Cummings Study Guide

Type of Play and First Performance

Love's Labour's Lost is a romance comedy that evidence indicates was probably first performed in December of 1597 at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, although G.B. Harrison notes that the New Cambridge Shakespeare says: "In our opinion its first performance had Christmas 1593 for date and for place some great private house, possibly the Earl of Southampton's" (Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952. Page 395). If the play was performed before the queen in 1597, an intriguing question for scholars might center on how the queen responded to the performance. When she viewed it, she would have been 64 and, of course, still a spinster. She had had many opportunities to marry–for love, for political advantage, for who knows how many other reasons–but seized upon none of them. She died in 1603, still unmarried. All of love's labours showered on her–and all of love's labours she showered on others–were lost.
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Startling Turn of Events, or Coup de Théâtre

Mercadé’s announcement that the father of the princess has died presents the main characters–and the audience–with a dramatic, unexpected turn of events. The announcement curtails the jollity the little courtship games played by Ferdinand and his comrades with the princess and her ladies. It also enables Shakespeare to present an unconventional ending in which boy does not get girl. However, Shakespeare leaves room for hope that the men and their ladies will eventually reunite. A startling turn of events in a play, when successful, is called a coup de théâtre. This French term is also used to refer to an exceptional play or performance.

Bittersweet Ending
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Shakespeare's comedies that focus mainly on romance generally end with marriages. Examples are As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. But Love's Labour's Lost ends with the parting of four couples; they hope to reunite in a year, but there is no guarantee that they will become husbands and wives.
Love's Labour's Lost Film Available at Amazon.com
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Love's Labour's Won
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Strong evidence indicates that Shakespeare wrote a play entitled Love's Labour's Won, perhaps a sequel to Love's Labour's Lost. However, no manuscript of the play, written or printed, has ever been found. The evidence consists of two published reports. First was an an entry in a 1598 book–Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury–by Francis Meres (1565-1647). The book, which provides valuable information about Elizabethan writers and assesses the quality of their work, lists Shakespeare as the author of a play called Loves Labours Wonne. Second was a reference to the play, crediting Shakespeare as its author, in a verified booksellers' list published in 1603. There is little doubt today that the play was indeed a Shakespeare work. However, there is conjecture that Love's Labour's Won is an alternate title of a surviving romance play, such as Much Ado About Nothing. Whether Love's Labour's Won was indeed a lost play not listed in the canon of accepted Shakespeare plays is a question that cannot be resolved unless further evidence surfaces.
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Stichomythia
Stichomythia (stik uh MITH e uh) consists of brief, alternating lines of dialogue spoken in rapid-fire succession. The following exchange in Act II, Scene I, is an example:
BIRON...Did not I dance with you in Brabant⁴once?
ROSALINE...Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
BIRON...I know you did.
ROSALINE...How needless was it then to ask the question!
BIRON...You must not be so quick.
ROSALINE...'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions.
BIRON...Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.
ROSALINE...Not till it leave the rider in the mire.
BIRON...What time o' day?
ROSALINE...The hour that fools should ask.
BIRON...Now fair befall your mask!
ROSALINE...Fair fall the face it covers!
BIRON...And send you many lovers!
ROSALINE...Amen, so you be none.
BIRON...Nay, then will I be gone. (Lines 114-128)

Two Characters Speaking in Rhyme
BEROWNE What’s her name in the cap?⁵
BOYET Rosaline, by good hap.
BEROWNE Is she wedded or no?
BOYET To her will, sir, or so.
BEROWNE You are welcome, sir: adieu.
BOYET Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. (2. 1. 215-220)

One Character (Princess) Speaking in Rhyme
None are so surely caught, when they are catch’d,
As wit turn’d fool: folly, in wisdom hatch’d,
Hath wisdom’s warrant and the help of school
And wit’s own grace to grace a learned fool. (5. 2. 73-76)

Sung Poetry That Rhymes
When daisies pied⁶and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue⁷
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
Cuckoo;⁸
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear! (5. 2. 876)

Alliteration
But love, first learned in a lady’s eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain. (4. 3. 275-276)
Berowne uses alliteration: love, learned, lady’s, lives, alone.

Metaphor, Simile
He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. (5. 1. 7)
Holofernes uses a metaphor comparing the course or direction to a thread and a simile comparing the thread to the staple (substance) of the argument. Here, than serves the same function as like or as, words usually used in a simile between the things compared.

Metaphor, Personification
A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it. (5. 2. 847-849)
Rosaline uses a metaphor comparing a jest to a human being. (Only a human can prosper). This comparison is also a personification. Another metaphor compares ear to perception or interpretation, and a third metaphor compares tongue to wit or cleverness.

Simile
Berowne is like an envious sneaping frost,
That bites the first-born infants of the spring. (1. 1. 104-105)
Ferdinand compares Berowne to a biting frost.

1. Which character in the play is the most admirable? Which is the least admirable?
2. What incidents in the play resemble those in a modern situation comedy?
3. Who controls the events in the play, the men or the women?
4. Write an essay analyzing the lyrical quality of the dialogue in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
5. Does the ending of the play satisfy you? Or would you prefer an ending in which the wooers marry?

1. Nine worthies: Nine heroes whom writers in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance lionized as exemplary leaders for their military ....exploits and chivalric qualities. They include three pagan heroes: the mythological Trojan warrior Hector, the Macedonian general ....Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Julius Caesar; three Old Testament Jewish heroes: Joshua, David, and Judas ....Maccabaeus (also spelled Maccabeus); and three European Christian heroes: the legendary King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of ....Bouillon.
2. Devout: Sincere, serious.
3. Coppice: Thicket; grove of small trees or shrubs.
4. Brabant: Duchy in Europe from 1190 to 1830. The area is now part of Belgium and The Netherlands.
5. In the cap: Rosalind is wearing a hat.
6. Pied: Varicolored.
7. Lady-smocks, cuckoo buds: Flowers.
8. Cuckoo: The female European cuckoo lays eggs in the nests of other species of birds, one egg here and one egg there. This strange ....habit came to be associated with human females who are unfaithful to their husbands. The word cuckold was coined before ....Shakespeare’s time to refer to the husband of an adulteress wife.
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