The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-23
MAP OF sTRArFoRD-oN-AvoN.

chant of Venice" should also have in
dited this play. And yet, weak as it is,
Loves Labor's Lost is a play that no
dramatist of Shakespeare's time save
Shakespeare himself could have writ
ten. Its faults are those of freshness
and ineXperience. Its deficiencies are
those natural to an early stage of
mental development. 1t is the work of
young man. 1t is one of Shakes
peare's earliest plays, if not his very
earliest. 1t must have been composed
in about his 18th or Goth year, when he
had been in London and connected with
theatrical affairs only some three or
four years.
1t is more than, probable that in writ
ing it Shakespeare s main thought was
satire. He had two ends in view. He
wanted to make game of the pedantry
and pointlessnees of John Lyiy's plays,
at that time the most popular plays
upon the stage. He also wanted to
hold up to ridicule the silly affectations
of the "euphuists," the young court
dandies of the time whose elaborate
artificiality of speech, with it's cloyfng
smoothness, it's wearisome indirections,
its monotonous if ingenious elegance,
was so opposite to everything which
Shakespeare would deem proper and
becoming in the speech of men. In
Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel (the
latter, we must remember, was but a
hedge priest') we have pedantry ex-
posed; in Don Adriano de Armada and
the king and his courtiers we have
euphuism exposed.
1t is probable that Shakespeare had
a third end in view-namely, Ito laugh
good hunoredly" at the clumsy ineffec-
tiveness Of the pageants which the
country folk of the day were ac-
customed to present lat the houses and
in the gardens of the nobility and at
village fairs and festivals This end
however, must have been but a minor
one with him, for the main stress of
the play is directed toward the other
ends.
The one effective piece of character
ization in Loves Labor's Lost is that
OF the courtier Berowne. 1t is his
character, both as it is understood by
his fellow ''dramatis personae" and as
it is developed in the play that gives
to the play the point, the Zest, the
dramatic interest it has.
The female characters of the play are
mere outlines. Their Dortraiture is
wholly external 1T will be noticed that
a good deal of sport is made of Rosa
lines complexion. This is described (of
course, in ridicule) as being las black
joins in the general depreciation of her
looks; for she is brunette. 81 am
toiling in a pitch, he says, referring to
Rosalines dark complexion All this
was in accord with the fashion of the
time which obsequiously and eXtraya-
gantly gave preference to the fair
(tfle truth is, '.red'') complexion and
hair of Queen Elizabeth.
There are two other points respect
~ Low low
ton. One is the strained and Artificial
style of language that is put into the
mouths of speakers who are intended to
be presented naturally, as, for ex-
ample, that of the princess in act ",
Sc 9 The reason for this no doubt is
the Shakespeare wrote to please his
audience. The play was performed at
court, and we are told that it gained
the favor of the queen. We must re-
member that this very ultra-Iaborious
and ultra-artificial style Of language
Has just the sort of language Queen
Elizabeth delighted in. The same sort
of thing is noticeable Though to less
extent) in another play a play also
written in Shakespeare'S young Though
nct youthfuD years, and also, so III IS
supposed, performed at court, "a Mid
summer Nights Dream"
The other point IS the coarseIless of
the language that occasionally in this
play is put into the mouths Of the fe-
male characters. even those the most
refined. as. for example, the princess
and her three beautiful companions
The explanation again is that Shakes
peare wrote TO please his audience. Fee
male characters in Shakespeare days
We're not taken by women and girls, but
by men and boys. 1t was a stage Gus
tom then, a bad one, and one that
afterward dropped, to
make these feminine actors utter
words and sentiments that derived
coarse sort of humor from the fact
that they were not appropriate to the
parts the actors represented, but were
more or less appropriate to the actors