Love’s Labour’s Lost

Introduction

This is a play about love and language. Is love a tyranny or does it inspire and educate? The word-play is as vibrant and complex as in any Shakespeare play. This is a comedy but it does not end like one. There are no marriages: ‘Our wooing does not end like an old play: jack hath not Jill. These ladies might well have made our sport a comedy.’ The ‘sport’ are the games of verbal jousting and courtship. This ending is highly unusual for the comedies, and yet the final scene of the play is as masterfully orchestrated as anything in Shakespeare. The great question posed by Love’s Labour’s Lost is whether it is better to immerse oneself in life and love or to withdraw into a world of studious contemplation.

In the kingdom of Navarre King Ferdinand and his three courtiers vow to devote themselves to three years of self-denial, contemplation and study. They specifically swear off women. The entire community is expected to follow suit. The strains of such a vow surface immediately but then we learn that the Princess of France and three of her ladies are arriving on a ‘diplomatic mission’ and the comedy ensues. A series of misadventures and cross purposes begin as the four gentlemen discreetly advance their romantic interest, each pursuing one of the four women. When they are exposed to each other for breaking their vow of celibacy, they determine that love itself is worthy of inclusion on their curriculum of learning. Chaos naturally ensues when word arrives that the Princess’s father has died, as the real world comes crashing in and blows away the fantasy of the eight lovers into thin air. The women must leave the men but they instruct them to live a full year in celebrate seclusion for when they return.

Berowne is the lead character among the men. He is extremely skeptical of the King’s plan to devote three years to study with the avoidance of women and sure enough, he falls in love with the first woman he sees, The French Princess. He mocks himself for being so weak and indulgent but also enjoys every minute of his digression. This is a very silly play, enriched with every means of linguistic dexterity imaginable, from rhymes, puns, sonnets, invented language, rhetoric, parody and farce, and Berowne’s depth of character highlights the profound truths amid the games between the men and the women. His speech on love and women in Act IV is a tour de force and a rhetorical triumph of parody. Rosaline is a perfect match for Berowne, possessing his wit and charm a plenty. They are immediately drawn to one another and determine to have as much mischievous fun as possible along the way. The other three couples do the same on a smaller stage. The four couples comprise the main plot but there is a secondary story involving Armado, a refined but pretentious Spanish traveller, who has fallen in love with a local village girl and dairymaid name Jaquenetta. A simple countryman, Costard, is also in love with Jaquenetta. Their story at times parallels that of the King and his courtiers. Finally, the school master, Holofernes, is something of a linguist and swaps his complex wordplay with Sir Nathaniel, the dim witted old curate. The three groups (gentlemen, ladies and commoners) finally come together in Act V in a fabulous flurry of plot twists. The play becomes quite serious in the end, just when we expect the comedy to lighten up and conclude as comedies do, with vows of love and multiple marriages. No other comedy by Shakespeare ends with such erotic defeat.

The play is very simple in plot and very complex in language. The King expects his courtiers to go along with his edict but we know very early on that they don’t stand a chance and we delight in the humour of the four men trying to pretend to one another, and to the ladies themselves, that they are not falling in love, when clearly the are. The plot could not be simpler. Yet the game of words is intensely intricate and at times even nonsensical. It is a festival of language on love and Shakespeare seems to seek out the limits of his linguistic abilities, only to discover that there are none. This discovery leads him directly into a lyrical crescendo of work, including Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice.

Act I (2 scenes)

Scene i

Navarre. The King’s park

Enter the King, Berowne, Longaville and Dumain

King: “Our late edict shall strongly stand in force: Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; our court shall be a little academy, still and contemplative in living art. You three, Berowne, Dumain and Longaville, have sworn for three years’ term to keep those statutes that are recorded in this schedule here.”

Longaville: “I am resolved; ’tis but a three year fast. The mind shall banquet, though the body pine.”

Dumain: “My loving lord, Dumain is mortified. The grosser manner of these world’s delights he throws upon the gross world’s baser slaves.”

Berowne: “I have already sworn to live and study here three years. But there are other other strict observances, such as: not to see a woman in that term, which I hope well is not enrolled there; and one day in a week to touch no food, and but one meal on every day beside, the which I hope is not enrolled there; and then to sleep but three hours in the night, which I hope well is not enrolled there. O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep, not to see ladies, study, fast and not to sleep. My liege, I only swore to study with your grace, and stay here in your court for three years.”

Longaville: “You swore to that, Berowne, and to the rest.”

Berowne: “By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. Come on; I will swear to study so, as thus: to study where I well may dine, or study where to meet some mistress fine.”

King: “These be the stops that hinder study quite, and train our intellects to vail delight.”

Berowne: “Study me how to please the eye indeed, by fixing it upon a fairer eye.”

Longaville: “He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding.”

King: “Well, sit you out; go home, Berowne; adieu.”

Berowne: “No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you; yet confident I’ll keep what I have sworn, and bide the penance of each three years’ day. Give me the paper; and to the strictest decrees I’ll write my name.”

King: “How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!”

Berowne: (reads) “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. Therefore this article is made in vain, or vainly comes the admired princess hither.”

King: “We must of force dispense with this decree; she must lie here on mere necessity.”

Berowne: “Necessity will make us all forsworn three thousand times within this three year space; if I break faith, this word shall speak for me: I am forsworn on mere necessity. So to the laws at large I write my name.”

Berowne subscribes

Berowne: “And he that breaks them in the least degree stands in eternal shame. I am the last who will last keep his oath.”

King: “Ay, that there is. Our court, you know, is haunted with a refined traveller of Spain, that hath a mint of phrases in his brain; I protest I love to hear him lie, and will use him for my minstrelsy.”

Berowne: “Armado is a most illustrious wit, a man of fire-new words.”

Enter Constable Dull, with a letter, and Costard

Dull: “Which is the Duke’s own person?”

Berowne: “This is he.”

Dull: “Signor Arme – Arme – commends you. There’s villainy abroad; this letter will tell you more.”

