Love's Labor's Lost is one of the few plays that don’t seem to have a literary source (The Tempest is another that comes immediately to mind).  As we discovered yesterday, the title certainly lends no clues... to anything much really.

Asimov makes a case for Shakespeare cannibalizing some real Navarre's recent history to create some of the characters and the main plot point:  Ferdinand is a stand-in for Henry of Navarre--a Protestant King would have been a positive character in the eyes of the English--whose court welcomed a visitation by the French princess.  But THAT is a stretch.  

[though we will take a look at some of his ideas tomorrow, when we discuss names...]