Seven Ages

Comedy · c. 1595

Shakespeare’s Love's Labour's Lost

Four young men swear off women for three years of study; four women arrive on a diplomatic visit approximately five minutes later.

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By the Seven Ages editors2 min read

What follows is Shakespeare’s most linguistically show-offy comedy — a firework display of sonnets, puns, pedants, and parody.

Then comes the ending, which does something no other comedy of the period dares, and which lifts the whole confection into something stranger and finer. A connoisseur’s play: the wordplay asks patience, and repays it.

Love's Labour's Lost on stage

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Love's Labour's Lost on screen

Typeset plate for the screen adaptation Love's Labour's Lost (2000), directed by Kenneth Branagh. A designed placeholder, not a picture of the poster.2000Love's Labour'sLostKENNETH BRANAGH

1Love's Labour's Lost (2000)

Film · dir. Kenneth Branagh

Staged as a 1930s musical

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