‘O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep’: Love’s Labor’s Lost and Our School Shutdowns
While many nations, and some states in the U.S., have reopened their schoolhouse doors, recognizing that the nasty bug at the heart of the pandemic leaves children almost entirely alone, quite a few U.S. schoolhouses remain closed by order of their state governors. The story of a too-strict schoolmaster would seem to be the province of Dickens, but Shakespeare took on that theme in Love’s Labor’s Lost. Here’s Ferdinand, the King of Navarre, at the start of the play, praising three of his courtiers for joining him in an academic …
