Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene 3

Love's Labour's Lost

William Shakespearec. 1594
Influence8th pct
Popularity18th pct
Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • want Shakespeare's most underrated comedy
  • want some awesome love poetry, tons of puns
  • don't care if the plot is absurd (they swear off women but are unable to stay away)

Skip this if you…

  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated
  • don't like his comedies compared to his tragedies

The Groblé Take

Incredible over the top poetry, mostly comedic and romantic. Very self aware. Awesome depiction of men and women. Plot and story arc was pretty lacking. Very difficult read, dense poetry

Connections

The lineage through Love's Labour's Lost

Built Onwhat came beforeLove's Labour's LostMetamorphoses

  • Metamorphoses by Ovid. Love's Labour's Lost built on it. - The classical name *Love's Labour's Lost* drops on purpose — Ovid is invoked by name, not just borrowed - Holofernes praises 'Ovidius Naso' as the model for 'the jerks of invention,' so the play's own pedant tells you where its verbal extravagance comes from - Knowing the *Metamorphoses* sharpens the joke: this is Shakespeare nodding to his grammar-school master while gently sending him up
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

Berowne perched in a tree overhead, watching the King, Longaville, and Dumain unwittingly reveal their love sonnets to one another in the park below.

Thomas Stothard, 1800

The Princess of France draws back a bow in the park hunt while her ladies and Boyet attend, in the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery composition.

Thomas Ryder after William Hamilton, 1793

The Princess of France and her ladies arrive on horseback at Navarre's park gate, met by Boyet and the King's lords in formal greeting.

Thomas Stothard, 1803

An Art Nouveau personification of a flower from the play's text, in Crane's flowing line and pastel palette, set in a decorative border.

Walter Crane, 1909

A pavilion in the park near the palace: the Princess, Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine stand with lords and attendants as a forester points out the deer-stand.

William Hamilton and Thomas Ryder, 1793

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick

Folger Shakespeare Library

2005

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise Google, without breaking the scene to do it.

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Notable Quotes

The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.

William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost
All 16 quotes, with sources →
Adaptations

Screen & Stage

Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)

AcclaimPraised by 4 notable voices
  • Samuel Johnson, critic, essayist & lexicographer, 1709–1784: "There is no play that has more evident marks of the hand of Shakespeare."
  • Tom Mison, actor, 1982–: "I love Love's Labour's Lost. I think Berowne is Hamlet without all of the whining."
  • Kenneth Branagh, actor & filmmaker, 1960–: "But this was the one my heart was behind in the first instance, so they went with it."
  • Harold Bloom, literary critic, 1930–2019: "A festival of language, an exuberant fireworks display."

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