Love's Labour's Lost

William ShakespeareProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 131K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Love's Labour's Lost by William ShakespeareAuthor: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 1, 1997

Editor's review

Love's Labour's Lost is the most language-dense and least conventionally plotted of Shakespeare's comedies. The King of Navarre and three attendants swear to three years of austere study and abstinence from women, only to have their vows broken by the arrival of the Princess of France and her party; from this the play unfolds as a witty debate on vows, learning, and love. It has few action scenes and is instead distinguished by elaborate rhetorical games, Latin parody, and rhymed couplets, while its ending, in which news of a death interrupts the wedding and leaves courtship unfinished, is a rare open conclusion among Shakespeare's comedies. This Project Gutenberg English original is suited to close reading of the lines and savoring of verbal wit, and to studying Shakespeare's mockery of academic pretension and courtly etiquette. Readers need patience to enter its rhetorical density, slowing down and drawing on notes in order to appreciate its pleasures.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Close-reading readers who enjoy Shakespeare's verbal art and rhetorical play
Literature students studying the structure and experimental endings of Shakespearean comedy
Readers interested in Renaissance court culture and ideas of education
Theatre researchers and performers who need the English original script

Not a good fit for

General leisure readers who prefer strong plot and fast-paced storytelling
Readers impatient with abundant puns, Latin parody, and rhymed couplets
Romantic-comedy fans hoping for a complete wedding ending

Reading tips

Slow down and read the lines aloud, paying particular attention to rhymed couplets and wordplay, to feel the comic rhythm.
Prepare an annotated edition and look up Latin parody, allusions, and puns as you read to avoid getting stuck.
Map the four love lines against one another, using a character chart to keep track of shifts among multiple strands of dialogue.
After finishing the ending, write down your understanding of its "unfinished" quality, then test your reading against critical essays.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Why is there no wedding at the end of the play?

News of the Princess of France's father's death interrupts the proposal, postponing vows and marriage for a year. This refusal of a neat resolution is relatively unusual in Shakespearean comedy and is often read as a sober reminder about rash vows and the game of love, leaving the play with an open resonance.

Can I understand the play without notes?

You can follow the broad plot, but you will miss many of the jokes. The play is full of Latin parody, rhetorical terms popular at the time, and puns, and without notes much of the dialogue's wit is hard to catch. It is best to use at least an edition with brief notes, or to read a plot introduction before entering the original text.

Is this play suitable for practicing English?

Its rhyme and dense dialogue make it suitable for experiencing English rhetoric under the guidance of a teacher or notes, but the vocabulary and syntax of early modern English pose obstacles for self-learners. If the goal is language learning, choose a bilingual edition and use it alongside audio recordings of performances.

Is the Gutenberg text reliable?

The Gutenberg edition provides a free electronic text that is easy to search and read through, usually prepared from public-domain editions, but it generally lacks textual collation and scholarly notes. It is sufficient for general reading; for scholarly citation or textual study, consult authoritative critical editions.

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About the author

William Shakespeare Author · English · 1564–1616

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was the greatest playwright, poet and actor of the English Renaissance. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he is known as the "Bard of Avon." He wrote roughly thirty-seven to thirty-nine plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets and narrative poems. His representative works include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. His works span tragedy, comedy and history play, distinguished by rich, poetic language and profound characterization. His explorations of human nature, power, love and fate have had a lasting influence, and his works have been translated into many languages and circulated widely around the world.