Costard: “Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me.”

King: “A letter from the magnificent Armado.”

Costard: “The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.”

Berowne: “In what manner?”

Costard: “In manner and form following, sir; I was seen with her in the manor house and following her into the park. Now, sir, for the manner – it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman.”

King: (reads) “As I am a gentleman, I betook myself to walk. I walked upon thy park, where I did encounter that obscene and preposterous event. There did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth.”

Costard: “Me?”

King: (reads) “That unlettered small-knowing soul.”

Costard: “Me?”

King: (reads) “That shallow vassal.”

Costard: “Still me?”

King: (reads) “Which, as I remember, is Costard.”

Costard: “O, me!”

King: (reads) “Sorted and consorted, contrary to thy established proclaimed edict.”

Costard: “With a wench.”

King: (reads) “With a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; a woman. Him I have sent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy sweet Grace’s officer, Anthony Dull, a man of good repute.”

Dull: “I am Anthony Dull.”

King: (reads) “For Jaquenetta – so is the weaker vessel called – I keep her as a vessel of thy law’s fury; and shall bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty, Don Adriano de Armado.”

King: “Sirrah, what say you to this.”

Costard: “Sir, I confess the wench.”

King: “Did you hear the proclamation?”

Costard: “I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.”

King: “It was proclaimed a year’s imprisonment to be taken with a wench.”

Costard: “I was taken with none, sir; I was taken with a damsel.”

King: “Well, it was proclaimed damsel.”

Costard: “This was no damsel neither, sir; she was a virgin.”

King: “It was proclaimed virgin.”

Costard: “If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.”

King: “This ‘maid’ will not serve your turn, sir.”

Costard: “This maid will serve my turn, sir.”

King: “I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week with bran and water.”

Costard: “I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.”

King: “And Don Armado shall be your keeper. And go we, lords, to put in practice that which each to other hath so strongly sworn.”

Exit King, Longaville and Dumain

Berowne: “I’ll lay my head to any good man’s that these oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.”

Costard: “I suffer for the truth, sir; for true it is I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl.”

Analysis

The King wants to turn Navarre into ‘a wonder of the world’ as an academy of learning. He presents his idea to his three courtiers, Berowne, Longaville and Dumain. They will study hard for three years, fast, sleep little and see no women. The three courtiers are asked by the King to sign an oath that they will fulfill these expectations. Longaville and Dumain sign right up but Berowne has some concerns with the parts about no women, less sleep and fasting, although he eventually signs on as well. He also points out that the King is bound to violate the agreement, as the Princess of France and three of her ladies are arriving on a ‘diplomatic mission’. A constable arrives with a letter and with Costard. The letter is written by Armado and it concerns Costard having been seen with the local country dairy maid, Jaquenetta. The King punishes Costard with a week of fasting on bran and water alone. Costard will not be the last of the King’s close subjects to struggle with the laws regarding the prohibition of all contact with women, as we can sense from Berowne’s reluctance to sign and commit to the oath.

Act I

Scene ii

The Park

Enter Armado and Moth, his page

Armado: “Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit grows melancholy?”

Moth: “A great sign, sir, that he will look sad.”

Armado: “Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.”

Moth: “No, no!”

Armado: “How can thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal? I have promised to study three years with the King. I will hereupon confess that I am in love. And as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. Comfort me, boy; what great men have been in love?”

Moth: “Hercules, master.”

Armado: “Most sweet Hercules! Name more.”

Moth: “Samson, master.”

Armado: “O, well-knit Samson! Boy, I do love that country girl that I took in the park with the rational hind, Costard.”

Enter Constable Dull, Costard and Jaquenetta

Dull: “Sir, the King’s pleasure is that you keep Costard safe. For this damsel, I must keep her at the park.”

Armado: “I do betray myself with blushing. Maid!”

Jaquenetta: “Man!”

Armado: “I will tell thee wonders.”

Jaquenetta: “With that face?”

Armado: “I love thee. And so, farewell.”

Exit Dull and Jaquenetta

Armado: “Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences. Thou shalt be heavily punished. Take away this villain. Shut him up.”

Moth: “Come, you transgressing slave, away.”

Costard: “Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose.”

Moth: “No, sir; that were fast and loose. Thou shalt to prison.”

Exit Moth and Costard

Armado: “I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn – if I love. Love is a familiar; love is a devil. There is no evil angel but love. Adieu, valour; for your manager is in love. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet, device, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.”

Analysis

Don Armado confesses to Moth, his page, that he has fallen in love with Jaquenetta, even though he has sworn to be a part of the King’s celibate academy for the next three years. He witnesses Costard being taken away to prison and laments that surely his oath to the King will be forsworn due to his love for Jaquenetta. Both Costard and Armado have violated their oaths in Act I. Now the Princess of France and her three ladies are arriving and the King and his three courtiers await. As the lesser characters go, so go the main men of court.

Act II (1 scene)

Scene I

The Park

Enter The Princess of France, with her three attending ladies: Rosaline, Maria and Katherine, Boyet, their manservant and two lords

Boyet: “Now, madam, consider who the King your father sends, to whom he sends, and what’s his embassy: yourself, held precious in the world’s esteem, to parley with the sole inheritor of all perfections that a man may owe, matchless Navarre. be now as prodigal of all dear grace as nature was in making graces dear, when she did starve the general world beside and prodigally gave them all to you.”

Princess: “Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, needs not the painted flourish of your praise. I am less proud to hear you tell me my worth than you much willing to be counted wise in spending your wit in the praise of mine. But now to task the tasker: good Boyet, you are not ignorant: all-telling fame does noise abroad that Navarre hath made a vow, till painful study shall outwear three years, no woman may approach his silent court. Therefore, we single you as our best-moving fair solicitor. Tell him the daughter of the King of France , on serious business, craving quick dispatch, importunes personal conference with his Grace. Haste, signify so much.”

Boyet: “Willingly I go.”

