Disappointing… Surely, Shakespeare could have made much better use of his time than to produce this play. But that brings
us to another aspect (of the situation) – Shakespeare was not born great, Shakespeare achieved greatness. This is one of his earliest plays; this play, therefore, represents part of the learning process whereby the playwright acquired and mastered his fabled skills as playwright.
Broadly speaking, every successful play must have four components: the plot, the background, the characters and the
dialogue. This play is overflowing with dialogue, with puns and wordplay. But by themselves, these do not suffice. No doubt, the characters are witty, but witticisms do not constitute dialogue. What the play needs is a solid plot – and it is lacking in this respect. Interestingly, Love’s Labour’s Lost is one of the few (original) plays in which Shakespeare did not borrow the broad outlines of the story from pre-existing narratives. This is not to accuse Shakespeare of a lack of originality; but only to emphasize that Shakespeare’s strength (as a storyteller) lay in his characters and in their dialogues; not in the originality of the storyline.
There is another respect in which this play falls short – the characters come across as
somewhat shallow for the simple reason that there are far too many of them, and not enough time or space to develop them fully. The basic problem is that the supporting characters (such as Costard the clown) have almost as many lines to say as the main characters such as the King of Navarre. Unusually (for Shakespeare), it becomes hard to tell who the main characters are and who the supporting cast is. The net result is that the play lacks focus and direction. The play appears to be going everywhere – in all directions – and nowhere. And, by the time one becomes familiar with the situation and the developments, the play is over!
Briefly, as the name itself suggests, Love’s Labour’s Lost is a romantic comedy. The King of Navarre and his attendant lords (Berowne, Longaville and Dumaine) are visited – at his royal court - by the Princess of France and by her attending ladies (Rosaline, Maria and Katherine). No problem there: there are four lords to four ladies, and they are in love with each other. However, the King of Navarre has sworn to spend three years in studies, and has forbidden the presence of ladies (as a distraction) in his court. As a result, the royal visitors from France have to be put up in a field outside the royal court. Naturally, the ladies do not take very kindly to this development.
On a more serious note, the play is about courtship rites and rituals (and the somewhat contradictory views held by men and women in this respect). The lords think that this is a matter fit for mirth and merrymaking; the ladies seem to think otherwise. The lords wish to get married as soon as possible, the ladies think that this may just be a passing fancy on their part, and want them to wait for a full year to prove that they are serious in their protestations of love and affection… The play ends on this (somewhat) unsatisfactory note, and we are no wiser than when we began.