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…