3. Love's Labour's Lost

In Love's Labor's Lost, the comedy centers on four young men who fall in love against their wills. The men, one of them the king of Navarre, pledge to study for three years, avoiding all contact with women. When the Princess of France arrives on a state visit, the king insists she and her ladies camp outside the court. Even so, each young man falls in love with one of the ladies. Meanwhile, Don Armado, a Spanish soldier, falls for a servant girl, Jacquenetta. Costard, an illiterate local, mixes up two letters he is to deliver, one from Armando to Jacquenetta and the other from one of the king's companions to one of the French ladies. The men confess they are in love and devise a pageant for the ladies, who set a trap for them by exchanging identifying markers. Hilarity ensues as the women mock the men outright…until a final twist of plot imposes a delay before any further wooing.