Love's Labour's Lost

Written in the mid-1590s, this comedy is set at the court of Navarre, where the King and three lords swear to study for three years and to see no women. The Princess of France arrives at once on an embassy, bringing three ladies, and the oath collapses into a set of disguised wooings, sonnets, and intercepted letters. The schoolmaster Holofernes, the fantastical Spaniard Armado, the clown Costard, and the country wench Jaquenetta run a parallel plot of pedantry and misdelivered messages. A pageant of the Nine Worthies is interrupted by news from France that forces the men to postpone their claims. The play is a satire of oaths, wit, and literary fashion.

Quarter bound in green Nigerian goatskin leather with marbled papers. Oxford University Press commentary volume. Green solander box with leather label.