Where I Still Don't Know What the Second Apostrophe Is For

Love's Labor's Lost by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Yeah, I didn't love it.

I'm usually (recently, as an old man, I mean) pretty psyched for a Shakespeare comedy. I usually find them clever and fun, with lots to pay attention to. My intuition is, with further study, maybe with the help of an updated version to refer to, I might come around on this one. But right now, this ain't it.

I like the silly premise. The king and some men in his court agree that they will focus on study and self-improvement (for 3 years, was it? I forget) and keep themselves apart from women entirely. They'll barely sleep. They make the vow, then immediately see the difficulties when an embassy arrives that includes important women. When they are forced to keep the women outside, living in tents, it's obvious that this is a bad plan. It become more obvious when all four men fall in love.

Nice. Should be fun. But the fifth act, which is about 60% of the whole play, is all about playing games and messing around. The women join together to mock the men, and I'd be okay if it was good-natured, but it isn't. It's just page after page, scene after scene, of low-key arguing and playing tricks. Even that would be sort of okay, since they're all privileged men and women who should be able to take a joke, but when some regular folks try to entertain them with a pageant portraying "nine worthies," like Hercules and Pompey and other famous men from myth and history, the nobles interrupt them and confuse them and laugh at them and make them forget their lines. Rich people amusing themselves by mocking poor people just doesn't ever play well, IMO.

In the end, the women promise to consider the men's suits if they spend a year in various ways, mostly in service and in thought. I suppose we're meant to believe it works out after that year. I'd rather have seen that happen, though, rather than leave the play hanging.

The plot fizzles out. The characters disappoint. The humor is mean, much of it punching down. I didn't love it. It's clever, for sure; that's still true. Lots of Shakespearean wordplay. But I didn't like it the play. Not much, anyway. Maybe sometime, on second read, I'll have some brilliant insights that make it work for me. Probably nah.

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