Question: Would it be proper to use a [valediction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valediction) ("complimentary close") in a newspaper or magazine message wholly devoted to congratulating the media's readers with the New Year or some other holiday? 

An example message from the staff of a made-up media:

> 
> Dear readers! 
> 
> 
> From the bottom of our hearts we... 
> 
> 
> Yours sincerely, Russian Industrial News' editorial staff.
> 
> 
> 

Or are valedictions more fit for personal communication? 

P.S. In Russia, such congratulatory newspaper messages are ended with a no-frills bottom-positioned line like "Editorial staff of [name of media]." I became curious whether this would work in an English-language media, or should one add something to embellish the ending.

Answer: 
*Would* in both cases indicates a desire or intent, but the Shakespearean instance is more forceful. 

I'm no [hermeneutician](https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/), but the Corinthians verse opens with *θέλω*, which is straightforwardly translated as *I want* or *I wish*. Merriam-Webster lists this use of *would* as archaic, whereas OALD simply calls it "[literary](http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/would#would__194)":

> 
> **would that…** (literary): used to express a strong wish
> 
> 
> 

References to God (or the devil) intensify. *Would to God [that]* on its own can stand as an old-fashioned interjection, and in such cases the *would* cannot always be directly substituted with *want* or *wish* (*How I hoped she would leave him. Would to God!*).
The verb *will* in the past meant *wish*. This sense is mostly lost in contemporary speech, but can be seen in the saying "where there is a will there is a way". 

The modal *will* we normally use today, is related to this old sense, but still different.

This old sense of *will* is similar to (and cognate with) the Latin *volo, volere*, which you probably have in Romanian as well. 

In terms of what the above sentences mean, you could read them as:

For I *might wish* that all men were even as I myself. (1 Corinthians 7:7)

I *wish* to God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. (2H4 I.ii.219-220)

If you're translating these to Romanian in your head, use the subjunctive.