Wednesday 28 August 2013

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST

Immagine correlata


Love's Labour's Lost  is one of  Shakespeare's romance comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, making it contemporaneous with Romeo and Juliet and  A Midsummer Night's Dream. It  was first published in 1598. The title page states that the play was "Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere," which has suggested to some scholars a revision of an earlier version. The play next appeared in print in the First Folio in 1623. The earliest recorded performance of the play occurred at Christmas time in 1597 at Court before Queen Elizabeth.
Love's Labour's Lost  is one of those plays which seem difficult on the page (all dense wordplay, leaping from one literary level to another), but work marvellously on stage. It was one of Shakespeare's first attempts to blend romantic comedy with farce and to import the style of each into the other.  The play concerns the subject of love, includes lots of rhetoric and witty exchanges by the characters, and has a happy ending, although it does not end with a marriage.





The play opens with the King of Navarre and three noble companions, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, taking an oath to devote themselves to three years of study,  abstaining from all distractions, particularly of the female kind, with only Armado, a Spaniard visiting the King's court, and Costard,  a fool,  to entertain them. They are confounded, on signing the vow, when Berowne remembers that the Princess of France and her three ladies, Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, attended by Boyet, are on an embassy to Navarre’s court. Armado, has decided to arrest Costard for being in the company of a woman  -  the woman being Jaquenetta, a dairymaid,  who Armado himself is in love with.



The ladies arrive, and the King and his lords fall in love with them. Armado frees Costard on condition he delivers a note to Jaquenetta; Berowne charges Costard with a letter to Rosaline; and the two letters get mixed up.
The four lords enter one by one and despair about their love for their particular woman, and one by one are overheard by the others. They decide to tear the oath up, and woo the ladies. They disguise themselves as Russians, but Boyet tells the ladies beforehand, and the ladies change identities with each other. The lords enter, and woo the wrong women. They leave, and on their return are mocked by the ladies.
Armado then approaches the schoolmaster Holofernes and curate Nathaniel to join with him, Costard, and the page, Mote, to present a pageant called  the “Nine Worthies” as entertainment to the nobles. This provides them with many opportunities for comment and laughter. The mood changes when the messenger Marcade from France  brings news that the Princess’s father has died. As the ladies prepare to leave, the lords affirm that all their expressions of love were genuine, but the Princess claims that everything was in jest. The ladies tell the lords that, if they are serious, they must carry out certain tasks for a year, and then return to offer marriage. The lords agree. Armado then presents the learned men in a dialogue between the owl and the cuckoo, representing winter and spring, by way of conclusion.



Here you can find a very interesting study guide of the play.

And now let's watch some videos of the Globe Theatre's production of Love's Labour's Lost here

Don't lose your chance to see it!


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