Product Description

'With the publication of Woudhuysen's Arden 3 edition, the magisterial study of the play that will energise a new generation of readers and directors has now arrived.'Eric Rasmussen, University of Nevada at Reno, Shakespeare Survey

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198315 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Another example of Shakespeare's comic fascination with the battle between and misunderstanding of the sexes, Love's Labour's Lost is a difficult play to read, but one which is extremely effective on stage. The Play opens with King Ferdinand of Navarre and his courtiers taking a vow of study and sexual abstinence for a period of three years. However, their vows are soon placed under strain with the arrival of the Princess of France and her ladies in waiting. The inevitable happens, and the different couples attempt to surreptitiously communicate, causing much hilarious confusion and embarrassment in the process. Shakespeare deploys every farcical element in the book, including impersonation, wrongly delivered letters, outrageous puns and word play, fights, drunkenness and masquerades, as Ferdinand's entourage soon learn that rather than running from women to books, it is in fact the opposite sex that "are the books, the arts, the academes/That show, contain, and nourish all the world". However, one of the most interesting aspects of the play is that it does not end with everyone marrying and living happily ever after. The women give as good as they get from the men, and in the end turn the tables in extremely interesting ways. One of Shakespeare's most linguistically challenging, but also intelligent comedies. --Jerry Brotton

Amazon.co.uk Review
An early romantic comedy of mistaken identities and word play, Love's Labours Lost is a delight to watch performed. The Arden third series offers a distinctive interpretation of this previously neglected play, in particular its innovative linguistic patterning. The story revolves around the king of Navarre and his courtiers, who decide to devote themselves to three years of study and denial of the opposite sex, but reluctantly fall in love with the Princess of France and her three ladies in waiting. From here, the tangles and cross-purposes begin and the men decide to devote themselves to the study of love. Although dense with sophisticated literary techniques, the play is a wonderful satire of romance and aristocratic pretensions. This edition of Loves Labour's Lost is suitable for both drama and literature students of Shakespeare, as it is a practical guide to staging the play, but also an insightful critique into the play's meaning and history. --Simon Priestly

About the Author
The late George Hibbard was Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Customer Reviews

This is probably the most scholarly review of LLL to date.
Admittedly, LLL is an obscure Shakespearean play. [Kenneth Branagh and Patrick Doyle have revived it, through adaptation into a musical film.]

LLL is highly original, with no known sources. It is very funny. It is full of linguistic jokes. LLL also has textual tangles, which require elucidation, by any editor. Because of the passage of time, many of the jokes [puns] require explanation, too. Mr Woudhuysen tackles these topics thoroughly and convincingly. He makes sensible choices regarding emendations of the text. He covers the stage history. He gives credit to previous editors. He deals with the positive reactions by eminent writers such as Thomas Mann and W H Auden. Despite its obscurity, this is a play to possess, and this is the edition to have.

Too long
About half of Love's Labour's lost is an amusing story about four men (the King of Navarre and three friends) who swear off women, and how their vows crumble away once they encounter four attractive women (the Princess of France and her four friends). Apart from a certain weirdness in the final scene (where the men unsuccessfully disguise themselves as a visiting delegation of Russians, and the women, having unmasked them, tell them all to spend the next year doing good works before they can get married), it more or less makes sense. The highlight is probably Act 4 Scene 3, where the four men catch each other in the act of writing love poems.

The rest of the play, unfortunately, is pretty impenetrable; half a dozen improbably named caricatures (including a Comic Wench) talking incomprehensibly at each other. It doesn't work well today, and I have difficulty in believing that it really worked well in the 1590s. Yet Elizabeth I commissioned a special performance of the play at court. Presumably there are a bunch of in-jokes which have been lost in the following four centuries.

Arkangel rise to the occasion this time, and come close to making the whole thing worth listening to. Alex Jennings as Berowne, the King's lead companion, is particularly good (and rather outshines Greg Wise as the King). The two female leads, Samantha Bond and Emma Fielding as the Princess and her chief companion Rosaline are both good as well. And the whole cast, though struggling against the odds, makes it a more enjoyable listening experience than I had feared when reading the script.
But basically you can skip this one unless it has been heavily cut by someone who knows what they are doing.