"A pleasant Conceited Comedie called, Loues labors lost. As it was presented before her Highnes this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented By W. Shakespere. Imprinted at London by W. W. for Cutbert Burby. 1598." 4to, 88 leaves. In the folio, 1623, "Love's Labour's Lost" occupies 23 pages, in the division of "Comedies," viz., from p. 122 to p. 144, inclusive. It was reprinted in 1681, 4to, "by W. S., for John Smethwicke;" and the title-page states that it was published "as it was acted by his Majesties Seruants at the Blacke-Friers and the Globe." It is merely a copy from the folio, 1623, with the addition of some errors of the press. INTRODUCTION. THERE is a general concurrence of opinion that "Love's Labour's Lost 97 was one of Shakespeare's earliest productions for the stage. In his course of Lectures delivered in 1818, Coleridge was so convinced upon this point, that he said, "the internal evidence was indisputable" and in his "Literary Remains," II. 102, we find him using these expressions: "The characters in this play are either impersonated out of Shakespeare's own multiformity, by imaginative self-position, or out of such as a country town and a school-boy's observation might supply1." The only objection to this theory is, that at the time" Love's Labour's Lost was composed, the author seems to have been acquainted in some degree with the nature of the Italian comic performances; but this acquaintance he might have acquired comparatively early in life. The character of Armado is that of a Spanish braggart, very much such a personage as was common on the Italian stage, and figures in Gl' Ingannati, (which, as the Rev. Joseph Hunter was the first to point out, Shakespeare saw before he wrote his "Twelfth Night,") under the name of Giglio: in the same comedy we have M. Piero Pedante, a not unusual character in pieces of that description. Holofernes is repeatedly called "the Pedant" in the old copies of "Love's Labour's Lost," while Armado is more frequently introduced 1 Farther on this great psychological critic observes :-"If this juvenile drama had been the only one extant of our Shakespeare, and we possessed the tradition only of his riper works, or accounts of them in writers who had not even mentioned this play, how many of Shakespeare's characteristic features might we not still have discovered in Love's Labour's Lost,' though as in a portrait taken of him in his boyhood! I can never sufficiently admire the wonderful activity of thought throughout the whole of the first scene of the play, rendered natural, as it is, by the choice of the characters and the whimsical determination on which the drama is founded-a whimsical determination certainly, yet not altogether so very improbable to those who are conversant in the history of the middle ages, with their Courts of Love, and all that lighter drapery of chivalry, which engaged even mighty kings, with a sort of serio-comic interest, and may well be supposed to have occupied more completely the smaller princes, at a time when the noble's or prince's court contained the only theatre of the domain or principality." 2 It was asserted by Warburton, that in the character of Holofernes Shakespeare intended to ridicule Florio, and that our great poet here condescended to personal satire. The only apparent offence by Florio was a passage in his "Second Fruits," 1591, where he complained of the want of decorum in English dramatic representations. The proVocation was evidently insufficient, and we may safely dismiss the whole conjecture as unfounded. as "the Braggart" than by his name. Steevens, after stating that he had not been able to discover any novel from which this comedy had been derived, adds that "the story has most of the features of an ancient romance;" but it is not at all impossible that Shakespeare found some corresponding incidents in an Italian play. However, after a long search, I have not met with any such production, although, if used by Shakespeare, it most likely came into this country in a printed form. The question whether Shakespeare visited Italy, and at what period of his life, cannot properly be considered here; but it is a very important point in relation both to his biography and works. It was certainly a very general custom for our poets to travel thither towards the close of the reign of Elizabeth, and various instances of the kind are on record. Robert Greene tells us in his "Repentance," 1592, that he' had been in Italy and Spain: Thomas Nash, about the same date, mentions what he had seen in France and Italy; and Daniel has several early sonnets on his "going to Italy," and on his residence there. Some of our most celebrated actors of that time also made journeys across the Alps; and Mr. Halliwell, in the notes to his "Coventry Mysteries," printed for the Shakespeare Society, has shown that Kemp, the comedian, who, as we have seen, performed Dogberry in "Much Ado about Nothing," was in Rome in 1601. It is vain to attempt to fix with any degree of precision the date when "Love's Labour's Lost" came from the author's pen. It is very certain that Biron and Rosaline are early sketches of two characters to which Shakespeare subsequently gave greater force and effect-Benedick and Beatrice; but this only shows, what cannot be doubted, that "Love's Labour's Lost "" was anterior in composition to "Much Ado about Nothing." "Love's Labour's Lost" was first printed, as far as we now know, in 1598, 4to, and then it professed on the title-page to have been "newly corrected and augmented:" we are likewise there told that it was presented before Queen Elizabeth "this last Christmas." It was not uncommon for dramatists to revise and add to their plays when they were selected for exhibition at court, and such may have been the case with "Love's Labour's Lost." "The last Christmas probably meant Christmas, 1598; for the year at this period did not end until 25th March. It seems likely that the comedy had been written six or even eight years before, that it was revived in 1598, with certain corrections and augmentations for performance before the Queen; and this circumstance may have led to its publication immediately afterwards. The evidence derived from passages and allusions in the piece, to which Malone refers in his "Chronological Order," is clearly of little value, and he does not himself place much confidence in it. "Love Labour Lost" is mentioned by Meres in 1598, and in the same year came out a poem by Robert] Tofte] entitled "Alba," in the commencement of one of the stanzas of which this comedy is introduced by name: "Love's Labour Lost I once did see, a play Ycleped so." This does not read as if the writer intended to say that he had seen it recently. There is a coincidence in Act III. sc. 1, which requires notice: Costard there jokes upon the difference between remuneration" and "guerdon ;" and Steevens contended that Shakespeare was "certainly indebted for his vein of jocularity" in this instance to a tract by I[ervase] Markham], called, "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving Men," which Dr. Farmer informed him was published in 1578. The fact, however, is, that this tract did not appear till 1598, the year in which "Love's Labour 's Lost" came from the press. It was, possibly, a current jest, and it will be found quoted correctly from the original, and not as Steevens inserted it, in a note upon the passage. It is capable of proof that the play, as it stands in the folio of 1623, was reprinted from the 4to. of 1598, as it adopts various errors of the press, which could not have found their way into the folio, had it been taken from a distinct manuscript. There are, however, variations, which might show that the play-editors of the folio resorted occasionally to some authority besides the 4to. These differences are pointed out in the notes. The 4to. has no divisions into Acts and Scenes; and the folio only distinguishes the Acts, but with considerable inequality: thus the third Act only occupies about a page and a half, while the fifth Act (misprinted Actus Quartus) fills nine pages. Nevertheless, it would have been taking too great a liberty to alter the arrangement in this respect, although, as the reader will perceive, it might be improved without much difficulty. There is no entry of "Love's Labour's Lost" at Stationers' Hall, until 22d Jan. 1606-7, when it was transferred by Burby (the publisher of it in 1598) to Ling, who perhaps contemplated a new edition. If it were printed in 1606 or 1607, no such impression has come down to us. Its next appearance was in the folio, 1623; but another 4to, of no authority, was published in 1631, the year before the date of the second folio. VOL. II.-19 |
