We start our post on Love’s Labour’s Lost with the opening sentence of an essay by William Hazlitt. William Hazlitt is one of the best English essayists, up there with Dr Samuel Johnson. He wrote a book of criticism of Shakespeare’s plays with an essay on each play. This is how he started the one on Love’s Labour’s Lost.
If we were to part with any of the author’s comedies, it should be this.
Ouch, he clearly didn’t think very highly of it!
Love’s Labour’s Lost is one of Shakespeare’s early comedies. The story of Love’s Labour’s Lost is less well known so I’ll spend a bit more time introducing the plot line. When you summarise Shakespeare’s plays, there’s always the danger of the story sounding absurd and overdramatic. That was how I felt when I first read Lamb’s The Tales from Shakespeare, which is essentially a collection of prose retellings of a selection of Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies. By the way, Mary and Charles Lamb, who were contemporaries of Hazlitt, didn’t include Love’s Labour’s Lost in their retelling. Maybe they didn’t like it either. Reading Tales from Shakespeare didn’t help me get into Shakespeare. I think the wonder of Shakespeare is in the drama and the language. But I’ll do my best to make Love’s Labour’s Lost sound interesting today – that’s my goal. You can judge at the end. Actually, how about letting me know if, by the end, I’ve convinced you to give it a go?
Act 1
The play opens by the King of Navarre. Navarre is a real place in northern Spain. I just assumed Shakespeare made it up. But no no. There was a medieval kingdom there.
KING
Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live registered upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the disgrace of death,
When, spite of cormorant [meaning greedy] devouring time,
Th’ endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour which shall bate his scythe’s keen edge
And make us heirs of all eternity.
What do you think about those opening lines? I sometimes read Shakespeare and think, what the heck and go do gardening. Today is not the day! I’ve no idea what he’s on about.
But on good days, I read and I understand immediately like there’s magic in the room. I say magic because sometimes that magic goes away and putting my nose against the same passage next day I’ll be lost again.
So what about these opening lines? Let’s do a bit of detective work. If you take all the descriptive clauses out, the meaning becomes plain. It’s just ‘let fame live on our tombs and grace us when we’re dead. And when we ARE dead, the endeavour of this present breath may give us honour and make us heirs of all eternity.’ Basically the King of Navarre wants honour and fame to immortalise him.
And the next question I naturally ask myself is, what is the endeavour he’s talking about? Something that will defy time and death, which normally erase all things. Whatever this thing is, his goal is to have fame, long lasting fame beyond his life and death. The King continues explaining his plan.
KING
Therefore, brave conquerors, for so you are
That war against your own affections [meaning passions]
And the huge army of the world’s desires,
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force.
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.
The way to get fame that lasts forever, he decides, is to war against passions and desires. And how do you do that? To do quiet study. So he proclaims this edict in his court and pressurises his three friends into a pact. He asks them to stay in his court and join him to study for three years. They are not only going to study, they are also going scant on food, sleep and women.
If this is the first time you hear this, you might be thinking, fair, whatever. But the more I read it, the stranger it seems. He calls his friends ‘conquerors’. When you think of conquerors, they have huge appetites and desires for power, lands, wealth, good food and women. But this king asks his brave conquerors to war AGAINST those things, against passions and desires, essentially to be conquerors of themselves, specifically, conquerors of their flesh, and to shut up and study, in order to increase knowledge and improve their mind.
So this play is not going to be about getting fame by fighting battles or political manoeuvres, this is going to be something of a light comedy romance that happens on a university campus.
Did you notice the first seven lines we read are crammed with the ideas of life, death and time. It’s intriguing why a young king in the prime of life would think of tombs, devouring time and fame beyond his death. I don’t know where the King got this bright idea from but he’s genuinely enthusiastic about it. His three friends are less keen. In the Globe production, they agree with their lips but they all pull faces and cry silent tears as they sign their joyful young life away.
The three friends are called Berowne, Dumaine and Longaville. Along with the King, I imagine them as four first year university students, just about old enough to be called young men rather than boys. The King and Berowne are at the centre of the group. Dumaine and Longaville are the classic sidekicks. I imagine four of them would walk around the campus talking and laughing loudly and unselfconsciously, taking up the whole width of the pavement, harmlessly annoying. And quite cute. Marjorie Garber describes them as ‘puppy-like’. I think that’s spot on.
Berowne is the sharp one and doesn’t think this edict a good idea from the start. He reads out two items on the paper they have to sign. One of them says,
That no woman shall come within a mile of my court. On pain of losing her tongue.
