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25th out of 35 books
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536 voters
Love's Labour's Lost
To begin the introduction, the editor discusses the link between Love’s Labour’s Lost and the writings of Sir Philip Sidney, the simple plot and its inconclusive ending, the relationship in the play between words and the things which they signify, and the play’s concern with the court. The following sections of the introduction examine the play’s style, from the structura
Paperback, 392 pages
Published
June 25th 1998
by Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare
(first published 1598)
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What I learned from this play:
1. It is probably not the best laid plan to entrust the delivery of an urgent piece of mail to the town goof.
2. If a woman who you are not on romantic terms with suddenly shows up at your residence for a lengthy visit(???), do not make her camp out in the backyard. Let her have the nicest bed...and change the sheets perhaps. Shakespeare didn't mention that part - i'm just extrapolating...
3. While it is great fun to hang out with a group of guys and obsessively watc...more
1. It is probably not the best laid plan to entrust the delivery of an urgent piece of mail to the town goof.
2. If a woman who you are not on romantic terms with suddenly shows up at your residence for a lengthy visit(???), do not make her camp out in the backyard. Let her have the nicest bed...and change the sheets perhaps. Shakespeare didn't mention that part - i'm just extrapolating...
3. While it is great fun to hang out with a group of guys and obsessively watc...more
I’m normally a big fan of Shakespeare’s plays, and while I enjoyed parts of this one, it still fell a bit flat for me. The King of Navarre and three of his friends decide they will swear off women and other temptations for three years while they focus on their studies. Of course they decide to do this shortly before the Princess of France and her friends are about to visit. No sooner is the vow made than all four men are swooning over the lovely ladies.
There are some really funny parts, like wh...more
There are some really funny parts, like wh...more
This edition shamefully omits the u in "Labour's." Anyway, this is my favorite Shakespeare play, for two reasons: one, it's basically one huge unbelievably well-read reminder to get out and enjoy life more, and two, it's pinched into two tonally distinct parts. The beginning involves a young king who makes an agreement with his friends that they all need to dedicate themselves to their studies, and that they will live a perfectly ascetic and chaste life until they've earned their degrees or some...more
This has always been my favourite Shakespeare comedy but, until now, I have seen it performed (several times) rather than read it. This time I read it alongside watching a DVD of the recent Globe Theatre production of the play. That's is the only way to read and fully appreciate the play. The production took LLL back to its Elizabethan roots and performs about 95% of the original text (as based on the 1598 Q1). A good production puts the word play into context and good performance serves to illu...more
Would-be scholars who take a vow of ascetism immediately meet women they fall in love with - a very good premise for a comedy, and proof enough why all religion must be, in the end, vain. The plot, though, hardly develops from there; instead, we get some of the most intense verbal sparring and wordplay Shakespeare ever penned. Is Berowne not totally a Rousseauean figure? This character, who contradicts everyone in their reasons for taking the vow of asceticism, such that one says he ridicules th...more
"Sparkling repartee between the fair visitors from France and their host in Navarre, whose vow to study out of sight of woman is quickly broken, makes Love's Labour's Lost one of the most delightful and stageworthy of Shakespeare's comedies."
