When Luke Howard vowed to play the piano in public until his ex-girlfriend took him back, he thought it was a truly romantic gesture.
But the lovesick 34-year-old was forced to abandon his performance after just two days amid a barrage of criticism from women.
Social media users branded Howard a “stalker” and a “creep” for trying to win support in a city park and online.
Howard said he had naively turned himself into the largest fool in England’s West Country.
The musician, from Bath, took his piano to College Green in Bristol after breaking up with his girlfriend of four months, who he referred to only as his “Rapunzel”.
He began playing on Saturday morning and described the performance as his “last throw of the dice”.
He added: “I just want her to know how much I love her, to give us a chance rather than leave it there. I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet.”
But his gesture wasn’t well received online. One woman wrote on Twitter: “Sense of entitlement here is awful. She’s a sentient being with her own ability to make decisions. He should move on and stop being a brat.”
Another said: “He’s trying to publicly coerce someone who privately rejected him. It’s weird and borderline abusive.”
Jo Brodie posted: “Isn’t this a bit creepy?”
Howard eventually gave up, revealing he had been assaulted while playing at 4am on Sunday.
He said: “I am just a guy who was trying, albeit naively, to show someone how much he loved them.
“And I am very sorry that has offended so many. My intention was never, ever to coerce, emotionally force or use pity to bring this girl back.
“She is one of the strongest-willed human beings I have ever met, so to suggest she would succumb to such a tactic is insulting to her.”
He added: “I know people in my situation will send flowers or text or write letters, but that only ever seems to make things worse.
“The more I thought, the worse it became, and the only thing I could think to do was play.”
He went on: “The social media reaction turned it very quickly into something that would cause the one person I didn’t want to hurt embarrassment and pain. So I left.”
Howard denied the performance was a public relations stunt. “Call me a stalker, sociopath, creep or whatever you like, because frankly it doesn’t matter,” he said.
“I stopped playing because I realised that what I had wanted to do had spectacularly failed.”