In “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” four men take the vow of study: the King of Navarre and his three companions, Berowne, Longaville and Dumaine. They pledge to devote themselves to learning for three years, while also renouncing contact with women and other worldly pleasures.
The King imagines that Navarre’s court will become a “little academe,” a place of disciplined intellectual life. The vow includes severe rules about fasting, sleeping and avoiding romantic entanglements. Berowne is skeptical from the beginning, recognizing that the king’s idealistic plan will be difficult to maintain once real life intrudes.
The test arrives almost immediately when the Princess of France and her ladies come to negotiate a diplomatic matter. Because the women are not allowed inside the court, they must camp outside, but the physical boundary does little to preserve the men’s resolve. The King, Berowne, Longaville and Dumaine each fall in love and secretly break the oath they had so confidently signed.
The comedy turns the conflict between study and desire into a satire of youthful self-importance. Its title hints at the outcome: the men’s lofty scholarly project is overwhelmed by love, although the play ends with marriage postponed after news of the French king’s death.