Exit Boyet

Princess: “Who are the vow-fellows with this virtuous King?”

1 Lord: “Lord Longaville is one.”

Maria: “I know him, madam; at a marriage feast saw I this Longaville, a man of sovereign parts, peerless esteemed, well fitted in arts, glorious in arms; nothing becomes him ill that he would well. The only soil of his fair virtue’s gloss is a sharp wit matched with too blunt a will, whose edge has power to cut, whose will still wills it should none spare that comes within his power.”

Princess: “Some merry, mocking lord; is it so? Who are the rest?”

Katherine: “The young Dumain, a well accomplished youth; he hath wit to make an ill shake good. I saw him at the Duke Alencon’s once; and much too little of that good I saw is my report to his great worthiness.”

Rosaline: “Another of these students at the time was there with him. Berowne they call him; but a merrier man I have never spent an hour’s talk withal. His eye begets occasion for his wit, for every object that the one doth catch, the other turns into a mirth-moving jest, which his fair tongue, conceit’s expositor, delivers in such apt and gracious words that aged ears play truant at his tales, and younger hearers are quite ravished; so sweet and voluble is his discourse.”

Princess: “God bless my ladies! Are they all in love, that every one her own hath garnished with such bedecking ornaments of praise?

1 Lord: “Here comes Boyet.”

Enter Boyet

Princess: “Now, what admittance, lord?”

Boyet: “Navarre had notice of your fair approach, and he and his competitors in oath rather mean to lodge you in the field, like one who comes here to besiege his court, than seek a dispensation for his oath, to let you enter his unpeopled house.”

The ladies mask

Enter the King, Longaville, Dumain and Berowne

Boyet: “Here comes Navarre.”

King: “Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.”

Princess: “‘Fair’ I give you back again, and ‘welcome’ I have not yet.”

King: “You shall be welcome, madam, to my court.”

Princess: “I will be welcome then, conduct me thither.”

King: “Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath.”

Princess: “Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming, and suddenly resolve me in my suit.”

Princess hands the King a paper

Princess: “You’ll prove perjured if you make me stay.”

Berowne: “Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?”

Katherine: “Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?”

Berowne: I know you did.”

Katherine: “How needless was it then to ask the question!”

Berowne: “You must not be so quick. Your wit is too hot, it speeds too fast, ’twill tire.”

Katherine: “Not till it leave the rider in the mire.”

Berowne: “Now fair befall your mask!”

Katherine: “Fair fall the face it covers!”

Berowne: “And send you many lovers!”

Katherine: “Amen, so you be none.”

Berowne: “Nay, then will I be gone.”

King: “Madam, your father here does intimate the payment of a hundred thousand crowns; but he or we, as neither have, received that sum, yet there remains unpaid a hundred thousand more, in surety of the which, one part of Aquitaine is bound to us. If then the king your father will restore but that one half which is unsatisfied, we will give up our right in Aquitaine, and hold fair friendship with his majesty. Here he doth demand to have repaid a hundred thousand crowns.”

Princess: “You do the king my father too much wrong, and wrong the reputation of your name, in so seeming to confess receipt of that which hath so faithfully been paid.”

King: “I do protest I never heard of it.”

Princess: “Boyet, you can produce acquittances for such a sum.”

Boyet: “The packet is not come; tomorrow you shall have a sight of them.”

King: “It shall suffice me. Meantime receive such welcome at my hand that honour, without breach of honour, may make tender of to thy true worthiness. You may not come, fair Princess, within my gates; but here without you shall be so received as you shall deem yourself lodged in my heart, though so denied fair harbour in my house. Tomorrow shall we visit you again

Exit King

Berowne: “Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.”

Rosaline: “Pray you, do my commendations; I would be glad to see it.”

Dumain: “Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that?”

Boyet: “The heir of Alencon; Katherine her name.”

Dumain: “A gallant lady! Monsieur, fair you well.”

Exit Dumain

Longaville: “I beseech you a word: what is she in the white?”

Boyet: “A woman.”

Longaville: “I desire her name.”

Boyet: “She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a shame.”

Longaville: “Pray you, sir, whose daughter?”

Boyet: “Her mother’s, I have heard.”

Boyet: “She is an heir of Falconbridge.”

Longaville: “She is a most sweet lady.”

Exit Longaville

Berowne: “What’s her name in the cap?”

Boyet: “Rosaline.”

Berowne: “Is she wedded or no?”

Boyet: “To her will, sir.”

Berowne: “You are welcome, sir, adieu!”

Boyet: “Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.”

Exit Berowne

Maria: “That last is Berowne, the merry, mad-cap lord; not a word with him but a jest.”

Boyet: “And every jest but a word. If my observation, which very seldom lies, deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.”

Princess: “Your reason?”

Boyet: “Why, all his behaviours did make their retire to the court of his eye, peeping through desire. His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see, did stumble in haste in his eyesight to be; methought all his senses were locked in his eye.”

Analysis

The Princess and her ladies arrive at Navarre and it turns out each of the women know one of the men. Boyet, the attendant to the women, informs the Princess that it is the KIng’s intention to lodge them in the field rather than break his oath and invite them into the house. The King arrives and explains that due to his oath he cannot bring her into his court. They discuss the business which has brought her to Navarre, while Longaville, Dumain and Berowne try to get information out of Boyet about the ladies they are attracted to. Boyet returns to inform the Princess that the men are clearly in love with ladies. The setup is complete. The men still maintain their vows but the woman have arrived and with them, so does the conflict regarding the vow of having no contact with the fairer sex. Giddy-up!

Act III (1 scene)

Scene i

The park

Enter Armado and Moth

Armado: “Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me a letter.”

Moth: “A message well sympathized – a horse to be ambassador for an ass.”

Exit Moth / Enter Moth with Costard

Armado: “Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.”

Costard: “Let me loose.”

Armado: “I give thee thy liberty, and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: bear this significant letter to the country maid Jaquenetta.”

Exit Armado / Enter Berowne

Berowne: “My good knave, Costard, exceedingly well met! Stay slave; I must employ thee. Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.”

Costard: “When would you have it done, sir?”

Berowne: “This afternoon.”

Costard: “Well, I will do it, sir; fare you well.”

Berowne: “Thou knowest not what it is.”

Costard: “I shall know, sir, when I have done it.”

Berowne: “Why, villain, thou must know first. It is but this: the Princess comes to hunt here in the park, and in her train there is a gentle lady; when tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, and Rosaline they call her. And to her white hand see thou do commend this sealed up counsel.”

Berowne gives Costard a shilling

Costard: “I will do it, sir.”

Exit Costard

Berowne: “What! I love! I seek a wife! will love, write, sigh, pray, sue and groan.”

Analysis

Armado sends Moth to bring Costard to him. He tells Costard that he will set him free if only he delivers a letter to Jaquenetta. Costard naturally agrees. Next, Berowne asks Costard to deliver a letter from him to Rosaline. Costard agrees again and now has two letters. Berowne waxes poetic about being in love, regardless of his oath.

Act IV (3 scenes)

Scene i

The park

Enter the Princess, Rosaline, Maria, Katherine and Boyet

Boyet: “Here comes a member of the commonwealth.”

Costard: “Pray you, which is the head lady?”

Princess: “What’s your will, sir?”

Costard: “I have a letter from Monsieur Berowne to one Lady Rosaline.”

Boyet: “This letter is mistook; it is written to Jaquenetta.”

Princess: “We will read it, and everyone give ear.”

Boyet: (reads) “By heaven, that thou art fair is most infallible; true that thou art beauteous; truth itself that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair; truer than truth itself. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? I will. Thus expecting thy reply, Don Armado.”

Boyet: “This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; one that makes sport to the King and his book-mates.”

Princess: “Fellow, a word. Who gave thee this letter? To whom should thou give it?”

Costard: “From my Lord Berowne, to a lady of France that he called Rosaline.”

Princess: “Thou hast mistaken his letter.”

Analysis

Costard finds the Princess and thinks he gives her the letter from Berowne to Rosaline, when in actuality he gives her the letter from Armado to Jaquenetta. Confusion reigns as the lords and the lesser mechanicals begin to shun their vows. Love is clearly in the air of Navarre.

Act IV

Scene ii

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel and Dull

Holofernes: (to Dull) “O thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!“

Nathaniel: “Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book. He hath not eaten paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink; his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts. You, on the other hand, have a rare talent, sir.”

Holofernes: “This is a gift that I have; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of Pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.”

Nathaniel: “Sir, I praise the lord for you, and so may my parishioners; for their sons are well tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you. You are a good member of the commonwealth.”

Enter Jaquenetta and Costard

Jaquenetta: “Good Master Parson, be so good as read me this letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado. I beseech you read it.”

Nathaniel: (reads) “‘If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? to thee I’ll faithful prove; if knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend. Celestial as thou art, O, pardon love this wrong, that singes heaven’s praise with such an earthly tongue.'”

Holofernes: “Damosella virgin, was this directed to you?”

Jaquenetta: “Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Berowne, one of the strange queen’s lords.”

Holofernes: “I will overglance the superscript: ‘To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline’. This Berowne hath miscarried. Deliver this paper into the royal hand of the King; it may concern much.”

Jaquenetta: “Good Costard, go with me, sir.”

Exit Costard and Jaquenetta

Analysis

After Holofernes and Nathaniel banter back and forth critically of Constable Dull and with praise for the intellect of Holofernes, Jaquenetta and Costard arrive and ask Nathaniel and Holofernes to read a letter they believe is from Don Armado, but it turns out to be from Berowne and is directed to Rosaline. Holofernes instructs them to deliver it right to the King, which is when it gets very interesting for Berowne, in the upcoming scene.

Act IV

Scene III

The park

Enter Berowne, alone, with paper in his hand.

Berowne: “I will not love; if I do, hang me. In faith, I will not. O, but her eye! By this light, but for her eye, I would not love her – yes for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love; and it hath taught me to rhyme and to be melancholy. Well, she hath one of my sonnets already; the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! Here comes one with a paper.”

Berowne climbs into a tree so as not to be seen

King: “Ay, me!”

Berowne: “Shot, by heaven! Proceed, sweet Cupid.”

King: (reads) “‘O queen of queens! How far dost thou excel no thought can think nor tongue of mortal tell.’ Who is he comes here?”

The King steps aside

Enter Longaville with a paper

Berowne: “Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appears!“

Longaville: “Ay me, I am forsworn!”

King: “In love, I hope; sweet fellowship in shame!”

Longaville: “Am I the first that has been perjured so?”

Berowne: “I could put thee in comfort: not by two that I know.; thou makest the triumvirate.”

Longaville: “O sweet Maria, empress of my love! This same shall go: (reads) ‘Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but I will prove, thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: my vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; thy grace being gained cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vaporizer is. If by me broke, what fool is not so wise to lose an oath to win a paradise?'”

Berowne: “Pure, pure idolatry. God amend us!”

Enter Dumain with a paper

Dumain: “All hid, all hid. O heavens, I have my wish! Dumain transformed!”

Dumain: “O most divine Kate!”

Berowne: “O most profane coxcomb!”

Dumain: “By heaven, the wonder in a mortal eye! O that I had my wish!”

Longaville: “And I had mine!”

King: “And I mine too, good lord!”

Dumain: “I would forget her; but a fever she reigns in my blood, and will remembered be. Once more I’ll read the ode that I have writ.”

Berowne: “Once more I’ll mark how love can vary wit.”

Dumain: (reads) “‘Do not call it sin in me that I am forsworn for thee.’ This will I send. O would the King, Berowne and Longaville, were lovers too! Ill, to example Ill, would from my forehead wipe a perjured note; for none offend where all alike do dote.“

Longaville: (advancing) “Dumain, you may look pale, but I should blush, I know, to be overheard.”

