Home
Shakespeare, Elizabeth and Ivan: The Role of English-Russian Relations Love's Labours Lost

Shakespeare, Elizabeth and Ivan: The Role of English-Russian Relations Love's Labours Lost in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $65.00
Loading Inventory...
Size: Paperback
Shakespeare's comedy
Love's Labour's Lost
has perplexed scholars and theatergoers for over 400 years due to its linguistic complexity, obscure topical allusions and decidedly non-comedic ending. According to traditional interpretations, it is Shakespeare's "French" play, based on events and characters from the French Wars of Religion.
This work argues that the play's French surface conceals a Russian core. It outlines an interpretation of
rooted in diplomatic and trade relations between Russia and Elizabethan England during the dramatic decades following England's discovery of a northern trade route to Muscovy in 1553. Drawing on original research of 16th-century sources in English, Latin and French, the text also surveys Russian sources previously unavailable in translation. This analysis provides new explanations for some of the play's previously most enigmatic elements, such as its unconventional ending, the significance of its secondary characters, linguistic anomalies and the Masque of the Muscovites itself.
Love's Labour's Lost
has perplexed scholars and theatergoers for over 400 years due to its linguistic complexity, obscure topical allusions and decidedly non-comedic ending. According to traditional interpretations, it is Shakespeare's "French" play, based on events and characters from the French Wars of Religion.
This work argues that the play's French surface conceals a Russian core. It outlines an interpretation of
rooted in diplomatic and trade relations between Russia and Elizabethan England during the dramatic decades following England's discovery of a northern trade route to Muscovy in 1553. Drawing on original research of 16th-century sources in English, Latin and French, the text also surveys Russian sources previously unavailable in translation. This analysis provides new explanations for some of the play's previously most enigmatic elements, such as its unconventional ending, the significance of its secondary characters, linguistic anomalies and the Masque of the Muscovites itself.