Love’s Labor’s Lost by the Numbers: Overall

Love’s Labor’s Lost

  • 2665 total lines; shorter than average play, longer than average comedy (average play: 2777; average comedy: 2424)
  • At 360 and 914 lines, Act Four Scene Three and Act Five Scene Two are the longest of their kind in the Canon
  • Act One: 476 lines; shorter than average, sligntly shorter than average comedy (average play: 590, average history: 488)
  • Act Two: 257 lines; shortest second act in the Canon; shorter than average (average play: 568, average comedy: 495)
  • Act Three: 202 lines; shortest third act in the Canon; shorter than average (average play: 576, average comedy: 512)
  • Act Four: 671 lines; longer than average (average play: 563, average comedy: 460)
  • Act Five: 1059 lines; longest fifth act in the Canon; longer than average (average play: 480, average comedy: 471)
  • 935 lines of prose (35.08% of total lines [as opposed to The Comedy of Errors: 13.31%, Titus Andronicus: 1.39%, The Taming of the Shrew: 20.82%, 1HenryVI: 0.37%, 2HenryVI: 16.64%, 3HenryVI: 0.14%, and Richard III: 2.89%])
  • 272 rhyming lines (40.86% of total lines [as opposed to The Comedy of Errors: 20.10%, Titus Andronicus: 2.42%, The Taming of the Shrew: 3.93%, 1HenryVI: 9.79%, 2HenryVI: 3.16%, 3HenryVI: 5.37%, and Richard III: 7.55%]… but a whopping 62.95% of poetic lines [the previous leader was The Comedy of Errors at just over 23%])
  • only 9 scenes; tied with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest for the fewest in the Canon); less than average (average play: 21; average comedy: 16)
  • only 19 characters (tied with The Comedy of Errors and As You Like It for the second lowest total in the Canon, behind only next month’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona (17); less than average (average play: 36, average comedy: 22)

 

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