King: (advancing) “Come, sir, you blush; as his, your case is such. I have been closely shrouded in this bush, and marked you both, and for you both did blush. I heard your guilty rhymes, observed your fashion, saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion. ‘Ay me!’ says one. ‘O Jove!’ the other cries. (to Longaville) You would for paradise break faith and truth. (to Dumain) And Jove for your love would infringe an oath. What will Berowne say what that he shall hear? How will he scorn? How will he spend his wit! How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it! For all the wealth that ever I did see, I would not have him know so much by me.”

Berowne: (descending the tree) “Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy. Ah, good my liege, I pray thee pardon me, good heart, what grace hast thou thus to reprove these worms for loving, that are most in love? Are you not ashamed? All three of you. O, what a scene of foolery have I seen, of sighs, of groans, of sorrow. O me, with what strict patience have I sat, to see a King transformed into a gnat! Where lies thy grief, O, tell me, good Dumain? And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain? And where’s my liege’s?”

King: “Too bitter is thy jest. Are we betrayed thus to thy over-view?”

Berowne: “Not you by me, but I betrayed by you. I that am honest, I that hold it sin to break the vow I am engaged in ; I am betrayed by keeping company with men like you, men of inconstancy. When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme? When shall you hear that I will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye, a brow, a breast, a waist, a leg…”

Enter Jaquenetta and Costard

King: “What present hast thou there?”

Costard: “Some certain treason.”

Jaquenetta: “I beseech your Grace, let this letter be read.”

King: “Berowne, read it over.”

Berowne reads the letter / Berowne tears the letter

King: “How now! Why dost thou tear it?”

Berowne: “A toy, my liege, a toy! Your Grace needs not fear it.”

Longaville: “Let’s hear it.”

Dumain: “It is Berowne’s writing, and here is his name.”

They gather up the pieces

Berowne: (to Costard) “Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, you were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty! I confess, I confess!”

King: “What?”

Berowne: “That you three fools lacked me fool to make up the mess; he, he, and you – my liege – and I are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more.”

Dumain: “Now the number is even.”

Berowne: “True, true, we are four. Will these turtles be gone?”

King: “Hence, sirs away.”

Costard: “Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay.”

Exit Costard and Jaquenetta

Berowne: “Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O, let us embrace! As true we are as flesh and blood can be. Young blood doth not obey an old decree. Who sees the heavenly Rosaline and dares look upon the heaven of her brow that is not blinded by her majesty? My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Berowne. O, but for my love, day would turn to night! Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues.”

King: “Are we not all in love?”

Berowne: “All forsworn.”

King: “Then leave this chat; and, good Berowne, now prove our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.”

Dumain: “Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil.”

Longaville: “O, some authority how to proceed; some tricks, how to cheat the devil!”

Dumain: “Some salve for perjury.”

Berowne: “Consider what you first did swear unto: to fast, to study, and to see no women – flat treason against the kingly state of youth. Say, can you fast? Your stomachs are too young, and abstinence engenders maladies. For when would you, my lord, or you, or you, have found the ground of study’s excellence without the beauty of a woman’s face? From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive: they are the ground, the books, the academies, from whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. Now, for not looking on a woman’s face, you have in that forsworn the use of eyes, and study too, the causer of your vow; for where is any author in the world teaches such beauty as a woman’s eye? Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, and where we are our learning likewise is; then when ourselves we see in ladies’ eyes, with ourselves, do we not likewise see our learning there? O, we have made a vow to study, lords, and in that vow we have forsworn our books, for when would you, my liege, or you, or you, in leaden contemplation have found out such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes of beauty’s tutors have enriched you with? Love, first learned in a lady’s eyes, lives not alone immured in the brain, but with the motion of all elements courses as swift as thought in every power, and gives to every power a double power, above their functions and their offices. It adds a precious seeing to the eye: a lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind. A lover’s ear will hear the lowest sound. Love’s tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste. For valour, is not love a Hercules, still climbing trees in the Hesperides? Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical as bright Apollo’s lute, strung with his hair. And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods make heaven drowsy with the harmony. Never durst poet touch a pen to write until his ink were tempered with love’s sighs; O, then his lines would ravish savage ears, and plant in tyrants mild humility. From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive. They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; they are the books, the arts, the academies, that show, contain, and nourish all the world, else none at all in aught proves excellent. Then fools you were these women to forswear; or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools. For wisdom’s sake, a word that all men love; or for love’s sake, a word that loves all men; or for men’s sake, the authors of these women; or women’s sake, by whom we men are men – let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves, or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths. It is religion to be thus forsworn; for charity itself fulfils the law, and who can sever love from charity?“

King: “Saint Cupid, then! And soldiers to the field!”

Berowne: “Advance your standards, and upon them, Lords.”

Longaville: “Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?”

King: “And win them, too; therefore let us devise some entertainment for them in their tents.”

Berowne: “Then homeward every man attach the hand of his fair mistress. We will with some strange pastime solace them, such as the shortness of the time can shape; for revels, dances, masks, and merry hours, forerun fair love, strewing her way with flowers.”

King: “Away! Away! No time shall be omitted that will betide, and may by us be fitted.”

Analysis

In one of Shakespeare’s finest overall scenes, the four men discover one another, one by one, to be in love with the four women. Berowne, hiding in a tree, sees the King reading his love letter to the Princess. Then the two of them witness the arrival of lovesick Longaville and then the three of them watch Dumain arrive with his sonnet. They eventually all become aware of one another except for Berowne who, remaining hidden, watches the entire proceeding. Just when the three men ponder what Berowne will say when he finds out that they are all in love, Berowne pops out and exposes the three as forsworn, vehemently chastising them, all the while protesting his own innocence until Jaquenetta and Costard walk in with his sonnet. He finally comes clean and the King asks Berowne to prove their loving lawful and he dives into one of Shakespeare’s finest passages on women and love. Berowne claims that their vows were a treason against their youth and that no author in the world can teach beauty as well as a woman’s eye. ‘A lover’s eye will gaze an eagle blind’ and ‘when love speaks, the voice of all the gods make heaven drowsy with the harmony.’ ‘Women’s eyes are the books, the arts, the academies that nourish all the world.’ Therefore, ‘fools you were these women to forswear, or keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.’ ‘Let us lose our oaths to find ourselves, or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.’ This speech suffices and the four lads enthusiastically resolve to woo and win the women of France, no longer hindered by these unnatural vows.

