“The most beautiful of Shakespeare’s comedies” —Kenneth Branagh
In this battle of the sexes, it’s the men who are vanquished.What’s the meaning of the title, “Love’s Labor’s Lost” (1598), the first work to bear Shakespeare’s name on its title page?
To date, no one’s been sure. As the editor of the Arden critical edition says, “The form of the title and its meaning are uncertain.” Similarly, the Oxford editor says, “It is far from certain what Shakespeare intended his play to be called.”
‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’
At the beginning, King Navarre and three courtiers, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine, commit themselves to a three-year period of abstinence from worldly pleasures. Calling themselves “brave conquerors” who “war against [their] own affections,” they plan to devote all their time to study.
Plans Go Awry
And whether or not you’ve read the play, you know what happens next.Rather than avoiding romantic endeavors, the men proceed to devote all their time to such endeavors. Rather than warring against their affections, the men go to war on behalf of “Affection” personified—Cupid. Rather than conquering themselves, the men try to conquer the women.
Armed conflict ensues. The title conveys its outcome.
The key passage is found at the height of the action, in Act 4, Scene 3. At the very moment the men determine to fight on behalf of Love himself, Cupid, they set out to “win” the women. “Saint Cupid, then, and, soldiers, to the field!” the king exhorts his men.
Longaville asks, “Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?”
The king affirms, “And win them, too.” With Love himself as their general, the lords expect to prevail over the ladies.
Advance your standards, and upon them, lords; Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advised, In conflict that you get the sun of them.
This is love-as-warfare, in which the men are soldiers entering a battlefield, ready to engage in “conflict.” “Pell-mell” suggests close, hand-to-hand combat. By “get the sun of them,” Berowne means attack them with the sun in their eyes, so they’re unable to ready a defense. The king’s “down with them” command indicates the men intend to subdue the women. They will raise “standards” or military flags as symbols of their conquest.
Arm, wenches, arm! Encounters mounted are Against your peace. Love doth approach disguised, Armed in arguments. You’ll be surprised. Muster your wits, stand in your own defense, Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.
The Battle Turns
And arm themselves they do, with figurative swords, muskets, and bows-and-arrows. But the women don’t just stay and resist their assailants. They launch a counterattack, quickly overwhelming the men.The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor’s edge invisible, Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen; Above the sense of sense, so sensible Seemeth their conference. Their conceits have wings Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things.
Blades, bullets, arrows—it turns out the men are the ones under attack. After a hundred lines of jeers and taunts, Berowne asks aloud:Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me. Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout, Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance, Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit.
The men are being pummeled. In asking, “Can any face of brass hold longer out?” Berowne suggests that the men have been brazen in their conduct and that their glossy shields are proving inadequate against the women’s onslaught.After Rosaline instructs her ladies to “break off,” the prince and his allies see how they’ve been outsmarted. “By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff!” exclaims Berowne.
As the men retreat, the Princess wonders whether they will ever show their faces in public or not go commit suicide. “Will they not, think you, hang themselves tonight?” she asks, victoriously.
This is the “loss” referred to in the title. Laboring under Love himself, the men had expected sexual triumph. But the attempted conquest fails. Unexpectedly, the women fight back, vanquishing the men. Therefore, the title refers to the men’s unsuccessful pseudo-military endeavors in the name of Cupid.
As the women repulsed the men’s warlike assault, and gave the boy Love a good beating, the play concludes with the women assigning the men year-long trials to be completed before they can approach them again.
You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches; and your task shall be, With all the fierce endeavor of your wit, To enforce the painèd impotent to smile.
Here we have the true “endeavor” by which this lady’s love can be won, in lines that effectively respond to and repudiate those voiced earlier by the Cupid-driven men.No, Rosaline tells Berowne, you won’t win me if you impose your will on me. You won’t take me down MMA-style. But you can captivate my heart by showing that you can put the needs of others before your own and follow through on a commitment, to share a vow and stick to it.
Earlier on, Berowne himself had defined love as “charity.” In fact, he’d called love and charity inseparable. Thus, the man’s prospective wife isn’t imposing her own definition of love on him.
True love, Rosaline reminds Berowne, isn’t about the immediate gratification of your own desires. It isn’t about promenading under the pennant of a nude, blind, wayward, bow-wielding baby boy, intent on triumph and occupation.
Fundamentally, it’s all about the other.
