Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

Love's labor's lost, by William Shakespeare ; edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-287)

illustrations

no index present

dramas

Love's labor's lost

by William Shakespeare ; edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

New Folger Library Shakespeare

"At first glance, Shakespeares early comedy Loves Labors Lost simply entertains and amuses. Four young men (one of them a king) withdraw from the world for three years, taking an oath that they will have nothing to do with women. The King of Navarre soon learns, however, that the Princess of France and her ladies are about to arrive. Although he lodges them outside of his court, all four men fall in love with the ladies, abandoning their oaths and setting out to win their hands. The laughter triggered by this story is augmented by subplots involving a braggart soldier, a clever page, illiterate servants, a parson, a schoolmaster, and a constable so dull that he is named Dull. Letters and poems are misdelivered, confessions are overheard, entertainments are presented, and language is played with, and misused, by the ignorant and learned alike. At a deeper level, Loves Labors Lost also teases the mind. The men begin with the premise that women either are seductresses or goddesses. The play soon makes it clear, however, that the reality of male-female relations is different. That women are not identical to mens images of them is a common theme in Shakespeares plays. In Loves Labors Lost it receives one of its most pressing examinations."-- Amazon.com