That's the GOODREADS blurb for a play that had too much "repartee" for me, and as for "sparkling", well, one man's sparkling is another man's "fizzling". Seems to me Shakespeare just couldn't restrain himself in this one - he has not one man giving up wome...more
That's the GOODREADS blurb for a play that had too much "repartee" for me, and as for "sparkling", well, one man's sparkling is another man's "fizzling". Seems to me Shakespeare just couldn't restrain himself in this one - he has not one man giving up wome...more
Making sense of this play is heavily dependent on good footnotes, since the dialogue is replete with puns, especially sexual puns, in archaic language, unfamiliar to most modern readers. Once the puns are understood, the dialogue is recognized as witty, pointed, and characterized by sharp repartee. There being minimal action, at least through the play’s first half, enjoyment is dependent on language play and thus a solid understanding of the language. I find it hard to imagine seeing an actual p...more
Often called one of Shakespeare's most intellectual plays, Love's Labour Lost is a witty comedy full of wordplay. The King of Navarre and his three companions swear an oath to live an austere life of academic study for three years, most notably swearing to give up the company of women. No sooner is the oath sworn than the Princess of France visits Navarre's court as an emissary from her father. She has with her three ladies in waiting. Unsurprisingly, the King and his three companions fall in lo
...more
In attempting my goal of seeing live performances of the entire Shakespeare canon (I have 15 plays to go), I bought a ticket to see the Globe Theater's touring company's production of "Love's Labour's Lost" in Philadelphia this weekend--and so I decided to read the text before seeing the show.
This reading experience certainly gave me a feeling of empathy for students who encounter one of Shakespeare's plays for the first time. I had to rely heavily on textual notes and glosses in order to unders...more
This reading experience certainly gave me a feeling of empathy for students who encounter one of Shakespeare's plays for the first time. I had to rely heavily on textual notes and glosses in order to unders...more
Jan 01, 2010
Brins
added it
A king and his lords together vow,
But books to love henceforth (from now);
Not ere a maid, a meal, a sow,
Will encroach their court over the next three years, which seems like a pretty tall order to me, but hey ho.
BUT ZOUNDS! The king, in haste to swear the oath,
Forgot a princess - and her ladies - indeed, both,
Were making way to him to repay debt.
Lord Berowne twigs that "of necessity" will all their oaths be crushed.
The three lords and king fall in love with the princess and three ladies. So much...more
But books to love henceforth (from now);
Not ere a maid, a meal, a sow,
Will encroach their court over the next three years, which seems like a pretty tall order to me, but hey ho.
BUT ZOUNDS! The king, in haste to swear the oath,
Forgot a princess - and her ladies - indeed, both,
Were making way to him to repay debt.
Lord Berowne twigs that "of necessity" will all their oaths be crushed.
The three lords and king fall in love with the princess and three ladies. So much...more
1 like · like · see review
I like Love's Labour's Lost a good deal, but it is a slog. It's full of outdated puns and wordplay and plays on wordplay and satire on rhetorical forms, and really the point of it all is lost to antiquity. But I like what is says essentially about the foolishness of youth, and the difference between words of love and the experience of love. Four noble boys say ridiculous things, silly in their earnestness, and four matching girls toy with their affections, and it's all fairly lovely, until the b...more
Read this one in a few hours, short quick read, though it took the longest time for me to get the courage up to read it. Unlike his other works, I was under the presumption that this one was all archaic word play that only students from his time would understand (or, much more so than his other works).
But I liked this one! The first few acts take up the first half of it, then the last act is literally about 45 percent of the play. I had wanted to wait to get an annotated copy, but once I began...more
But I liked this one! The first few acts take up the first half of it, then the last act is literally about 45 percent of the play. I had wanted to wait to get an annotated copy, but once I began...more
I think what makes Love’s Labour’s Lost so entertaining is that it is built on a unique (if somewhat absurd) premise that quickly encounters an immovable obstacle (of course!) and that it’s ending is equally unconventional. It adds an originality to a story line that is as old as stories themselves. On top of this, of course, the comedy is pleasant, replete with word play, witty banter, and clever misunderstandings and tricks.
