Love's Labor's Lost (Folger Shakespeare Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

by William Shakespeare (Author), Paul Werstine (Author), Dr. Barbara A. Mowat (Editor)
Key Phrases: haud credo, brazen tombs, early printed texts, Love's Labor's Lost, First Folio, Judas Maccabaeus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Folger Shakespeare Library

The world's leading center for Shakespeare studies

• Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by leading Shakespeare scholar, William C. Carroll, providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.

About the Author
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Academic Programs at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, Chair of the Folger Institute, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare's Romances and of essays on Shakespeare's plays and on the editing of the plays.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at King's College and the Graduate School of the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He is the author of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare's plays and was Associate Editor of the annual Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England from 1980 to 1989.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743484924
• ISBN-13: 978-0743484923
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #185,552 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Light Comedy; A Timely Message; A Heavy Hand, August 2, 2006

By	Ralph White (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Folger Library editions are absolutely the best for scholarship, due to their extensive notation. My preference for Love's Labor's Lost is for the Pelican Books version, with sufficient but abreviated notation. The lighter notation gives wings to Shakespeare's most ponderous romantic comedy.

This is the story of three gentlemen who pledge themselves to three years of intellectual rigor in the court of the King of Navarre, who joins them in their sober enterprise. When the four of them determine that their scholarship must not be interupted by vice, the reader readily understands that their ill-considered commitments can only end in ribald hippocracy. Temptation arrives immediately in the form of the Princess of France and her three ladies in waiting.

The story moves along more or less predictably, though in a style that is almost a parody of Shakespeare. There are scores of allusions, silly, bawdy, and sharp, which apparently would have been recognized by the audience of the time, but which have not travelled well through the intervening four centuries. The result is five acts of mostly turgid iambic pentameter, interrupted by some lilting, if not particularly memorable lines. Such as when Dumaine and Berone start and finish one another's thoughts:

Dumaine: In reason nothing.
Berone: Something then in rhyme.
Dumaine: How follows that?
Berone: Fit in his place and time.

And here are some usages and allusions which you might need to pause to look up:

"misprision" = error
"woodcock" = stupidity
"festinately" = quickly
"dig you den" = give you good evening
"intellect" = purport
"jerks of invention" = strokes of wit
"in print" = to the letter

One of the few lines for which the book is known is, "Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow," meaning that compliments cannot make an unattractive person less so.

All in all, Love's Labor's Lost is unlikely to become anyone's favorite Shakespearean comedy. It is for the advanced reader who is willing to take the time to penetrate the subliminal and archaic humor. For that dedicated reader, however, it is worth the effort.

3.0 out of 5 stars Three Cheers for Barbara Mowat (The Editor), February 18, 2008

By	Big D (Auburn, AL. USA) - See all my reviews

Barbara Mowat's work is always exceptional. For students wanting to appreciate Sakespeare, to really appreciate the man and his work, it's a shame that she left the classroom, but her work in these editonss potentially helps a much larger, much broader audience to understand appreciate the Bard.

Trouble is, there's not much to understand and appreciate in this play. Light hearted comedy it is, but it is not his best, and even Barbara, at her editing and expository best, can't overcome that.

Still, however, it is Shakespeare, and that alone give it much redeeming quality.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fool and a wise man, June 2, 2008

By	E. M. Van Court "Van, emvc (at) lycos.com" (Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

But the man pretending to be wise is the fool and the apparent fool the wiseman, and the those who most ardently wish to appear wise are shown to be the fools they are. A king pursuing wisdom scorns the company of women for three years, but finds he must spend time in the company of a wise woman despite his oath. A wiseman who plays the fool shares the oath and suffers along with the fools, though understands the nature of men and women better than the one seeking wisdom. The lady in question is by turns astounded and offended. In the end, the ladies whose honor is offended return the favor to the fools who offended them.

The Bard was on his game when he wrote this. Without even reading the surviving historical documents, I will wager that this play was well received by Queen Elizabeth. Despite the relavence to Shakespeare's current events, the appreciation for human nature makes this as relevant and humorous today as 400 years ago. They don't write them like they used to (except when they plaguarize the Bard of Avalon).

E.M. Van Court