Chorus Drama and its Influence on Love's Labour's Lost
Jennifer Orcutt '01

Modern drama is a process of changes and alterations that began with the ancient Greeks. The first plays, "according to Aristotle, grew from the choral hymn in honor of Dionysus" (Encyclopedia of World Theater 62). Singers and dancers performed at ancient festivals and "other ritualistic feasts;" this "chorus" dominated early Greek comedy as well as tragedy (Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama 131). Over centuries the role of the chorus changed drastically. As more characters were introduced as possibilities, the group of actors became less central to the plot and took on the role of observers and commentators helping to lead the audience along. Later, during the Elizabethan period, "Shakespeare and others reduced [it] to one personage who speaks prologue and epilogue and comments on the course of the action" (Cassell's Encyclopedia of World Literature 105). The influence of chorus drama in William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost can be seen in two different ways: in Costard the clown, and in the performance of the play-within-the-play, 'Nine Worthies.'

Many of Shakespeare's plays contain a character like Costard: a fool who observes and comments on the actions around him. In this play, though, Costard's influence is more one of foreshadowing than commentary. Originally the chorus was performed impersonally, but over time they tended to "lose their impersonality and to assume a dramatic identity of their own" (Palmer 503). Costard is a fully developed character with his own conflicts to deal with. He attempts to reason his way out of punishment for having been caught frolicking with Jacquenetta, but the King punishes him anyway. This scenario is a hint to the audience that all is not necessarily going to end well. While leading Costard away Biron says "I'll lay my head to any good man's hat/ These oaths and laws will provide an idle scorn" (1.2.286-7). Costard's punishment for being with a woman reiterates Biron's fears about the oath he had just been coerced to sign; Costard, though a fool, could not reason his way out of his predicament and the King and his courtiers soon learn that they cannot either.

Another way to look at chorus drama is through the performance of the play-within-the-play, 'Nine Worthies.' Shakespeare often uses this dramatic device in his work because it allows a freedom of commentary not only to himself, but to his characters as well. "Shakespeare's early plays contain a great deal of pastiche and parody, showing that he did not follow literary and dramatic fashions uncritically" (Palmer 508). By having the cast perform a play for the court, the realities of society and the theater are parodied. It was common for audiences to speak out during plays and Boyet and the other gentlemen take advantage of this to mock the players as they attempt to put on their show:

Holofernes [as Judas]: Judas I am-
Dumaine: A Judas? . . .
Holofernes: I will not be put out of countenance.
Biron: Because thou hast no face?
Holofernes: What is this?
Boyet: A cittern-head.
Dumaine: The head of a bodkin.
Biron: A death's face in a ring.
Longueville: The face of an old Roman coin, scarce seen. (5.2.584-5; 5.2.596-602).

Shakespeare uses this interaction between characters very possibly as a way of pointing out the rudeness of the audiences in Elizabethan theater. The battle of wits between the ladies and gentlemen has gotten the best of the men, and they find easy targets in the lower class characters. The presentation of the play looks back at Greek drama and the chorus because generally only very little action occurred onstage, most of it being related through dialogue, which in this instance gave the gentlemen their chance to poke fun at the actors (World Almanac).

The play is interrupted with the news of the death of the Princess' father, but the 'actors' beg permission to perform the final dialogue. Spring and Winter are personified and they sing two interesting verses on the seasons. Spring begins with "daisies pied and violets blue,/ and lady-smocks, all silver white" (5.2.869-870) but quickly moves to "Cuckoo, cuckoo-O word of fear,/ Unpleasing to a married ear" (5.2.876-7). The image of springtime and newness is set opposite the threat of marital infidelity, and therefore cuckoldry. The same paradox exists in the verse sung by Winter: "When icicles hang by the wall,/ And Dick the shepherd blows his nail" (5.2.886-7) works into "Tu-whit, tu-whoo! - a merry note,/ While greasy Joan doth keel the pot" (5.2.893-4). Both seasons are depicted in their common (literary) perspective, as well as from the opposing side showing the duality of nature, and of people. "All things have their seasons, spring and winter, youth and age, wit and simplicity, books and love; but the pattern of the seasons is itself less obvious than we might think" (Best). The final verses of the play reinforce the fact that what the audience expects is going to happen is not, as well as attempting to subdue their feelings. "On the Elizabethan stage, plays, including tragedies, were often followed by a jig-a song and dance (often bawdy) to send the audience home happy" (Best); the simple languages helps to serve this double purpose of education and pacification of the audience.

