Allusions and False Starts: Critical views of Love's Labours Lost
Kristen Hawley '01

The survey of criticism of Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost published between the 1960s and the 1980s was quite extensive. The criticism found during research ranged from the nature of women in Shakespeare's work to the style of Love's Labours Lost to the revisions made on the work to the allusions to history. This paper will focus on the criticism that suggests that there were allusions made throughout the work to the actual history of the time and the criticism that deals with the false starts and revisions of the work.

First, one must consider that there are differing opinions among critics as to when Love's Labours Lost was written by Shakespeare. It has been dated as early as 1588 and as late as 1593. Through the research found, this paper will show that the allusions and the revisions are what cause a dissention among critics.

Isaac Asimov, in Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, delivers a compelling criticism of the allusions made to actual transpiring history. Through these allusions, Asimov tries to narrow down the possible date that the work was written.

Asimov argues that Love's Labours Lost may have been written for private performance with a complete disregard for the widespread public popularity, that which it later enjoyed. This theory explains the over-elaboration of much of the style; it was written in the style of the educated.

The opening of the play finds the king and his three companions on stage discussing the decision of the King to retire to Navarre. Asimov argues that Navarre does not exist as an independent kingdom on our maps today or on the maps of Shakespeare's time; yet it is not a mythical land. It did once exist and in medieval times it is said to have constituted a sizable region south and west of the Pyrenees in north-central Spain and also to the north of what is today southwestern France (422).

Asimov also outlines a historical standoff between Henry of Navarre and Frenchmen quarreling about the King of France and his religious descent. Asimov maintains that it is during this standoff that Love's Labours Lost was written (423).

Asimov also details the history of England -- in 1588, England had just defeated the Spanish Armada and Henry in England was now receiving a lot of warmth and admiration from his allies. Asimov maintains that these circumstances would make it "natural" for Shakespeare to write a play in which the King of Navarre was heroic and portrayed in the most favorable way (423).

Asimov goes on to say that in 1593 Henry of Navarre converts to Catholicism allowing himself to be accepted by Paris as the successor to the crown; he became Henry IV. Englishmen then viewed him as a traitor to the Protestant cause and began to lose faith in him. This lack of admiration and love for Henry IV leads Asimov to conclude "it is doubtful if Love's Labor's Lost could possibly have been written in its present form after 1593, for that reason (424)."

Asimov maintains that while "no action in the play has any but the very faintest and most distant association with the real Henry of Navarre, of course, but Shakespeare continues to use reality as the source of inspiration for names at least (424)." He goes on to cite references to reality behind the names of the men in the work. Berowne is said to have been inspired by Armand de Gontaut, Baron de Biron. He was a close associate of Henry of Navarre and gained the leadership of his armies. He was dutiful and loyal winning victories for Henry. He was a popular character in England especially because of his close association with the expeditionary forces led by Essex. Longaville is a version of Longueville, but as Asimov points out, there was a Duc de Longueville among Henry's generals. Asimov asserts that Dumaine is not as easy to place as all of the others. He says that Charles, Duc de Mayenne, who was associated with Henry IV, may have inspired the name. He was not a friend to Henry IV, but was rather the leader of the Catholic opposition to Henry. In 1596, after Henry converted to Catholicism, Mayenne was reconciled to the King and remained completely loyal to him. Asimov reminds us however that this event took place well after the play was speculated to have been written (424).

Asimov cites Act I, Scene I, lines 136-137 "About surrender up of Aquitaine/To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father." (425) The matter in which the French princess comes to surrender Aquitaine is pure invention. Asimov maintains that historically, even at its height of power, Navarre never controlled Aquitaine, which was a large section of southern France (425). However, it is speculated that the name was included because it would be familiar to Englishmen because Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most famous of the English queens.

Interestingly enough, Asimov notes that "the real Marguerite de Valois had no living father at the time of her marriage to Henry. However, the French royal family, at the time the play was written, seemed indeed decrepit, sick, and bed-rid (426)."

Asimov notes that there is speculation that some critics find satirical representations in all the characters of the play. He argues that yes, if the play were written for a small "in group" rather than for the general public, it would contain "in jokes" against the personal enemies of the group in the audience. This argument refers back to one at the beginning of how the play seems to be constructed for private performance and not that of the public realm (426).

