“Merry, nimble, stirring spirit[s]”: Academic, Salon and Commedia dell’arte Influence on the Innamorate of Love’s Labour’s Lost

More than an acerbic commentary on political events, the French court, or philosophical pursuits, Love’s Labour’s Lost is a play that engages its audience in meta-academic discourse regarding these topics. For an audience familiar with dialogues generated by salon or academic rituals, a play about an academy that ends with the debate in question still open would not be considered unusual. In addition to their quick wits and ability to dissemble, Shakespeare’s princess and her ladies sweep onto the scene, wreaking havoc on the male characters’ ordered existence, in much the same way those commedia actresses reportedly took towns by storm in which they were performing. Shakespeare’s conflation of both types of practices in Love’s Labour’s Lost would easily reference both groups of women for his audience. Shakespeare presents his audience with controversial figures engaged in debate over the chief philosophical and religious issues of their times.