Love's Labour's Won facts for kids

Love's Labour's Won was likely the name of a play that William Shakespeare wrote before the year 1603. Some people think it was a follow-up play to another one by Shakespeare called Love's Labour's Lost. Others believe the play still exists today, but under a different title. Sadly, no copies of this play have ever been found.

The Mystery of Love's Labour's Won

This play is one of Shakespeare's great mysteries. We don't have any copies of it today. This means we don't know its story, its characters, or even if it was a comedy or a tragedy. It's like a missing piece of a puzzle from Shakespeare's amazing career.

What We Know About the Play

Even though the play is lost, we have a few clues that it once existed. The most important clue comes from a book called Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury. This book was written in 1598 by Francis Meres. In it, Meres lists several of Shakespeare's plays, and Love's Labour's Won is mentioned alongside Love's Labour's Lost. This tells us that the play was known and probably performed around that time.

Another clue comes from a list of plays owned by a bookseller named Christopher Hunt. In 1603, Hunt made a list of plays he had. On this list, both Love's Labour's Lost and Love's Labour's Won appear together. This suggests the two plays were often linked.

Was It a Follow-Up Play?

Many experts believe that Love's Labour's Won was meant to be a sequel to Love's Labour's Lost. A sequel is a story that continues from an earlier one. The title itself, "Won" after "Lost," makes this idea seem very likely. If it was a sequel, it might have shown what happened to the characters from the first play.

However, some people think that Love's Labour's Won might actually be an early name for one of Shakespeare's other plays that we still have today. For example, some have suggested it could be an early version of Much Ado About Nothing or All's Well That Ends Well. But there is no strong proof for these ideas. For now, Love's Labour's Won remains a fascinating lost play.

Images for kids

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  The only known published reference to Love's Labour's Won in Palladis Tamia

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  Partial list of plays from Christopher Hunt's inventory. From top: marchant of vennis, taming of a shrew, knak to know a knave, knak to know an honest man, loves labor lost, loves labor won.