There is a great discussion about the Harvey-Nashe controversy and the satirical representations of each man in the play. Asimov mentions that some critics have equated Moth with Thomas Nashe (a contemporary with Shakespeare who engaged in battles of wits in polemical style with other controversialists). Often by the same critics, Armado is equated with Gabriel Harvey (another controversialist of the time; opponent of Nashe's). Asimov suggests that "the Armado-Moth quibbling might therefore be taken to represent, with satiric inadequacy, the Homeric polemics of Harvey and Nashe (427)."

Asimov later mentions the extraordinary likeness between Armado and Don Quixote in the "consistent overestimate of himself and in the insistence on imagining himself as a superhuman storybook hero (431-432)." Asimov seems rather pleased with this comparison mentioning that it is pleasant in thought that Shakespeare might be borrowing from Miguel de Cervantes because Cervantes was almost an exact contemporary and was one of the few writers that was worthy of being compared and looked at on Shakespeare's level. The only downfall -- the first part of Don Quixote was published in 1605, about a dozen years after Love's Labor's Lost was written (432).

The tradition of "courtly love" was developed in southern France in the mid-twelfth century. Courtly love had little to do with real passion or with sex, but rather presented love as a game of sorts used to amuse an idle aristocratic France. This game consisted of complex rules of behavior, of love poetry, of exchanges of wit, of idealization of women -- rules of everything but actual contact between lovers (437). Berowne's speech in Act IV, Scene III lines 339-341 is grand phrases of love as an act to lure women -- "For valor, is not Love a Hercules/Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?/Subtle as Sphinx." This speech, according to Asimov, is the clearest expression of Love's Labor's Lost being Shakespeare's tribute to courtly love (438).

Asimov's discussion of the last scene in Love's Labor's Lost is rather interesting. (interesting side note: Asimov mentions that it is the longest scene in the entire play and also in Shakespeare) When the ladies learn that the men plan to woo them the Princess says: "Saint Denis to Saint Cupid" - Act V, Scene II, line 87 (440). Asimov returns to his discussion of the courtly love tradition and maintains that this wooing will be a merry war between the sexes. Interestingly enough Asimov draws the following parallel: "The men come to woo and the French ladies will resist. Saint Denis, the patron saint of France, will be opposed to the assaults of love, here represented as Saint Cupid (440)." Also, in Act V, Scene II (line 120-121), Boyet tells the ladies that the gentlemen will come in exotic costume appareled like Muscovites or Russians. Asimov notes that Russians were considered exotic and popular in England due to Chancellor's voyage in Shakespeare's time (440). In Act V, Scene II (lines 413-416), Berowne is forced to foreswear the complexities of courtly love. He says that from now on his wooing will be expressed in russet and kersey. Asimov notes that russet and kersey are the color and material of homemade peasant clothing and it is usual of Shakespeare (as in his other plays) to express his opinion of the superiority of plain Englishness over foreign ways and customs (441). Finally Asimov notes that in Act V, Scene II (line 721) the King of France is said to be dead. He speculates that Henry III was stabbed on August 1, 1589. He does uphold the notion that this fact may have nothing to do with the play at all because there is a good chance the play was written before that date, but it is still an interesting notation on his behalf (442). The death of the King of France is a convenient device to end the play and put an end to the developing game of courtly love. Asimov's asserts that the unreal world of the Navarrese court is forced to face reality for the Princess must return to Paris to deal with her father's succession. One may also suppose that this could be thought of as a device to force the audience to break from Shakespeare's game of courtly love with his audience and return to reality.

J.V. Cunningham, in "With That Facility": False Starts and Revisions in Love's Labour's Lost, delivers a compelling criticism of the false starts and revisions of the play. Through this criticism Cunningham looks at Shakespeare's reputation in London and also looks at a deeper interpretation of Love's Labor's Lost.

Shakespeare up to the year 1598 was regarded in London as having a reputation for qualities of style, and particularly for pleasant, conceited writing (92). According to Cunningham, "'conceited' means that the work will be especially rhetorical in style, full of witty and ingenious turns of though and speech (92)."

Shakespeare is listed among his peers as one by whom "The English tongue is mightiliy enriched, and gorgeouslie inuested in rare ornaments and resplendent abiliments (93)." Knowing this, one would expect Love's Labor's Lost would be full of witty, charming, ingenious turns of thought and speech, and so it is. The play deals chiefly with love at court and courtly love, and both demand witty invention and figurative language.

