Three Early Comedies

Love's Labor's Lost

Farce and fun follow when a young king and his three friends vow to give up women for a year—just as a pretty princess and her three ladies-in-waiting arrive—in a delightful play that ends with one of Shakespeare’s loveliest songs.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

In this lyrical comedy, two friends are infatuated with the same woman, while a jilted girl disguised as a boy and a clownish servant with a raffish mutt set the scene for laughter and a timeless story of love.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Shakespeare’s famous rogue, Falstaff, woos two married women with identical love letters—and becomes the focus of a hilarious comedy when the women conspire to teach him a lesson.

From the Paperback edition.