Love's Labour's Lost
An unusually self-conscious and witty comedy about the failure of language to adequately express love. The King of Navarre and his three lords vow to forswear women for three years — and immediately fall in love. Uniquely among Shakespeare's comedies, it ends not in marriage but in a year's delay.
At a Glance
- Genre: Comedy
- Approximate date: c. 1594–1595
- Setting: The park of the King of Navarre
- Source: Mostly original; some French political allusions
- Acts: 5
Dramatis Personæ
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| FERDINAND, KING OF NAVARRE | Makes a vow of study; falls in love with the Princess |
| BEROWNE | Lord attending the King; most witty and self-aware; loves Rosaline |
| LONGAVILLE | Lord attending the King; loves Maria |
| DUMAINE | Lord attending the King; loves Katharine |
| THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE | Witty, dignified; comes on an embassy; loved by the King |
| ROSALINE | Lady attending the Princess; dark-eyed; witty; loves Berowne |
| MARIA | Lady attending the Princess; loves Longaville |
| KATHARINE | Lady attending the Princess; loves Dumaine |
| BOYET | Lord attending the Princess; worldly go-between |
| DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO | A fantastical Spaniard; loves Jaquenetta |
| MOTH | Armado's clever page |
| JAQUENETTA | A country wench; loved by Armado and Costard |
| COSTARD | A clown; inadvertent letter-mixer |
| DULL | A constable |
| HOLOFERNES | A pedantic schoolmaster |
| SIR NATHANIEL | A curate; Holofernes's admirer |
| MARCADÉ | A messenger from France |
| A FORESTER |
Plot Summary
Act I: The King of Navarre and his three lords (Berowne, Longaville, Dumaine) sign articles swearing to spend three years in scholarly retreat — no women, fasting, little sleep. Berowne objects that they'll break this vow; he signs anyway. A complication: the Princess of France is already on her way on a diplomatic mission. Meanwhile, the fantastical Armado falls for Jaquenetta; Costard is caught with her.
Act II: The Princess and her ladies arrive. The King, unable to receive women at court, hosts them in the park. Each lord is matched with a lady; all pretend not to be attracted.
Act III: Armado sends Costard with a love letter to Jaquenetta. Berowne gives Costard another letter to deliver to Rosaline. Costard mixes them up.
Act IV: The Princess is hunting. Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel perform elaborate comic pedantry. The lords' love letters are discovered — each one spied upon by the others reading their own letter. Berowne delivers a great speech defending love as the true source of wisdom.
Act V: The lords disguise as Muscovites to woo the ladies; the ladies swap favors so the lords woo the wrong ones. The disguise is exposed; the lords are mocked. The entertainment of the Nine Worthies is performed by Armado, Holofernes, Costard, and Nathaniel — comically disrupted. Marcadé arrives with news: the Princess's father, the King of France, is dead. Everything stops. The ladies deny the lords the instant marriage they expected; instead, they set a year's trial — the lords must perform penance and prove constancy before their love will be rewarded. The play ends with the owl and cuckoo songs of Winter and Spring.
Key Themes
- Language and reality — the play is saturated with wordplay, puns, and rhetorical games; language is shown to be both beautiful and inadequate
- Vows and their breaking — oaths made lightly are broken lightly; love overturns reason's best intentions
- The limits of comedy — death interrupts the festive ending; joy is deferred, not granted
- Anti-Petrarchan wit — Berowne and Rosaline represent a new, harder-edged model of love
Notable Quotations
"They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps." *(Moth, V.i)*
"A jest's prosperity lies in the ear / Of him that hears it, never in the tongue / Of him that makes it." *(Rosaline, V.ii)*
"When daisies pied and violets blue... / The cuckoo then on every tree / Mocks married men." *(Spring's song, V.ii)*
LibriVox Recording
Love's Labour's Lost audiobook on LibriVox — Free public domain recording. (Multiple versions available)
Cross-references
- Comedies — genre context; the most unusual ending in the comedies
- Much Ado About Nothing — witty antagonistic courtship; Beatrice and Benedick share DNA with Berowne and Rosaline
- Twelfth Night — another comedy exploring the gap between word and feeling