Shakespeare has passages on every conceivable subject and theme throughout his plays. This one by Berowne is among the finest. The language is stunning and the effectiveness of challenging the vows they have undertaken is absolute. This passage alone lifts the entire play to an exalted status in the canon of Shakespeare’s works and enables it to move into the Act V wooing of the Princesses, who are naturally concerned with how easily the men seem to have put aside their vows when they no longer served their interest. So on to the wooing and a unique Act V comedy resolution, in which ‘Jack hath not Jill’.

Act V (2 scenes)

Scene i

The park

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel and Dull

Nathaniel: “I praise God for you, sir. Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this day with a companion of the King’s, Don Armado.”

Holofernes: “His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain and ridiculous. He is too affected, too odd, as it were. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical, insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography. This is abominable. It insinuates insanity: to make lunatic.”

Armado: “Men of peace, well encountered.”

Holofernes: “Most military sir, salutation.”

Moth: (to Costard) “They have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps.“

Costard: “O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.”

Armado: “Sir, it is the King’s most sweet pleasure and affection to congratulate the Princess at her pavilion. The King wold have me present the Princess with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antic. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions, I have acquainted you to crave your assistance.”

Holofernes: “Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies.”

Analysis

Holofernes and Nathaniel mock Don Armado and what they consider his inferior intellect. Shakespeare makes fun of the language used by nearly all the characters in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Holofernes and Nathaniel are often indecipherable in their use of words and later in the scene when Holofernes asks Dull why has spoken no words all the while Dull admits that he has understood no words spoken either. Armado tells the learned men that the King has asked him to prepare some entertainment for the Princess and Holofernes suggests The Nine Worthies. The play within the play is a common occurrence in Shakespeare’s plays.

Act V

Scene ii

The park

Enter the Princess, Maria, Katherine and Rosaline

Princess: “Look you what I have from the loving King. As much love in rhyme as would be crammed up in a sheet of paper. But, Rosaline, you have a favour too.”

Rosaline: “I have verses too. I thank Berowne; I am compared to twenty thousand fairs. O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!”

Princess: “Katherine, what was sent to you from fair Dumain?”

Katherine: “Some thousand verses of a faithful lover; a huge translation of hypocrisy, vilely compiled profound simplicity.”

Maria: “This, and these pearls, to me sent Longaville; the letter is too long by half a mile.”

Princess: “We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.”

Rosaline: “They are worse fools to purchase mocking so. This same Berowne I’ll torture ere I go. How I would make him fawn and beg and seek, and wait the season, and observe the times, and spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes, that he would be my fool, and I his fate.”

Princess: “None are so surely caught, when they are hatched, as wit turned fool.”

Maria: “Folly in fools bears not so strong a note as foolery in the wise when wit doth dote, since all the power thereof it doth apply to prove, by wit, worthy in simplicity.”

Enter Boyet

Boyet: “O, I am stabbed with laughter!”

Princess: “Thy news, Boyet?”

Boyet: “Prepare, madam, prepare! Arm, wenches, arm! Love doth approach disguised; you’ll be surprised. Muster your wits. The King and his companions, disguised, will be here.”

Princess: “Come they to visit us?”

Boyet: “They do, they do; and are appareled thus, like Muscovites or Russians. Their purpose is to parley, court and dance unto his several mistress, which they’ll know by favours several which they did bestow.”

Princess: “Ladies, we will every one be masked. Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear, and then the King will court thee for his dear; take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine, so shall Berowne take me for Rosaline. And change your favours too; so shall your loves woo contrary. The effect of my intent is to cross theirs. They do it but in mocking merriment, and mock for mock is only my intent. There’s no such sport as sport by sport overthrown, to make theirs ours, and ours none but our own; so shall we stay, mocking intended game, and they well mocked depart away with shame.”

Boyet: “Be masked; the maskers come.”

The King and his men arrive masked as Russians / The ladies turn their backs

Boyet: “What would you with the Princess?”

Berowne: “Nothing but peace and gentle visitation.”

Princess: “Bid them so be gone.”

King: “Say to her we have measured many miles to tread a measure with her on this grass.”

Berowne: “Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face, that we, like savages, may worship it.”

King: “Will you not dance?”

Rosaline: “Since you are strangers we will not dance.”

King: “What buys your company?”

Rosaline: “Your absence only.”

King: “That can never be.”

Rosaline: “Then cannot we be bought; and so adieu.”

King: “If you deny to dance, let’s hold more chat.”

Rosaline: “In private then.”

They converse apart

Berowne: “Mistress, one sweet word with thee.”

Princess: “I’ll play no more with you.”

Berowne: “One word in secret.”

Princess: “Let it not be sweet.”

They converse apart

Boyet: “The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen as is the razor’s edge invisible.“

Rosaline: “Not one word more, my maids; back off, break off.”

King: “Farewell, mad wenches; you have simple wits.”

Princess: “Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovites.”

Rosaline: “The King is my love sworn.”

Princess: “And quick Berowne hath plighted faith to me.”

Katherine: “And Longaville was for my service born.”

Maria: “Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree.”

Boyet: “Madam and pretty mistresses; immediately they will again be here in their own shapes.”

Princess: “What shall we do if they return in their own shapes to woo?”

Rosaline: “Let’s mock them still, as well known as disguised. Let us complain to them what fools were here, disguised like Muscovites.”

Boyet: “Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand.”

Re-enter the King and his men

King: “We came to visit you, and purpose now to lead you to our court.”

