The San Francisco call., 1899-10-16

adventures, they become acquainted with
their common predicament, and they
unite upon a common plan to obtain the
favor Of their loved ones
The Princess and her ladies also find
out about the gentlemenS s prediCament
and determine TO have some merriment
over the affair. So when the King and
MS coUrtiers, in the disguise of Musco-
VltsS, visit the Princess and her ladies', the
Princess and her ladies also di guis them
selves The result IS that every one of The
four gentlemen makes love TO the wrong
lady.
When subsequently the gentlemen visit
The ladies in their proper guise and again
declare their loves the ladies mercilessly
laugh at them for their former blunders.
in he end, however, the lovers are all ac-
cepted, but only on condition of each do
Ing a years Dcnance, as, for example, re-
treating
TO some forlorn and naked hermitage
this not only because of the broken oaths,
put also 10 show that their love is
lasting.
Note-Read the play before reading any
Of the studies which follow. Note DR..
Cook $ directions, as published in The Call
ia Neglected Comedy.
Loves Labor's Lost" is perhaps the
least read Of Shakespears's comedies; and
for this neglect IT is easy to assign a rea-
son. The play. probably Shakespeare's first
attempt at independent dramatic compost
tiou, IS, on the surface al least Of d quite
different character from his other come
dies. While these deal with the lasting
attributes of human nature and find their
humor in the perennially ridiculous as
poets OF mans character. Love 5 Labor $
Lost is e satiTic fling at contemporary
fo,lies and prov0kes laughter by its carl
CatGrg OF figures and fashions Well-knOWn
10 IT'S first hearers, but as forgotten to tho
averaGe reader OF to-day as the heroes
wao lived before Agamemnon. Just as
Patience some years back swept over
EgsiauG and America IN peal OF merry
moCkins laughter but has already passed
away into the dark backward and abysm
a lime. so this play Of Shakespeare 5,
which once set the pit Of the BlackfriaTs
tneateT roaring. and sweetly commended
!tseif to the fancy Of good Queen Bess
and the learning Of wise King James, is
now 10 al iatents dead past hope Of re-
surrectiou from the shelves of the library
20 The boards Of the stage. The illusions
to the fantastic MonaTChO, TO the dancing
horse, 10 tie last fashionable hcentious
poem, all ring hollow to-day, and when
Sn2kespeare's merry gentlemen belabor
lae ioag-t5rsotteu fashion Of pedantic and
affected speech, the reader is inclined to
cry with Armada: The sweet war man Is
dead and rotten; sweet chuCks, beat not
the bones Of the dead"
And yet for the student Of Shakespeare
Love LaOCr's Lost has \ peculiar in
tereSt. II was the special fayOriLe of the
young Goethe and his circle Of Shakes
pesre wOTshipers at Strasbucg. SchIegel.
IN Germany, spoke OF IT as a model COM
coy Of the finest WIT and the most de-
iightful lnirth. Nor has it been without
honor In its own country. COieTidge SAYS:
If this juvenile drama had been the only
one eXtant of our Shakespeare. and we
possessed the tradition only Of his ripper
works. now many or Snakespeare's char
acteristic features might we not still
have discovered, though as in a portrait
Of him taken IN his boyhood." Charles
Lamb loved X as the comedy of leisure
- and "a +ar
has devoted 10 II one Of the most charm
ing OF his charming appreciations.
III.--HistoTy of the Play.
All critics agree that Loves Labor's
Lost" is one Of the earliest Of Shake
speare's plays, ana some of the highest
authorities rank ii as his first independ-
ent work. General consent puts the date
Of its composition somewhere between 1859
and 1892. We need not trouble ourselV es
about the exact year. When we know
that we have in Loves Labor's Lost
one Of the earliest. If not the very first
Of Shakespeare's creations IN the field Of
poetic comedy. we know enough.
The statement that it Is one Of his earl
lest creations applies. however. only to the
first draft Of Loves Jabor's Lost" and
not 10 the drama as Il lies before US to-
ion, a cuarto, published in 15S9, we read:
n Pleasant
Conceited Coincide
Called
As Il wes presented before her Highnes
this last Christmas.
Newly corrected and augmented
by w Shakespeare
Newly corrected and augmented"-f
when her gracious majesty deigned to
cast the radiant beams Of her favor upon
the young Gramatlst, whose wit. pathos
ond sentiment were packing the play
houses In the suburbs, and commanded
q performance of his popular dramatic
satlre for the entertainment Of her court
on Christmas day, it was not for him to
present Il in its first rough form. 1t must
ie ret6uched and decked out with such or
laraert Of rinEiug verse as the author OF
'Rou-eo ana Juffet" and ''The Merchant
of Venice" had at mis- command. And
there was another reason. Among the
ladies Of the court who would watch the
performance was a certain black-eyed
maid II honor whom Shakespeare loved.
and who had given MIN her bluest veins
10 kiss. lie would write his love for her
into the play court her by the mouth Of
its hero. Others might laugh over the
Iun o. the performance, the love which
lay hclow the surface would be a secret
between them alone. But more Of this
later
II is not hard TO discover some OF the
additions that Shakespeare made to the