Cunningham writes that the play is such a display of the rhetoric of the sweet, the pleasant style, that when the reader reaches the middle of the last scene, she will be delighted and relieved. It is here that the hero of the play renounces his rhetoric; but in doing so he renounces it rhetorically, crowding in one phrase the figures of exclamation, asseveration, and one of the varieties of verbal repetition. Berowne "cannot renounce it (because) for him to speak in russet and kersey would be inappropriate to his rank in society as well as to Rosaline's and inappropriate to courtly love (95)."

Cunningham argues that style is a needed ornament that must be fitting and proper.

"In what forme of poesie the amorous affections and allurements were uttered."
He answers: "And because loue is of all other humane affections the most puissant and passionate...it requireth a forme of poesie variable, inconstant, affected, curious, and most witty of any others...(96-97)."

The terms respectfully explained -- "variable" style is that there should be a variety of phrases, a flow of eloquence, making the worse appear the better cause; "inconstant" style is that it should not keep a single tenor, but rise and fall and have a mingling of styles; "affected" style should show feeling; "curious" style should be highly wrought, and "most witty" style should contain many turns and conceits of speech and thought (97). Cunningham admits that this is an old theory of style and although it is highly out of fashion today, it is still clearly relevant to Love's Labor's Lost (97).

Cunningham discusses the revisions of Love's Labor's Lost. He says that we have the first draft and the revision, and that we can see what was done to it. The revised version, in each case, immediately follows the first draft, and in two cases repeats with slight variation the opening line of the first draft (103).

Cunningham cites an eighteenth-century editor who first noted one of the aforementioned passages and explained:

"penned in hasted, found weak in some places, and its reasoning disjointed, it had instant correction; but wanting the proper mark of correction by rasure or otherwise, printers took what they found (103)."

There are three such passages found in Love's Labor's Lost. The first passage is Act V, Scene I, lines 124-130. There is a major point -- The Pedant is Holofernes, and so he would seem in the second sentence to be addressing himself. This is obviously wrong. It is speculated that Shakespeare simply recast the original sentence (103-106). The second passage comes toward the end of the last scene of the play in Act 5, Scene II, lines 827-832. Each man asks of the woman "But what to me my Loue? but what to me?" Each imposes a year's penance on the men and then Berowne again addresses Rosaline and she again imposes the same sentence on him, but with a significant addition. It is generally agreed that here too the printer set up an unrevised version followed by the revised version (106-107). It is said that Shakespeare returned to Berowne and Rosaline because he realized that her speech was too short and pretty flat in the writing. The penance imposed in the first speech is not fitting to his crime, so she yields further details and an edited punishment. Cunningham notes that the third passage is the most extensive, and the one in which the reconstruction of the process of composition is the most conjectural (109). Cunningham points out that there are some indications at the beginning and end of the first draft that Shakespeare was getting down to something to say as in the first passage (110-111). He argues that some lines lack metrical and rhetorical shape, belonging to another style. He also notes that Shakespeare seemingly tries to overcorrect by introducing rhyme in a line that is too easily and obviously shaped (111).

Cunningham concludes his critique by noting that Shakespeare had two problems, a problem of order and of amplification -- in other words, the speech had to have size and to move.

Cunningham seems to have a more critical study of Love's Labor's Lost and seems to pick apart the revisions and the style. Asimov seems to have a more in-depth look at the allusions to history and their impact on the meaning of the play to the audience then and now. Each study is critical for different reasons; both are critical to furthering our development of an understanding and appreciation for Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost.

Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare -- The Greek, Roman, and Italian Plays. Vol. 1. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970. 2 Vols.

Cunningham, J.V. Essays on Shakespeare: "With That Facility": False Starts and Revisions in Love's Labour's Lost. Ed. Gerald W. Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.

Works Consulted Calderwood, James L. Shakespearean Metadrama: The argument of the Play in Love's Labour's Lost. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1971.

Pater, Walter. Appreciations with an Essay on Style. London: MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1913.

Schrickx, Dr. W. Shakespeare's Early Contemporaries: The Background of the Harvey- Nashe Polemic and Love's Labour's Lost. New York, NY: AMS Press Inc., 1972.

[ Home ] [ Literary Influences ] [ Cultural/Historical Influences ] [ Textual/Performance History ]
[ Critical History ] [ Web Resources ] [ Site Information ]