The Duke of Navarre persuades his three friends to foreswear with him the company of women, and to devote themselves to study. Almost immediately afterwards, the Princess of France arrives with her three female friends. It does not take the men too long to realise, in a three-way eavesdropping scene, each others’ attraction, and, having disguised themselves as muscovites they go to woo the ladies. The play borders on the farcical and yet is stuffed with parodies of poets, academics, and priests. The disastrous performance of the Nine Worthies at the end of the play even parodies the art of acting itself, as Berowne interrupts the first, hapless Worthy’s introduction with the words “You lie, you are not he”. However, the play’s conclusion marks a sharp turn away from the earlier lightness, when a messenger arrives bearing the news that the King of France is dead. Reality intrudes into the fantastical world of Navarre, and, in a more complex bargain than the opening vow of abstinence, all the nascent relationships are postponed for a year. Don Armado, the boisterous, excessively eloquent Spaniard, is left to conclude the play with the haunting words: “The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo / You that way: we this way”.

Contributed by James Harriman-Smith