Love's Labour's Lost: A Guide to the PlayLove's Labour's Lost has had a puzzling history. Until the 1950s it was generally considered one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, and it was one of his most vilified until the 20th century. Perhaps more than any other Shakespearean play, it explores the power and limitations of language, and this blatant concern for language led many early critics to believe that it was the work of a playwright just learning his art. Because of its linguistic density, it is one of Shakespeare's most demanding plays, and this difficulty helps account for its initial unpopularity. But modern critics have begun to study the play in earnest and it is now one of Shakespeare's most popular works. This reference is a thorough introduction to the play's origins and legacy. |
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... Pageant of the Nine Worthies , naturally evocative of death and time , seems to concen- trate and draw to itself all those images of mortality which have begun to make themselves felt in the last movement of the play " ( Riverside 176 ) ...
... Pageant of the Worthies and the Masque of the Muscovites , it cut IV.iii , the most dramatically successful scene in the play ( 22 ) . The clos- ing lines of the play became " Our wooing now doth end like an old play ; / Jack hath his ...
... pageant or of juxtaposing the bombing of Berlin with " They Can't Take That Away from Me . ” None- theless , Branagh's film served the play well for a modern , popular au- dience , who would inevitably gather from the film that Love's ...
Contents
Textual History | 1 |
Contexts and Sources | 29 |
Dramatic Structure | 55 |
Copyright | |
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