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Love's Labor's Lost -

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Download Love's Labor's Lost

Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015

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Act and scene list

Characters in the Play
Entire Play In Love’s Labor’s Lost, the comedy centers on four young men who fall in love against their wills. The men, one of them the king of Navarre, pledge to study for three years, avoiding all contact with women. When the Princess of France arrives on a state visit, the king insists she and her ladies camp outside the court. Even so, each young man falls in love with one of the ladies.Meanwhile, Don Armado, a Spanish soldier, falls for a servant girl, Jacquenetta. Costard, an illiterate local, mixes up two letters he is to deliver, one from Armado to Jacquenetta and the other from Berowne, one of the king’s companions, to Rosaline, one of the French ladies.The men confess they are in love, and devise a pageant for the ladies, who set a trap for them by exchanging identifying markers. When word comes that the princess’s father is dead, the ladies reject the men’s proposals as rash and impose a year’s delay before any further wooing.
Act 1, scene 1 The King of Navarre and his lords vow to retire from the world (especially from women) and study for three years. One of the lords, Berowne, reminds the King that the Princess of France is coming and that they will thus have to break their oaths immediately. Constable Dull arrives with a letter from Don Armado accusing a servant, Costard, of already having broken the King’s order about not consorting with women.
Act 1, scene 2 Armado confides first to his page Mote and then to Jaquenetta herself that he is in love with Jaquenetta. He is given responsibility for the imprisoned Costard.
Act 2, scene 1 The Princess of France and her ladies arrive at Navarre. The King greets them but refuses to admit them into his court, forcing them to stay in tents in the fields. Navarre’s lords each show an interest in one of the Princess’s ladies.
Act 3, scene 1 Armado frees Costard and gives him a love letter to take to Jaquenetta. Berowne then enters. He gives Costard a letter to take to Rosaline. Berowne, alone, admits that he is in love.
Act 4, scene 1 While hunting, the Princess, her ladies, and Boyet are visited by Costard, who, by mistake, delivers to them Armado’s letter to Jaquenetta (rather than Berowne’s letter to Rosaline).
Act 4, scene 2 The Pedant Holofernes, the Curate Nathaniel, and Constable Dull discuss the deer shot by the Princess. Costard and Jaquenetta enter with the letter from Berowne to Rosaline and are told to deliver it to the king.
Act 4, scene 3 One after the other, the King and his lords enter and confess they are in love. Each, after he confesses, hides and eavesdrops on the next to enter. Then one after the other, they come forward and berate those they have overheard. After Berowne gives them a way of explaining away their perjury, the lords set off to entertain the ladies in the hope of winning their affections.
Act 5, scene 1 Armado, ordered by the King to provide some entertainment for the Princess and her ladies, consults Holofernes, who suggests that a pageant of the Nine Worthies be presented.
Act 5, scene 2 Boyet reports to the Princess that the King and his lords, disguised as Russians, will visit the ladies. The Princess tells her ladies that she and they will cover their faces with masks and exchange the gifts sent to them. Each will wear another’s gift. The King and the lords will then mistake the ladies for each other and each lord will vow his love to the wrong lady. Later, when the lords return in their proper dress, the ladies will be able to mock them for their mistakes. All occurs as the Princess plans.Costard introduces the pageant of the Nine Worthies. The pageant is interrupted by Costard’s announcement that Jaquenetta is pregnant and that Armado is the father. Armado challenges Costard to a duel.A messenger from the French court arrives to announce the death of the Princess’s father. The King and his lords try once again to prevail upon the Princess and her ladies to accept their love, but the women insist that the King and lords spend the following year—the Princess’s year of mourning for her father—undergoing specific penances. At the end of the year the men may, if they wish, renew their proposals of marriage.

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Act 1, scene 1

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