Agnew, Gates K. "Berowne and the Progress of Love's Labour's Lost." Shakespeare Studies IV (1968): 40-72.

Argues that the "ambivalent" character of Berowne is responsible for making Love's Labour's Lost an unconventional comedy.

Anderson, J. J. "The Morality of Love's Labour's Lost" Shakespeare Survey 24 (1971): 55-62.

Compares the play and its uncomic ending to the morality plays of the Middle Ages.

Berry, Ralph. "The Words of Mercury." In Shakespeare's Comedies: Explorations in Form, pp. 72-88. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Focuses on the messenger, Mercade, to argue that the plot of the play is a progression toward reality and away from fantasy, with language functioning as reality's vehicle.

Breitenberg, Mark. "The Anatomy of Masculine Desire in Love's Labor's Lost" Shakespeare Quarterly 43, No. 4 (Winter 1992): 430-49.

Looks at the play from the point of view of the male characters' idealization and vilification of women according to the tradition of Petrarchan love poetry.

Burnett, Mark Thornton. "Giving and Receiving: Love's Labour's Lost and the Politics of Exchange." English Literary Renaissance 23, No. 2 (Spring 1993): 287-313.

Regards the play as a reflection of and a commentary on the custom of gift-giving in Elizabethan society and at court.

Curtis, Harry, Jr. "Four Woodcocks in a Dish: Shakespeare's Humanization of the Comic Perspective in Love's Labour's Lost." Southern Humanities Review XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1979): 115-24.

Refutes the notion that Love's Labour's Lost is an "anomaly" but argues instead that the play's motifs and its refusal to adhere to convention anticipate Shakespeare's later comedies.

Edwards, Philip. "Love's Labour's Lost." In Shakespeare and the Confines of Art, pp. 33-48. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1968.

Calls the play an "anti-comedy" written by Shakespeare as a protest against the inadequacies of conventional comedy form.

Evans, Bertrand. "Here Sit I in the Sky: First Explorations." In Shakespeare's Comedies, pp. 1-32. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1960.

Examines how Love's Labour's Lost uses "language, wit, and eccentric character" along with references to contemporary society as comic sources.

Hehl, Ursula. "Elements of Narcissistic Personality Disorders in Love's Labour's Lost." Literature and Psychology XXXX, Nos. 1 & 2 (1994): 48-70.

Argues that the play's unconventional ending is a result of the male characters' immaturity and fear of failure.

Heninger, S. K., Jr. "The Pattern of Love's Labour's Lost." Shakespeare Studies VII (1974): 25-53.

Analyzes the thematic and structural issues in the play from the standpoint of the closing song.

Hunter, Robert G. "The Function of the Songs at the End of Love's Labour's Lost." Shakespeare Studies VII (1974): 55-64.

Contends that the songs at the end of Love's Labour's Lost serve to reconcile the grim "Lenten" aspects of the play with the lighthearted "Carnival" aspects.

Huston, J. Dennis. "'Form Confounded' and the Play of Love's Labour's Lost" In Shakespeare's Comedies of Play, pp. 35-57. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.

Argues that unlike those in most of Shakespeare's comedies, the characters in Love's Labour's Lost are protected from the outside world until the play's unexpected close.

Kiefer, Frederick. "Spring and Winter in Love's Labor's Lost: An Iconographic Reconstruction." Comparative Drama 29, No. 1 (Spring 1995): 91-107.

Compares the verses of Spring and Winter at the close of the play to woodcuts, engravings, and etchings circulated during Shakespeare's time.

Lennam, Trevor. "'The ventricle of memory': Wit and Wisdom in Love's Labour's Lost." Shakespeare Quarterly XXIV, No. 1 (Winter 1973): 54-60.

Argues that Love's Labour's Lost was inspired by morality plays featuring "Wit" as a protagonist.

Maus, Katharine Eisaman. "Transfer of Title in Love's Labor's Lost. Language, Individualism, Gender." In Shakespeare Left and Right, edited by Ivo Kamps, pp. 205-23. New York: Routledge, 1991.

Studies the language of the play from a feminist point of view, arguing that the verbal contracts and word-play are inseparable from sexual politics.

McLay, Catherine M. "The Dialogues of Spring and Winter: A Key to the Unity of Love's Labour's Lost." Shakespeare Quarterly XVIII, No. 2 (Spring 1967): 119-27.

Argues that the closing songs of Love's Labour's Lost unify the play by reasserting its themes of artifice versus nature, illusion versus reality, and folly versus wisdom.

Montrose, Louis A. "'Sport by sport o'erthrown': Love's Labour's Lost and the Politics of Play." Texas Studies in Literature and Language XVIII, No. 4 (Winter 1977): 528-52.

Suggests that Love's Labour's Lost functions in part as Shakespeare's commentary on Elizabethan culture.

Nelson, Timothy G. A. "The Meaning of Love's Labour's Lost." Southern Review IV, No. 3 (1971): 179-91.

Suggests that in Love's Labour's Lost, Shakespeare intended to overturn Elizabethan social beliefs by presenting men as inconstant and women as sensible.

Nosworthy, J. M. "The Importance of Being Marcade." Shakespeare Survey 32 (1979): 105-14.

Examines textual inconsistencies involving Marcade which occur among various early editions of the play, and argues that with the entrance of Marcade the play becomes a "masterpiece."

Parker, Patricia. "Preposterous Reversals: Love's Labor's Lost." Modern Language Quarterly 54, No. 4 (December 1993): 435-82.

Examines the ornate word games and convoluted language of the play.

Talbert, Ernest William. "Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream" In Elizabethan Drama and Shakespeare's Early Plays: An Essay in Historical Criticism, pp. 235-61. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1963.

Places the wit, plot, and characters of Love's Labour's Lost into the context of Elizabethan society.

Vickers, Brian. "From Clown to Character." In The Artistry of Shakespeare's Prose, pp. 52-88. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1968.

Calls Love's Labour's Lost "Shakespeare's first virtuoso piece in prose," but argues that it is overlong and less unified than are his later plays.

Vyvyan, John. "Love's Labour's Lost." In Shakespeare and the Rose of Love: A Study of the Early Plays in Relation to the Medieval Philosophy of Love, pp. 23-67. London: Chatto & Windus, 1960.

Applies the poetry of Dante and the medieval precepts of courtly love to the play.

Westlund, Joseph. "Fancy and Achievement in Love's Labour's Lost" Shakespeare Quarterly XVIII, No. 1 (Winter 1967): 37-46.

Identifies imagination as the theme of Love's Labour's Lost, tracing its development in the play from a source of lighthearted fun to one of reality and wisdom.

Wilders, John. "The Unresolved Conflicts of Love's Labour's Lost" Essays in Criticism XXVII, No. 1 (January 1977): 20-33.

Contends that while the play initially appears to be structured around carefully balanced contrasts, it in fact consists of irreconcilable opposites that result in an unresolved conclusion.