Begging & Poor (& Chastity & Pregnancy) in Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1597)
Elizabeth had been promoted as "Virgin Queen," but was rumored to have had affairs, and many in England were anxious about the fact that she had not married and produced an heir; so it is interesting and significant that the play has a theme of how difficult and impractical chastity can be.
It's as if Shakespeare said:
Court Christmas play?
Virgin queen?
Rumored affairs?
No heir?
How about a comedie about failing at chastity,
pregnancy before marriage,
falling in love,
and reforming bad habits?
(Let’s face it: Life is not all about work,
even for a monarch!
It’s about love. Right?)
The play preempts heckling from the court by including a masque, which members of the court heckle; it preempts criticism of its playwright for having gotten Anne Hathaway pregnant before marriage, by including Don Adriano de Armado, who has gotten Jaquenetta pregnant.
There are six instances of "beg" in the play, eight of "poor," and two of "poverty."
Of "beg," the first instance is when Labour's Lost Don Adriano de Armado asks, "Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?"
French courtier Boyet then provides more information.
- The tale is of King Cophetua who falls in love at first sight with the beggar maid Zenelophon (or Penelophon). They marry and reign happily. This is like a Cinderella tale, or a version of the biblical tale of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, with a happy ending, where the rich man is generous and welcomes the beggar into his home.
Shakespeare refers to the ballad or tale in a total of five plays, but here it is only a parody through Boyet's dissecting lens of pseudo-dry and funny logical analysis.
[King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, 1884, by Edward Burne-Jones; Tate Gallery, London. Image public domain via Wikipedia.]
- This is meta-theatrical, with actors wearing masks to play at tricking, but being out-tricked by an audience of other actors in masks.
- Deceivers are deceived, thus transcending deception, offering a sense of honesty and justice in the context of love's trickery.
It begins with men attempting self-control and failing. It ends with a year of mourning, during which the women require that the men who claim to love them must learn the self-control that they failed to achieve. Berowne, who'd been least willing to commit to the pact and among the worst of the hecklers, receives perhaps the most difficult challenge of reformation.
[Full title page of the first quarto of Love's Labours Lost. Image via Wikipedia. Public domain.]
The play is indeed "A PLEASANT Conceited Comedie," as the 1598 Quarto title page claims, for it elicits self-reflection more through witty conceit than through a profoundly moving tale, well-told.
(And I confess that I enjoyed the 2000 Kenneth Branagh-directed musical more than many critics.)
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MY RECENT POSTS ON LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST:
5. Love's Labor's Lost, Arcangela Tarabotti, and Mirrors of Difference - November 16, 2021
4. Elizabeth I, Popes, & Ferdinando I de' Medici in Love's Labor's Lost - November 9, 2021
3. Women Priests Assigning Penance in Love's Labor's Lost? - November 2, 2021
2. Good & Grace from Evil & Sin in Love's Labor's Lost & Henry V - October 24, 2021
1. Begging & Poor (& Chastity & Pregnancy) in Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1597) - October 12, 2021 (this #1 post was also part of the "begging & poor" series)
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INDEX OF POSTS IN THIS SERIES ON THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS:
See this link:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/index-series-on-rich-man-and-beggar.html
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Hamlet quotes: All quotes from Hamlet (in this particular series on The Rich Man and Lazarus in Hamlet) are taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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