her every Wednesday at 1 p.m. at www.boston.com/loveletters. 