Princess: “This field shall hold me, and so hold your vow: nor God, nor I, delights in perjured men.”

King: “Rebuke me not for that which you provoke. The virtue of your eye must break my oath.”

Princess: “Now by my maiden honour, I protest a world of torments though I should endure, I would not yield to be your house’s guest; so much I hate a breaking cause to be of heavenly oaths, vowed with integrity.”

King: “O, you have lived in desolation here, much to our shame.”

Princess:”Not so, my lord; I swear, we have had pastimes here, and pleasant games; a mess of Russians left us but of late.”

King: “How, madam! Russians!”

Princess: “Ay, in truth, my lord.”

Rosaline: “In Russian habit; here they stayed an hour, and in that hour, my lord, they did not bless us with one happy word. I dare not call them fools; but this I think, when they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.”

Berowne: “This jest is dry to me. Fair gentle sweet, your wit makes wise things foolish; your capacity is of that nature that to your huge store wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor.”

Rosaline: “This proves you wise and rich, for in my eye -“

Berowne: “I am a fool; and full of poverty.”

Rosaline: “But that you take what doth to you belong, it were a fault to snatch words from my tongue.”

Berowne: “O, I am yours, and all that I possess.”

Rosaline: “All the fool mine?”

Berowne: “I cannot give you less.”

Rosaline: “Which of the vizards was it that you wore?”

Berowne: “Where? When? What vizard?”

Rosaline: “That superfluous case that hid the worse and showed the better face.”

King: “We were descried; they’ll mock us now downright.”

Dumain: “Let us confess, and turn it to a jest.”

Princess: “Amazed, my lord? Why looks your Highness sad?”

Rosaline: “Help, he’ll swoon! Why look you pale? Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy.”

Berowne: “Here stand I, lady – dart thy skill at me, bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout, thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance, cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit. So God help me – my love to thee is sound. Those three, they are infected; in their hearts it lies; they have the plague, and caught if of your eyes. Our states are forfeit; seek not to undo us. Speak for yourselves; my wit is at an end.”

King: “Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression, some fair excuse.”

Princess: “When you then were here, what did you whisper in your lady’s ear?”

King: “That more than all the world I did respect her.”

Princess: “Peace, peace, forbear; your oath once broke, you force not to forswear.”

King: “Despise me when I break this oath of mine.”

Princess: “Rosaline, what did the Russian whisper in your ear?”

Rosaline: “Madam, he swore that he did hold me dear as precious eyesight, and did value me above the world, adding thereto, moreover, that he would wed me, or else die my lover.”

King: “By my life, my troth, I never swore this lady such an oath.”

Rosaline: “By heaven, you did; you gave me this.”

King: “My faith and this the Princess I did give; I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve.”

Princess: “Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear; and lord Berowne, I thank him, is my dear.”

Berowne: “Neither of either; I see the trick; knowing aforehand of our merriment, to dash it. The ladies did change favours; and then we, following the signs, woo’d but the sign of she. Now, to our perjury to add more terror, we are again forsworn in will and error. Peace, I have done.”

Enter Costard

Costard: “O lord, sir, they would know whether the Three Worthies shall come in or no?”

Berowne: “What, are here but three?”

Costard: “For every one presents three.”

Berowne: “And three times three is nine.”

Costard: “For my own part, I am Pompey the Great, sir.”

Berowne: “Are thou one of the Worthies?”

Costard: “It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompey the Great.”

Berowne: “Go, bid them prepare.”

Exit Costard

King: “Berowne, they will shame us; let them not approach.”

Berowne: “We are shame-proof, my lord, and ’tis some policy to have one show worse than the King’s and his company.”

King: “I say they shall not come.”

Princess: “Nay, my good lord, let me overrule you now. That sport best pleases that doth least know how; where zeal strives to content, and the contents die in the zeal of that which it presents. Their form confounded makes most form in mirth.”

Enter Armado / Armado delivers a paper

King: “Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies.”

Costard: “I Pompey am -“

Berowne: “You lie, you are not he.”

Costard: “I Pompey am, Pompey surnamed the Big -“

Dumain: “The Great.”

Costard: “It is great, sir. I here am come by chance, before this sweet lass of France. If your ladyship would say ‘Thanks Pompey’, I had done.”

Princess: “Great thanks, great Pompey.”

Costard: “Tis not so much worth; but I hope I was perfect. I made a little fault in Great.”

Berowne: “My hat to a half penny, Pompey proves the best worthy.”

Enter Nathaniel, as Alexander the Great

Nathaniel: “When in the world I lived, I was the world’s commander; by east, west, north and south, I spread my conquering might.”

Berowne: “Take away the conquerer, take away Alexander.”

Costard: “Run away, for shame, Alexander.”

Exit Nathaniel

Costard: “But there are Worthies a-coming will speak their mind in some other sort.”

Enter Holofernes, as Judas, and Moth, as Hercules

Holofernes: “Great Hercules is presented by this Imp. Thus did he strangle serpents. Keep some state in thy exit and vanish.”

Exit Moth

Holofernes: “Judas I am.”

Dumain: “A Judas!”

Holofernes: “Not Iscariot, sir. I will not be put out of countenance.”

Boyet: “As he is an ass, let him go. And so adieu, sweet Jude! Nay, why dost thou stay?”

Holofernes: “This is not generous, not gentle, not humble.”

Exit Holofernes / Enter Amado, as Hector

Berowne: Here comes Hector in arms.”

Boyet: “But is this Hector?”

Dumain: “I think Hector was not so clean.”

Berowne: This can not be Hector.”

Armado: “The armipotent Mars gave Hector a gift.”

Dumain: “Nutmeg?”

Berowne: “A lemon?”

Longaville: “Stuck with cloves?”

Armado: “Peace! Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. The sweet-war man is dead and rotten; beat not the bones of the buried.”

Enter Monsieur Marcade

Marcade: “I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring is heavy on my tongue. The King, your father -“

Princess: “Dead, for my life.”

Marcade: “Even so.”

