Love’s Labor’s Lost

The labor's of love are lost—for the boys. At the end of the play, Jack does not get Jill; these girls have bigger plans. “Assist me, some extemporal God of Rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet."

For a synopsis, see Wikipedia.

For those of you who provide parts a scene at a time, this Character Chart shows all the characters' lines in each scene: Love's Labor's Lost

If your group reads the plays straight through in one sitting and you want to divide up the parts, we have a number of “cast” lists already divided up for you. These are text files that you can edit to suit your group. We always recommend in a straight-through read that each participant take a moment beforehand to mark their parts—then everything proceeds so smoothly.

• Cast for 6, plus a Reader for stage directions.
• Cast for 8, plus a Reader for stage directions.
• Cast for 10, plus a Reader for stage directions.
• Cast for 12, plus a Reader for stage directions.

This is one of Shakespeare's three plays that has an original plot (besides A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest), so there is no source material to peruse.

This play holds one of the longest word in English literature: honorificabilitudinitatibus, spoken by Costard the rustic fellow. This word is not in the OED (Oxford English Dictionary: The definitive record of the English language), although the word honorificabilitudinity is. It is not the longest word in the English language (heck, there's antidisestablishmentarianism and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). 

Back to the Readers' Editions and readers' support page.

This is an audio recording of the play by professional actors with sound effects:

This is a surprisingly delightful production with Kenneth Branagh and Alicia Silverstone. If you're a purist, it's not for you! Watch the backstory before you watch the film to set yourself up for enjoyment. Tap dancing to iambic pentameter!