The other one says,
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.
I wonder what kind of public shame they have in mind. I once saw a uni student running along the street of a neighbourhood with a high concentration of student population, at night, stark naked. Maybe that’s the kind of public shame you have to endure if you’re seen talking with a woman.
Then we are introduced to more characters of the play. These guys form the low plot of the play, in contrast to the King and his friends and the Princess and her women we’ll see in a bit, which form the high plot of the play. This structure reminds me of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the Duke Theseus and his new bride Hippolyta, the fairy king and queen, and the lovers form the high plot and the rude mechanicals form the low plot.
A Constable called Dull brings in a guilty fool called Costard along with a letter written by a Spanish knight called Armado. In the letter, Armado accuses Costard for breaking the King’s edict; he caught Costard with a maid. So here immediately is a case breaking both articles we just heard, a woman is in the court and Costard is seen talking with her. Is Jaquenetta going to lose her tongue? And what public shame is the court going to devise for Costard? The King hears the case and gives some random arbitrary sentences, which are disappointingly boring. And nothing is mentioned about Jaquenetta at all.
So Costard suffers (a bit) for his love because of Armado. But the next thing we know, this same Armado confesses he’s in love with Jaquenetta too. Armado and Costard are a pair that we need to pay attention to together. They are not only linked up by one woman, they are also linked up by the King and his four friends.
LONGAVILLE
Costard the swain and he [referring to Armado] shall be our sport,
And so to study three years is but short.
The four guys think themselves superior and that Costard and Armado stupid and entertaining. They do not see that on the subject of wooing their mistresses, Costard and Armado are a mirror onto themselves. But of course they don’t. They’re not supposed to.
In terms of being in love with Jaquenetta, Costard and Armado are two very different types of lovers. Their first appearances say it all. As we just said, the Constable brings in Costard guilty of breaking the King’s edict. Costard shows no remorse but cheerily pipes up that
COSTARD
Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me.
Costard talks like Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. He misuses words. When he says contempts, he means the contents of the letter. Later when he is given a ‘remuneration’ of ‘three farthings’, he comes to the conclusion that remuneration is the Latin word for three farthings. So Costard hasn’t read many books, isn’t much educated, he’s straightforward, when he fancies a girl, he takes her to a park and who knows what they do there. In the Globe production, when they come on stage, the Constable can’t keep them apart from kissing each other from the beginning till the end.
While Armado is first introduced to the audience in the form of a letter, it’s clear he’s educated and knows his big words well. He writes line after line just to give the simple fact that he caught Costard with Jaquenetta. He’s all talk and no action. When Armado and Jaquenetta are on stage together for the first time:
ARMADO
I do betray myself with blushing.—Maid.
JAQUENETTA
Man.
ARMADO
I will visit thee at the lodge.
JAQUENETTA
That’s hereby.
ARMADO
I know where it is situate.
JAQUENETTA
Lord, how wise you are!
ARMADO
I will tell thee wonders.
JAQUENETTA
With that face? [Armado always has a sad and melancholy face.]
ARMADO
I love thee.
JAQUENETTA
So I heard you say.
ARMADO
And so, farewell.
I love you, farewell. And that’s it. But he will write reams and reams of sweet love poems to you.
ARMADO
Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.
He’ll probably play guitar and sing under your window too. If I were Jaquenetta, who would I choose? Who would you choose?
Armado has a very comical way of talking, which reminds me of Bella Baxter from Poor Things. We know Bella reads Shakespeare because she writes letters in blank verse and one day says, “I shall stop writing like Shakespeare, it slows me down.” This is a great example of Bella’s style of talking at one stage of her language development:
“I am taking Candle for a walk saunter stroll dawdle trot canter short gallop and circum-ambu-lation. Poor old God. Without Bella you will grow glum glummer glummest until just when you think I am for ever lost crash bang wallop, out I pop from behind that holly bush.”
She lists all the synonyms of walk and all three forms of glum. I think the author is copying Shakespeare’s Armado in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Armado refers to the letter in the King’s hand
which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest.
So that’s three synonyms for see. And after meeting Jaquenetta, he says on an empty stage to himself, therefore the audience:
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.
Base, baser, basest. It’s hilarious. I have to guess the mind of Bella’s author Alastair Grey. Is Bella’s speech inspired by Armado?