Berowne: “Worthies, away; the scene begins to cloud.”

Exit the Worthies

King: “How fares your Majesty?”

Princess: “I will away tonight.”

King: “Madam, not so; I do beseech you stay.”

Princess: “Prepare, I say. Thank you, gracious lords, for all your fair endeavours. If over-boldly we have borne ourselves in the converse of breath – your gentleness was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord. A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue.“

Berowne: “Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief. For your fair sakes have we neglected time, played foul-play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies, hath much deformed us, fashioning our humours even to the opposed end of our intents. Ladies, our love being yours, the error that love makes is likewise yours. We to ourselves prove false, by being once false for ever to be true to those who make us both – fair ladies, you; and even that falsehood, in itself a sin, thus purifies itself and turns to grace.“

Princess: “We have received your letters, full of love; and, in our maiden council, rated them at courtship, pleasant, jest and courtesy. But more devout than this in our respects have we not been; and therefore met your loves in their own fashion, like a merriment.”

Dumain: “Our letters, madam, showed much more than jest.”

Rosaline: “We did not quote them so.”

King: “Now, at the latest minute of the hour, grant us your loves.”

Princess: “A time, methinks, too short, to make a world-without-end bargain in. No, no, your Grace is perjured much, therefore, your oath I will not trust; but go with speed to some forlorn and naked hermitage, remote from all the pleasures of the world; there stay until the twelve celestial signs have brought about the annual reckoning. If this austere insociable life change not your offer made in heat of blood, then, at the expiration of the year, come, challenge me, and, by this virgin palm now kissing thine, I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut my woeful self up in a mournful house, raining the tears of lamentation for the remembrance of my father’s death. If this thou do deny, let our hands part, neither entitled in the other’s heart.”

King: “Hence hermit then, my heart is in thy breast.”

Berowne: “And what to me, my love? What to me?”

Rosaline: “You must be purged too, your sins are racked; you are attaint with faults and perjury; therefore, if you my favour mean to get, a twelvemonth shall you spend, but seek the weary bed of people sick.”

Dumain: “But what to me, my love? A wife?”

Katherine: “Not so, my lord; a twelvemonth and a day I’ll mark. Come when the King doth to my lady come. Then, if I have much love, I’ll give you some.”

Dumain: “I’ll serve thee true and faithfully till then.”

Katherine: “Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again.”

Longaville: “What says Maria?”

Maria: “At the twelvemonth’s end I’ll change my black gown for a faithful friend.”

Longaville: “I’ll stay with patience; but the time is long.”

Maria: “The liker you.”

Berowne: “Mistress, look on me; behold the window of my heart, mine eye, what humble suit attends thy answer there. Impose some service on me for thy love.”

Rosaline: “Oft have I heard of you, my lord Berowne, and the world’s large tongue proclaims you for a man replete with mocks, full of wounding flouts, that lie within the mercy of your wit. To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, and therewithal to win me, if you please, without the which I am not to be won, you shall this twelvemonth term from day to day visit the speechless sick, and still converse with groaning wretches; and your task shall be, with all the fierce endeavour of your wit, to enforce the pained impotent to smile.“

Berowne: “To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible; mirth cannot move a soul in agony. A twelvemonth? Well, befall what will befall, I’ll jest a twelvemonth in a hospital.”

Princess: (to the King) “Ay, sweet lord, and so I take my leave.”

Berowne: “Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill. These ladies’ courtesy might well have made our sport a comedy.“

King: “Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, and then ’twill end.”

Berowne: “That’s too long for a play.”

Analysis

The ladies discuss the gifts they received from their men, when Boyet reveals that these same men are approaching in disguise, dressed as Muscovites. The women decide to mask themselves and encourage the men to each woo the wrong woman. They always get the upper hand on their wooers. Once the four men return as themselves the women explain how they were visited by four Russian men who were but fools. The men confess that it was them dressed as Russians and the ladies once again mock them for their jest. The Worthies arrive to put on a play, which turns out to be an object of ridicule, much like the play in a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Then the entire mood of the play changes, as a messenger announces the death of the Princess’ father. The women prepare to leave, telling the men that they took their wooing in jest, as a merriment. Yet the men were serious and ask for the love of the women in return. Its too late for that, of course, and the ladies tell the men to perform acts of generosity and charity and then they will return in twelve months and perhaps love them. Berowne claims that their ‘wooing doth not end like an old play. Jack hath not Jill.’ In Kenneth Branagh’s brilliant 2000 film adaptation of Love’s Labour’s Lost, set in 1939, the men go off to war and serve in a variety of capacities. When the war ends they are indeed reunited with the four women and the ending is a happy one, to be sure. This may be the finest film rendition of any Shakespeare play, done as a news reel musical, and not to be missed!

And so ends Shakespeare’s longest scene, at 918 lines. It is a very different ending than any of his many comedies. There are no marriages and no happy ending for anyone. The women require of the men that they perform various services for the sick and the grieving in the twelve months before they return from mourning the death of the Princess’ father. There are no guarantees and Berowne’s last line, in regard to the twelve months they must wait, suggests it may never happen: ‘That’s too long for a play.’

Final Thoughts

Shakespeare worked on Love’s Labour’s Lost for several years. It is an original Shakespeare story, like The Tempest, and is finally staged in a court performance for Queen Elizabeth at Christmas in 1597. The play was never very popular until the twentieth century, when its complexity of language and interplay of various styles became an audience favourite amongst the elite audiences in Stratford upon Avon. In 1946 Peter Brooks staged the most successful Love’s Labour’s Lost of the 20th Century at Stratford. Nonetheless, due to its scholarly reputation and the many dense contemporary 16th century in-jokes, it remains, regrettably, more neglected than any other Shakespeare comedy. There are a large number of live performances of the play on youtube and while there is no clean version of the masterful 2000 film by Kenneth Branagh, there are numerous clips from it and a few lesser screen versions and endless clips and analysis of the play, my personal favourite among the comedies.