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L
ove’s Labour’s Lost is the
most conspicuously poetic
of all Shakespeare’s plays,
with nearly two-thirds of the play
in rhyming verse. Its clever word-
play must have delighted the
intellectual elite at the Elizabethan
court, who counted this among
their favorite Shakespeare plays.
However, the play’s contemporary
in-jokes have often been lost on
audiences since then, and in
the 18th and 19th centuries, it
was the least performed of all
Shakespeare’s plays. Audiences
watching the play can all too easily
feel like the constable Dull, who,
when the schoolteacher Holofernes
comments, “Thou hast spoken
no word all this while,” replies,
“Nor understood none neither, sir”
(5.1.14 2–14 4).The poetic knot-garden
In recent years, directors have
found ways to release the play’s
witty comedy and sweet romance
and make the most of its ingenious
structure, likened by some to the
elaborate Elizabethan knot garden
that the pretentious Spaniard
Armado alludes to in his letter to
the king. It is a play that may be
clever, but it also has a heart thatgoes beyond mere verbal tricks,
as the surprisingly nuanced and
affecting ending bears out.
The set-up is very simple. With
the country at peace, the King of
Navarre calls upon his lords to do
nothing but study for three years—
to eat little, to sleep little, and to
renounce the company of women.
The joke is, of course, that they
don’t have a chance at succeeding,
least of all the king. As Biron, the
least convinced of his lords, points
out: “‘Item: If any man be seen to
talk with a woman within the term
of three years, he shall endure such
public shame as the rest of the
court can possibly devise.’ / This
article, my liege, yourself must
break; For well you know here
comes in embassy / The French
king’s daughter with yourself to
speak” (1.1.128–133). So already
the king must make exception
for the French king’s daughter
and her ladies—and as soon as
this first exception is made, the
whole plan quickly breaks down.
Much of the humor hinges
on how the lords and the king
pretend to each other that they
are not falling under the romantic
spell of the ladies, while the
ladies amuse themselves watchingIN CONTEXT
THEMES
Romance, flirting, chastity,
word-play, cycle of lifeSETTING
Navarre,a kingdom
between France and SpainSOURCES
16th century The Italian
tradition of commedia dell’
arte, with stock characters,
especially a pedant, a
braggart, and a fool, appears
to have been a source.1586 L’A c a d é m i e F r a n ç a i s e
by Pierre de la Primaudaye,
which appeared in English
in about 1586, outlined
philosophical thinking in the
French court in the late 16th
century, and may have been
an influence on Shakespeare.LEGACY
1597 A performance before the
Queen (Elizabeth I) “this last
Christmas” is referred to on the
title page of the first edition.1817 Literary critic William
Hazlitt notes, “If we were to
part with any of the author’s
comedies, it should be this.”1837 First performance since
Shakespeare’s time.1946 A bold production by
Peter Brook at the RSC based
the play on the fêtes galantes
(bucolic landscape) paintings
of French artist Watteau.
2012 Deafinitely Theatre’s
production of Love’s Labour’s
Lost at the Globe is the first
full-length Shakespeare play
entirely in sign language.LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST
These are barren tasks,
too hard to keep –
Not to see ladies, study, fast,
not sleep.
Biron
Act 1, Scene 1British director Kenneth Branagh
made his movie version of Love’s
Labour’s Lost (2000) a romantic 1930s
Hollywood musical. Here, the young
lords anticipate the arrival of the ladies.