Senior College

Session 4

Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost

Fridays, March 5, 12, (no class March 19) 26, and April 2
9:30–11:20 a.m.
Room 106, Gilmore Hall
Registration Deadline: February 19
Class Limit: 90

When Samuel Johnson commented on Love’s Labour’s Lost in his 1765 edition of Shakespeare’s plays, he noted that some had found the play “unworthy of our poet” but ended by saying that “there are scattered throughout the whole many sparks of genius.” Such contradictory judgments have continued: for some critics the play is full of tedious wordplay, while for others the play’s language games bespeak high spirits and enthusiasm. The play is frequently called “artificial,” and yet Shakespeare’s refusal to give the four couples their expected happy ending may actually reflect a realistic assessment of these relationships. Despite being a lesser-known play, Love’s Labour’s Lost has a long history of distinguished—and funny—productions.

INSTRUCTOR: Longtime English professor Miriam Gilbert returns to Senior College for another Shakespearean experience. At the UI, Gilbert teaches courses in dramatic literature that treat the notion of plays as performance texts. The author of two books that examine dramatic interpretations of Love’s Labour’s Lost and The Merchant of Venice, Gilbert has a second home in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

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