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The King of Navarre and three of his lords vow to spend three years in study, fasting and sleeping little, and to see no women. At once the Princess of…
The King of Navarre and three of his lords vow to spend three years in study, fasting and sleeping little, and to see no women. At once the Princess of France arrives with three ladies on a diplomatic mission, and the four men fall in love, each secretly writing sonnets, until they are all found out. Around them a crowd of comic characters, a fantastical Spaniard, a pedantic schoolmaster and a clown, show off their absurd wordplay, until a messenger brings sudden news that changes everything.
Context and significance
Written in the mid-1590s, it is Shakespeare's wittiest and wordiest comedy, full of puns, sonnets and verbal fireworks, and unusually it ends without the weddings: 'Jack hath not Jill.' First printed in 1598, it appears here in the text of the First Folio of 1623. Compare Much Ado About Nothing.
About the author
William Shakespeare (1564–1616), born in Stratford-upon-Avon, actor, playwright and shareholder of a London company, wrote about thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets.