Love's Labour's Lost

Shakespeare uses this section to introduce his other primary characters, the four ladies, and to develop the tone, themes, and defining circumstances of the play. He develops the relationship of the Lords to their oath: They come to speak with the women, immediately breaking part of it, but insist that the women remain outside the court, a technicality that will maintain one of the clauses. This cements the role of Fantasy Versus Reality in the oath: The Lords pursue it on their own terms, creating a fantasy that it remains real, projecting an idealized version of their virtue and honor.

Shakespeare also imbues the ladies’ camping outside with symbolism: Boyet compares it to a besieging army (2.1.88), developing the military analogy for love that reoccurs throughout the play. This analogy was popular in Elizabethan literature, and positions love as a battleground in which victories and losses may happen. Shakespeare uses this comparison to establish the romantic framework of the plot, with the four ladies representing four possible conquests for The Masculine Pursuit of Love. This specific analogy places the women in the role of the aggressors, even though they have been made to camp outside by the men; this echoes the Lords’ protestations throughout the play that the ladies are responsible for their actions, because their beauty made them fall in love.

In contrast to this idea, the Princess wonders if her ladies are attracted to the men (2.1.78) but none of them clarify this or act on this, whereas the men do, initiating conversation and sneaking onstage to ask about them. This establishes the pattern for the rest of the play: The women’s feelings are not foregrounded and they are not proactive in pursuing them. In every scene, it is the men who approach the women, showing that active pursuit of love was usually associated with men in this period.

This caveat that the women must camp is also important in establishing the setting of the rest of the play, which subsequently takes place outside the court in nature, including in a forest. This was a popular setting in Elizabethan theatre, with several of Shakespeare’s other comedies centered around love taking place in woods (including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It). This environment takes the characters outside of the trappings of conventional society, placing them in a liminal space in which they can put aside reality and their desires can come to the fore. Shakespeare leans into the fantastical quality that this setting lends the play: The diplomatic negotiations are discussed in this Act but deferred, showing that the characters have put aside their real-world concerns in favor of existing in the comedy and romance genre.

During these negotiations and throughout the scene, the Princess is established as a capable leader. She and the ladies are astute and witty, as indicated in their verbal skill. The Princess takes Boyet’s praise with a pinch of salt, aware that he is showing off; they all banter skillfully with him at the end of the scene. Rosaline and Berowne also engage in wordplay, jabbing at each other in short, sharp lines, suggesting aggression (4.1.116-31; 4.1.185-99). However, they mirror each other’s rhythm and share rhymes across their lines, giving the interactions a flirtatious tone and suggesting they match each other well. Shakespeare shows how The Complexities of Language reflect the complexity of human interaction: A seeming attack can be a means of bonding.

Shakespeare continues to explore this theme in Act III, much of which revolves around wordplay. Each character has a different relationship to the complexity of language. Armado’s concern for displaying sophistication through language juxtaposes with Costard’s straightforward approach, while Mote’s mastery of language manifests in his observational role as he offers amused commentary on the two. For example, Armado attempts to teach Costard the meaning of the word “envoy” through offering a fable about animal, showing his pride in his use of language.

Mote joins in, ostensibly to help but actually teasing him, showing how he uses the complexity of language to his advantage over Armado, whose pride becomes comical. Costard takes the fable at face value, discussing the value of the goose rather than the moral message, derailing the conversation so that Armado asks how they got onto the topic. Shakespeare uses comedy to show different people’s different relationships to language, and the confusion that results when these are mixed without awareness.

This scene also finishes with the development of an important plot point moving into the middle of the play: Costard has possession of two love letters for two different people. Given his role as an archetypal clown, this promises the comic mishaps of the next Act.