Act 2
So our high plot puppy-like men refuse to have anything to do with women while our low plot cast falls in love profusely, furiously. As soon as the four of them swear to leave off women we know that four women will appear to make them fail. And here they come; the French Princess and her gentlewomen appear in one go in Act 2. Just like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labour’s Lost’s high plot has four pairs of lovers too.
The Princess is sent by her sick father on political business to speak to the King of Navarre. But bad luck, the King is possessed by the idea of harsh treatment and a joyless life and controlled by his own edict. Though clearly dazzled by these beautiful women, he wouldn’t break his words or let them in his house.
BOYET
He rather means to lodge you in the field,
Like one that comes here to besiege his court…
But that doesn’t stop the four men and the four women pairing up immediately – obviously we know, but they don’t. The four men think they’re hiding their passion and desire from each other and from the world. That’s basically what all Act 2 is about. Love’s Labour’s Lost has very short acts. Both productions I watched put the interval after the end of Act 4, just to give you an idea of how short the first four acts are.
One thing to note from Act 2 is that the first exchange between Berowne and Rosaline sounds exactly like the bickering couple Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, which was written four years after Love’s Labour’s Lost.
BEROWNE [To Rosaline.]
Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
ROSALINE
Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
BEROWNE
I know you did.
ROSALINE
How needless was it then To ask the question!
BEROWNE
You must not be so quick.
ROSALINE
’Tis long of you that spur me with such questions.
BEROWNE
Your wit’s too hot, it speeds too fast, ’twill tire.
ROSALINE
Not till it leave the rider in the mire.
Conclusion
In Act 3, Armado asks Costard to deliver a love letter to his love, Berowne also asks Costard to deliver a love letter to HIS love. As soon as you see how Costard puts them in his pockets, you know what’s coming up. The letters get mixed up! The letters are obviously love letters and sonnets. Armado says he’s going to turn sonnet because of Jaquenetta. All four men follow suit and turn sonnets. We get to hear four love letters in Love’s Labour’s Lost and the gist all sounds pretty similar to me. Even Armada’s weird one sounds remarkably normal at the beginning and could well have come from Berowne.
That leads to the pivotal point of the play. You know in Much Ado, the audience eagerly wait to see how the eavesdropping scenes are carried out. That’s the turning point where Benedick and Beatrice realise they’re in love. Here’s an equivalent scene in Love’s Labour’s Lost. The four men read out their love poems one by one thinking they’re alone, only to discover that walls have ears and they have all been found out. I watched the brand new RSC production last month and this was one of my favourite scenes in this production. Especially when, after chasing around like mad, the boys piled on top of each other, with Berowne, played by Luke Thompson of Bridgerton fame, like a helpless upside down turtle yelling “Guilty, my lord, guilty. I confess, I confess.” It made me laugh, and smile. Boys! They finally admit they’re all in love and Berowne valiantly reasons that their oaths were stupid, this is way better.
BEROWNE
Have at you, then, affection’s men-at-arms!
Consider what you first did swear unto:
To fast, to study, and to see no woman—
Flat treason ’gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you fast? Your stomachs are too young,
And abstinence engenders maladies.
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?
…
They [the eyes] are the books, the arts, the academes
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
The best books are the lover’s eyes. Love teaches you way more than books do. Shakespeare carries his fascination with lover’s eyes into A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
BEROWNE
Then fools you were these women to forswear,
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
…
Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
What does love teach? Ourselves. In Act 1 when they talked about study, they probably had history in mind, ancient classics or philosophy whatever. But by Act 4 they realise their attempt to study at the expense of love is keeping them away from a certain truth, a more important kind of truth. If they keep their oaths, they run the risk of losing themselves. It’s one of Shakespeare’s favourite topics of seeking self-knowledge and self-identity. There’s only one Act to go but the boys discover that, on the front of love and self-knowledge, they have much to learn before they can receive the hands of their ladies. But for now, the boys stand side by side bursting with excitement, holding each other’s shoulders.
KING
Saint Cupid, then, and, soldiers, to the field!
BEROWNE
Advance your standards, and upon them, lords!
Pell-mell, down with them!
They have turned from Armado’s melancholy sonnets to Costard’s straightforward actions, finally, as the King says in Act 1, ‘brave conquerors’. There’s much hilarity as they advance and make harmless fools of themselves in Act 5. There’s also a play within a play that feels exactly the same as the one in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Conventionally Shakespeare’s comedies end in marriage. But this one doesn’t quite do that to my surprise. I’ll let you find out yourself.
A Day of Small Things 