William Shakespeare may be famous for penning heterosexual love stories like Romeo and Juliet, but a newly discovered miniature portrait with a hidden secret has historians believing the man behind the prose may have had a secret gay lover.A previously unknown portrait of Shakespeares first patron, Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton, has historians and Shakespeare scholars thinking it may be proof that the British playwright had a secret gay affair. In the miniature, Wriothesleys long blonde ringlets, fair skin, and pearl earring make him look more androgynous than he does in other portraits. Ive seen other images of Southampton, but none as gorgeous or as androgynous as this, Shakespeare scholar Sir Jonathan Bate told The Times. Wriothesley also sports a floral night jacket, which, when combined with the intimate pose he is clutching his hair to his chest paints an erotic picture by Elizabethan standards that has historians interpreting that the two men had a closer relationship than previously thought.I think it must have been for a very, very close friend or lover, art historian Elizabeth Goldring said. (@) But its a detail on the back of the portrait that leads historians to believe that not only were they lovers, but Shakespeare had a broken heart.Like many miniature portraits of the period, it was mounted on the back of a playing card. But instead of finding an intact piece of a playing card, the historians found a card in the suit of hearts, where the heart was covered up with a spade (or maybe a spear).By todays standard, that seems like an innocuous fact, but according to art historian Emma Rutherford, this is further proof that this portrait was for Shakespeares eyes only and confirms he was heartbroken.I just couldnt quite believe what I was seeing, Rutherford said. Ive seen hundreds of 16th-century miniatures; they are intensely private images. This just felt like something even more private than the face seen on the other side. We had never seen a playing card reverse vandalised like this with the obliteration of a heart.And to get to the back of a miniature in Elizabethan England, you would have to have prised it out of a very, very expensive locket. This feels like a really passionate act.Goldring agrees and added that you cant escape the conclusion that this was done by someone who thought theyd had their heart broken.The miniature dates from the 1590s, at the same time when Shakespeare dedicated his erotic narrative poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) to Wriothesley. Scholars also believe that Wriothesley is the central character, Fair Youth, from the sonnets.