Love's Labor's Lost: my continent of beauty; the heaven of her brow; are we not all in love?

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Love’s Labor Lost

     Harold Bloom, the eminent and pre-eminent Shakespearean scholar, considers  Love’s Labor’s Lost to be his most pleasurable play.  This is due to what he has referred to elsewhere as Shakespeare’s ‘panoply of puns.’  It is his most playful and exhilarating play, perhaps being the lodestone that freed him to be more creative with subsequent plays.  I know that it is not a tragedy or a pure romance, but I was disappointed that I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to the characters as in other plays.  Perhaps this was due to the underlying subterfuge involved as King Navarre and his three scholars try to romantically mislead the three women…and vice versa.  But there is consolation in the word play, which, according to Bloom, even tops that of the epitome of experimentation, James Joyce.

    In any case, to get back to the words…snow-white; fast and loose, sick at heart.  To create these would be enough for any writer’s legacy.  How about “abrogate scurrility”?   Also, this play includes dialogue in Latin, making me recall my Latin classes in high school taught by the Jesuits.  As a Junior, we were only allowed to speak Latin in that class.  This also brings to mind King John with its surprising use of French dialogue.  Another interesting aspect of this play is the occasional use of the a,a  b,b rhyming scheme.  

     As usual, the quotes about love are very powerful and touching.  Looking back on these, most were made by Berowne and my sense of attachment to him has subsequently increased.  I look forward to rereading this play in the future and gauging my emotional reaction.  Who’s heart would not open to:   “Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face, That we – like savages – may worship it.”  Or his reference to “my continent of beauty.”  Or, “look upon the heaven of her brow.”  “O, but for my love, day would turn to night!”  “My heart is in thy breast.” 

    This play also has many wonderful and insightful references to the writer’s life; an inspiration for aspiring writers:  “For where is any author in the world, Teaches such beauty as a woman’s eye?”  “Never durst poet touch a pen to write, Until his ink were temp’red with Love’s sight.”   “Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet.  Devise wit, write pen, for I am for whole volumes in folio.”  “Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book.  He hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink; His intellect is not replenished.” 

    And, lastly, the pervasive humor is very enjoyable; the plentiful puns, especially of Moth and Costard.  A summary of this play could be: “Not a word with him but a jest.”

Quotes:

Vocabulary: snow-white, fast and loose, sick at heart

Moon references: (pages 41, 46, 52, 54, 71)

“What was a month old at Cain’s birthday, that’s not five weeks old, as yet?” Dull.

“The moon was a month old when Adam was no more,

And raught not to five weeks when he came to five-score.”  Holofernes.

…for the moon is never but a month old.”  Dull.  4.2.35-41

“Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright

Through the transparent bosom of the deep,

As doth thy face through tears of mine give light.”  King Navarre reading Berowne’s love letter to Rosaline. 4.3.28-30

“With moon-like men, men of inconstancy” Berowne, 4.3.178

“My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon,

She, an attending star, scarce seen a light.”  King Navarre.  4.3.227-228

“Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face,

That we – like savages – may worship it.”  Berowne

“My face is but a moon, and clouded too.”  Rosaline

“Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do.

Vouchsafe bright moon, and these they starts to shine –

Those clouds removed – upon our watery eyne.”  King.  5.2.201-206

Other quotes:

“the varnish of a complete man”  Armado.  1.2.42

“Green indeed is the colour of lovers” Armado. 1.2.84

“My love is most immaculate white and red.”  Armado.

“Most maculate thoughts, master, are masked under such colors.” Moth. 1.2. 88-90

“thou shalt fast for they offenses ere thou be pardoned.”  Armado

“Well, sir, I hope when I do it, I shall do it on a full stomach.”  Costard.  1.2.10-141

(to writers)

“Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. 

Devise wit, write pen, for I am for whole volumes in folio.”  Armado. 1.2.175-177

“So sweet and voluble is his discourse.”  Rosaline about Berowne.  2.1.76

“Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast.”  Berowne to Katherine.  2.1.118

Use of “wish wish” together:

“Thy own wish wish I thee in every place!” King Navarre. 2.1.176

“Not a word with him but a jest.”  Marie

“And every jest but a word.”  Boyet.  2.1.213-214

“make passionate my sense of hearing.”   Armado, requesting Moth to sing.  3.1.1

“you must send the ass upon a horse.”  Moth.  3.1.52

“as swift as lead, sir.”  Moth

“Is not lead a heavy metal, dull and slow?”   Armado.

“Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun?” Moth. 3.1.53-61

“When would you have it done, sir?”  Costard

“This afternoon.”  Berowne.

“Well, I will do it, sir; fare you well.”  Costard

“Thou knowest not what it is.”  Berowne

“I shall know, sir, when I have done it.”  Costard.  3.2.152-156

“I seek a wife!

A woman, that is like a German clock,

Still a-repairing, ever out of frame,

And never going aright.”  Berowne.  3.1.188-191

“Ay, my continent of beauty.”  Boyet to Rosaline.  4.1.108

“ripe as the pomewater who hangeth lika a jewel in the ear of caelum, the sky,    The welkin, the heaven, and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth.”  Holofernes.  4.2.3-6

Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book.

He hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink;

His intellect is not replenished.”  Sir Nathaniel to Holofernes.  4.2.23-25

“I do love, and it hast taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy.

…Well, she hath one o’ my sonnets already.  The clown bore it, the fools sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady!”  Berowne.  4.3.13-17

“He, he, and you, and you my liege, and I.”  Berowne.  4.3.204

“look upon the heaven of her brow.”  Berowne.  4.3.224

“O, but for my love, day would turn to night!”  Berowne. 4.3.23

“But what of this, are we not all in love?”  King Navarre to his three ascetic friends.  4.3.279

“To fast, to study, and to see no woman;

Flat treason ‘gainst the kingly state of youth.”   Berowne. 4.3.289-290

“For when would you my lord, or you, or you,

Have found the ground of study’s excellence

Without the beauty of a woman’s face?” 

“…They are the ground, the books, the academes,

From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.”  Berowne.  4.3.296-301

“For where is any author in the world,

Teaches such beauty as a woman’s eye?”  Berowne.  4.3.309-310

“Subtle as Sphinx”  Berowne.  4.3.339

“Never durst poet touch a pen to write,

Until his ink were temp’red with Love’s sight.”  Berowne.  4.3.343-344

“Let us loose our oaths, to find ourselves.”  Berowne.  4.3. 358

“They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.” Moth. 5.1.37

“honorificabilitudinitatibus”  Costard.  5.1.41

“Dumaine is mine as sure as bark on tree”  Maria. 5.2.85

“Greater than great, great, great, great Pompey.”  Berowne. 5.2 683

“My heart is in thy breast.”  King Navarre.  5.2.812

Vocabulary:

pomp  (many uses of the word throughout Shakespeare's plays; will list them later)

devouring time

tawny

snow-white (also in The Merry Wives of Windsor)

fast and loose (also in King John) 17, 30

prodigal

welkin (frequently used in all the plays)

penurious

sick at heart 

indubiate

veni, vidi, vicet

fructify

epithaph

abrogate scurrility

sententious

perogrinate

Latin dialogue is used in this play

reckin’ing (also used by Abraham Lincoln in his autobiography)