LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST

early comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, performed in 159495 and published in an extant second quarto edition of 1598, from foul papers. Its central comic device is that of four young men, dedicated to study and the renunciation of women, meeting four young women and inevitably abandoning their absurd principles. The play opens as Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, and three of his noblemenBerowne (Biron), Longaville, and Dumaine (Dumain)reveal their intellectual intentions. They then meet the Princess of France and her three attendantsRosaline, Maria, and Katharineand cannot help but be interested in further acquaintance. For variety, and as an escape from pretty, gay, young courtiers, Shakespeare provides a group of entertaining eccentrics: Nathaniel (the curate), Holofernes (a schoolmaster), Dull (the constable), Costard (the clown), Mote (or Moth, a page), and Jaquenetta (a country girl). Linking both groups is Don Adriano de Armado the ineffable, who grows more interesting as his character grows in pathos. Toward the end, the play takes on a new dramatic vitality through a brilliant coup de thtre: the sudden arrival of Marcade as the messenger of death and the herald of responsibility. Shakespeare's deliberate abstention from the customary and they all lived happily ever after conclusion of the genre is remarkable: Jack hath not Jill, but he will (presumably) have her after a twelvemonth, when he has done something to deserve her. Thus the play ends with hopeperhaps the best kind of happy ending. Once considered obsolete and overly dependent on temporary and incomprehensible allusions, the play was unfavourably reviewed by such critics as John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, and William Hazlitt. It has come to life again only since the early 20th century, when its central exploration of the consequences of man being made of flesh and blood was seen in a fresh light.