The occurrence of songs within the play is reminiscent of the ancient Greek theater, although song was not such a major point in chorus drama by the time Shakespeare was writing. The final songs of Winter and Spring have already been discussed, but they are not the only instance of song in the play, Rosaline and Boyet share a few verses in the course of their discussions, and Armado both sings himself and requests the same from Mote throughout the play. Rosaline ends her banter with Boyet about her suitor through a verse, which he reciprocates.

Rosaline: Though canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man.
Boyet: An I cannot, cannot, cannot, An I cannot, another can. (4.1.121-4).

Here the song makes more poignant the bawdy humor of their discourse; "popular songs, chant, and instrumental music were [often] used to accompany dances and processions, and to heighten the dramatic or comic effect" ( World Almanac). In Act 1 scene 2, Mote uses a verse to help explain his meaning to Armado that impure thoughts are hidden behind the colors white and red that he exalts. The songs within the play add depth to the banter of wit and discourse that fills the majority of the action.

Chorus drama is one of the many influences that can be found in Love's Labour's Lost as well as many other works of Shakespeare. It may not be the greatest catalyst to the action or the plot, but it serves as commentary on the play and society. The verses of Spring and Winter use simple language to show the audience that the 'unnatural' ending of such a comedy is in reality very natural in the course of human events. The general purpose of a chorus is to clue the audience in to what has or what will happen within the play; Shakespeare was obviously influenced by the use of such a technique. Love's Labour's Lost can even be seen as an experiment in the best way of bringing the audience closer to the action emotionally.

Love's Labour's Lost is written in a very self-conscious form. The play is aware of itself as drama, as well as the devices it makes use of. This awareness provides the audience with a degree of knowledge that the characters do not possess; the use of asides, verse, song, and characters creates a commentary on life and society in general, aside from what is actually within the play. Choral techniques used in the play-within-the-play and foreshadowing throughout allows the audience to accept a happy ending that does not include marriage: the original order is rectified because the men are forced to uphold the oaths they were so quick to dismiss in the beginning, rather than through the multiple wedding that one is led to expect. The traditions of chorus drama work to makes the audience feel like a part of the play in that they are consistently addressed.

From the standpoint that Costard serves as the chorus in the play, his character becomes as important as he is comical. Costard's punishment for getting caught with Jacquenetta and being temporarily separated from her foreshadows the (temporary?) separation of the lovers at the end of the play. His confusion of the letters he was to deliver could even foreshadow the confusion of the evening the men wore costumes and the women traded their gifts to not be recognized. He delivered love letters to the wrong hands as the men delivered words of love and affection in the wrong ears. Also, Costard tends to bungle words in his attempt at wit; and for all that the gentlemen do, their wit will not overcome that of their ladies, who can argue circles around them.

Works Consulted
Best, Michael. "Shakespeare's Life and Times." 24 October 2000. Online. http://castle.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLTno. 9 November 2000.

"Chorister." Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed.

"Chorus." Cassel's Encyclopedia of World Literature. 1953.

"Chorus." The Encyclopedia of World Theater. 1977.

"Chorus." The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. 1969.

"Drama and Dramatic Arts." The World Almanac Knowledge Source. Online. 12 Oct 2000.

"Music, Theatrical." The World Almanac Knowledge Source. Online. 12 Oct 2000.

The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Ed. Hartnoll, Phyllis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. 153-154.

Palmer, D.J. "'We Shall Know by This Fellow:' Prologue and Chorus in Shakespeare." Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. 64.2 (1982): 501 -21.

Shakespeare, William. "Love's Labour's Lost." The Norton Shakespeare: based on the Oxford Edition. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1997. 733-802.