What develops between the King and his companions is fun enough. They...more
What develops between the King and his companions is fun enough. They...more
Jan 27, 2012
Alison Holliman
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
winter-quarter
Well, that was tedious. As assigned reading for my "Bad Shakespeare" class, I can see why this play is not read more often. The puns are great, but they are numerous. Like, NUMEROUS. Like, resign yourself to either glancing down at the footnotes every ten lines (or fewer) or just skimming large sections of back-and-forth punning. I chose the former strategy for the first half of this play, but resorted to the latter strategy for the last half. I feel exhausted, and I'm not sure it's worth the ex...more
Love's Labour's Lost is never going to be my favorite Shakespeare play. But it was refreshing to discover the inherent theatricality of Bill's tempo and tone changes throughout on this read--my second or third. As the characters swarm on and offstage, the reader gets a great sense of frivolity just as it turns into something far more somber and bracing. For the King of Navarre and his men, the best study will show them the fullness of their own hearts, but in this comedy, such study is not rewar...more
I enjoyed this very much -- it's one of my favourites I think. Because of its wit -- I thought it extremely funny. I liked the lack-of-resolution in the whole play; in that sense it is, as the introduction says, quite modern. I also think it casts a light on the idea of love in Shakespeare [dark, rather], in the later comedies and tragedies [I have not read any of his historical plays]. Despite its lightness, this play deals with serious things, as always. Signification is a big deal, and so is...more
Parts of the play were too erudite for me, as I imagine they must be for most people, which may be why this play doesn't seem to be performed much. One scene, mostly in Latin, I could tell was intended to be funny, with two characters misusing their schoolboy Latin, but I missed the humor because I know no Latin. The King of Navarre and his friends vow not to entertain women for three years so they can devote themselves to studying and then proceed to fall in love immediately. The clever use of...more
This is one of the most funny, but also one of the most perplexing, of Shakespeare's . . . comedies? ("Our wooing doth not end like an old play," and no one gets married. So, it isn't a traditional "comedy." But then what is it?) The humor is in the pretense of the King and his three cronies vowing to lock themselves up in the court to study, for three year. They pass a set of rules, the first of which is to prohibit, on the threat of public humiliation, anyone who speaks with a woman. What is s...more
This isn't so much a review of the play as it is of the critical edition. Love's Labor's lost is a very funny play, though I don't consider it to be among his best. Still, there's no doubt that the comedies are more popular reading than the tragedies or the histories; this one is not taught as much in most English or literature classes, so do give it a read, it's quite entertaining. This is the Arden edition; there are a number of others, outside of books that merely reprint the text of the play...more
I was surprised to say I quite liked William Shakespeare's "Love's Labors Lost." Knowing that it isn't often performed today (and that my local library didn't even have a copy of this one,) I really didn't have high expectations. I found it an entertaining, though sometimes challenging read.
"Love's Labors Lost" is essentially a romantic comedy. The King of Navarre and his courtiers pledge to dedicate themselves to study for the next three years and forsake all women... of course a bevy of beauti...more
"Love's Labors Lost" is essentially a romantic comedy. The King of Navarre and his courtiers pledge to dedicate themselves to study for the next three years and forsake all women... of course a bevy of beauti...more
One of the more difficult plays with florid six-sentences-long innuendos and cryptic elizabethan jokes, its immediate appeal lies mostly in the battles of wit between the suit of the prince of Navarre and the French ladies.
"Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues -
Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not,
To things of sale a seller's praise belongs:
She passes praise, then praise too short doth blot.
A withered hermit, fivescore winters worn,
Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye.
Beauty do...more
"Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues -
Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not,
To things of sale a seller's praise belongs:
She passes praise, then praise too short doth blot.
A withered hermit, fivescore winters worn,
Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye.
Beauty do...more
For someone who prides herself on being fairly well-read, I was woefully behind in appreciating the wonderful world of William Shakespeare. Another college course I am taking this semester will solve that issue since it is a course dedicated only to Shakespeare’s works. First on the reading list was his classic comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost. The play is about the noble King of Navarre and his three companions, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, who take a daring oath to swear off women and other su...more
"From women's eyes this doctrine I derive. They are the ground, the books, the academes, from whence doth spring the true Promethean fire."
This play's always been considered one of Shakespeare's weaker comedies. Why? Because it rhymes. That's the whole reason. It's been maligned for centuries because its couplet structure makes deconstructionists feel all icky inside. Well, guess what? The damn thing's pretty amazing.
We start with a premise that's broad, but no more so than any of his other com...more
This play's always been considered one of Shakespeare's weaker comedies. Why? Because it rhymes. That's the whole reason. It's been maligned for centuries because its couplet structure makes deconstructionists feel all icky inside. Well, guess what? The damn thing's pretty amazing.
We start with a premise that's broad, but no more so than any of his other com...more
Prepped by a friend who acts professionally, and who was about to appear in Love’s Labor’s Lost, I approached this work with low expectations. I expected it to be funny and it is hilarious at times. I expected it to be full of wit and it is. Still, I was told it was not one of Shakespeare’s best works. And it is not.
The key problem with this play is the Bard’s misplaced priorities. The focus is wordplay instead of plot. Whole scenes lack dramatic movement because they consist of characters recit...more
The key problem with this play is the Bard’s misplaced priorities. The focus is wordplay instead of plot. Whole scenes lack dramatic movement because they consist of characters recit...more
What saved this play of inexplicable lines, out-dated allusions and jokes (although I did get many of the play-on-words)was Brigham Young University putting it into a 1940s setting. Staged inside and outside an AFO canteen with American servicemen and canteen girls interacting, singing, dancing to 1940s music, it was absolutely delightful. I have never enjoyed a Shakespeare play more, even though I usually dislike his plays put into a different time-frame. Of course, the whole tenet of the play-...more
Love’s Labour’s Lost is an amusing Shakespearean comedy: light, pure entertainment. I found few memorable lines in the version I read, but it was an enjoyable plot. I also watched Kenneth Branaugh’s version of the play, which was a completely original take on it. I loved that he was able to reinvent the play, using Shakespeare’s own words, in a modern scene without too much pain.
The play is about the king of Navarre and his court — four men who take a vow of celibacy for three years while they p...more
The play is about the king of Navarre and his court — four men who take a vow of celibacy for three years while they p...more
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If another person ever jokes to me about not being able to understand Shakespeare, based on, like, one reading of Romeo and Juliet, I am going to throw this book into their face, literally. Nothing actually happens in this play except several men and women have word wars and try to see who is better spoken and has a better grasp of English, Latin, and Italian, and I am probably forgetting a language or two.
Love's Labour's Lost also strongly and often reiterates themes from Shakespeare's poetry,...more
Love's Labour's Lost also strongly and often reiterates themes from Shakespeare's poetry,...more
All the single ladies. Romantic comedy interrupted by sudden death. Education must be painful to be valuable. What am I to do with this unsettled romance? And the witty games (cf: Beatrice and Benedict) shown to be just as foolish and vainglorious as malapropisms or superfluous Latin? And the ladies' dirty mouths to the rustics? Is Shakespeare unShakespearing himself for my benefit? No wonder it went so long unperformed--I'm not sure what to do with it. Perhaps if I had Love's Labors Won--what e...more
Do I have to write a review of this? I do. Why? Because I said that I would write a review of EVERY book I read and listed in Goodreads. Why did you say that? I don't know. Thought it would be cool.
You see, as I have stated in other reviews of Shakespeare, I don't like writing about The Bard for three simple reasons: One, everyone has an opinion about him, and two, everyone knows the plots of his plays, and three, everything that can be said about him has already been said and I'm just not that...more
You see, as I have stated in other reviews of Shakespeare, I don't like writing about The Bard for three simple reasons: One, everyone has an opinion about him, and two, everyone knows the plots of his plays, and three, everything that can be said about him has already been said and I'm just not that...more
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| Shakespeare Fans: Love's Labour's Lost Ending | 4 | 46 | Dec 29, 2012 06:12pm |
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been tr...more
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“From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain and nourish all the world.”
—
16 people liked it
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain and nourish all the world.”
“Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye.”
—
12 people liked it
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